53454024 A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF "SUPPORTING THE U.S. RECORD 2002-2003" LL LIBRARY OF CUNCIL. .1549 2003n 7 HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JULY 9, 2003 Serial No. 108-43 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international_relations 88-166PDF U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director RENEE AUSTELL, Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights LIBERTY DUNN, Staff Associate LC Control Number 2004 356709 Bib 134530m (II) KF 27 2003 m CONTENTS Page Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy The Honorable Harold Hongju Koh, Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith The Honorable Lorne W. Craner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State The Honorable Roger P. Winter, Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Democ- racy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International The Honorable Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Board of Directors, International Repub- lican Institute, appearing on behalf of George A. Folsom, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, International Republican Institute Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute for International LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and Vice Chairman, Committee on International The Honorable Lorne W. Craner: Prepared statement Kenneth Wollack: Prepared statement Carl Gershman: Prepared statement The Honorable Harold Hongju Koh: Prepared statement Jennifer Windsor: Prepared statement APPENDIX A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF "SUPPORTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY: THE U.S. RECORD 2002-2003" WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2003 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:31 a.m. in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith [acting Chairman of the Committee] presiding. Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order. Good morning to ev eryone. In Beijing in 1991, to press for religious freedom, release of political prisoners and end the forced abortion and coerced sterilization and torture, Congressman Frank Wolf and I met with Premiere Li Peng. After firmly, but diplomatically, making our case, the powerful leader of China unloaded with both barrels. It was a remarkable and dismaying spectacle, for everything was absolutely denied, as we might expect. There were no political prisoners in China, and the tired, old defense of internal affairs was trotted out and invoked. Clearly ticked off especially by a face-to-face criticism of China's one child per couple policy-presumably no one in the international community had ever done that before the Premier scolded Frank Wolf and I and said that all relevant documents concerning the U.S.-PRC bilateral relationship, including the Shanghai communique, precluded human rights. To some extent he was right about those documents. However, the exchange underscored in my mind why human rights concerns must be central, at the core of bilateral relations, and when we subordinate human rights or treat them as an afterthought, the last albeit obligatory item on a set of diplomatic talking points, we miss precious opportunities to ameliorate suffering and may even, however unwittingly, enable abusing regimes to commit abuses by our lack of articulation, by our lack of emphasis or the relative unimportance we devote to human rights. Human rights is not a side show, or at least it should not be. It ought to be the main event. What is conveyed concerning human rights and what is omitted at all diplomatic levels, but especially at the top, has predictable real world consequences for good or ill for at-risk persons and victims. As a Member of Congress for 23 years, it has been my experience to discover far too many seasoned diplomats for whom sustained (1) |