It is an honor to greet the distinguished delegates to the Fifty-Ninth Session of the Commission on Human Rights; its Chairperson, whose call for an end to violence against women was most welcome; and the new High Commissioner for Human Rights whose emphasis on the rule of law is vitally important, since human rights can only prevail where and when the rule of law prevails. And of course, we should never forget that the rule of law consists not only in the articulation of general rules but also in the habitual compliance of people and the reliable enforcement by governments of those rules.

The United States government and the American people have had a high regard for this Commission which was founded to promote and preserve human rights. Successive U.S. administrations have worked with dedication to realize its vision and achieve its purposes. Much remains to be done.

Our delegation, our government, and the American people believe that the Human Rights Commission should and can make a vital contribution to the improvement of the daily lives of those who suffer under oppressive governments. It can assist those working to make the transition from non-democratic to democratic governments. It can offer encouragement and help to those seeking to enlarge the freedom and well-being they already enjoy.

We believe the Commission on Human Rights has a solemn obligation to keep constantly in mind the suffering and the aspirations of the victims of the worst human rights abuses. This Commission can give encouragement to those who live on the edge of despair and who regard this body--that is, us--as their best hope for release from the wrongs they suffer and redress for their cruel situations.

The United States seeks to work with other members of the Commission to assist in providing the support and the services it is uniquely qualified to contribute. Advisory services provided through the Commission to governments that seek to improve the rights of their citizens can help. Special Rapporteurs mandated by the Commission can help. Our combined knowledge of specific human rights abuses can help to pierce the veil of secrecy and denial, and shine a ray of light into the torturers' cell.

We believe this Commission has a solemn duty to speak for those who are denied the right to speak for themselves. For this and related reasons, the United States welcomes the initiative of the High Commissioner in proposing to restructure and decentralize his office and its operations. We encourage his plans to improve the services of his office and to create strong national protections for human rights--without undertaking activities outside his mandate.

The American people have high and exacting expectations about what this Commission should be and do. We believe the expectations and hopes of Americans about the Commission on Human Rights are similar to those of people around the globe. We think all knowledgeable people want the Commission to be a positive force in establishing high standards for respecting human rights everywhere--and for progress in realizing those established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We think all people want the Commission to utilize those standards as they examine the performance of governments.

Why do we want this? For the United States it is a matter of self-interest and also of national interest. Why should it be a matter of national policy to assert that all human beings are born free and equal in inherent rights and human dignity? Why should we care that everyone has a right to life, liberty and security of person that is respected by his government, that no one should be subjected to arbitrary or brutal intrusions into his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to mendacious attacks on his honor or reputation? Why do we believe that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, speech, conscience, religion, including the right to change his religion or teach it to others?

We believe in these principles because they are the principles on which the United States of America was founded, and by which we have lived and thrived. We believe they are right for individuals and right for states.

Like the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we believe that, and I quote:

"Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind. . . . Whereas it is essential, if man is not to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. . . ."

In fact, it is clear that human rights must be protected by the rule of law or they will be trampled by despots. Once it was believed that respect for the rule of law could exist only in homogenous societies, but we know now that it can thrive in diversity.

The Brazilian delegate described yesterday the broad ethnic, racial, and social diversity of his huge country. The United States is also diverse, almost beyond imagination. Virtually every country in the Americas is a new nation, a new mixture of persons of diverse origins who have created and are still creating new political communities.

In the effort to forge unity out of diversity, the United States' founding fathers wrote in our Declaration of Independence a creed which resonates today as in 1776. They wrote:

"We hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . ."

Our Declaration states a dream and a doctrine of government by consent.