Kenneth Roth Human Quotations

There is an enormous problem that when a government as influential as the United States flouts basic human rights standards, it undermines the standards and gives green light to other governments to do the same.

The proposed new council is a major improvement over the old Commission on Human Rights. It would be reckless for the United States to force a vote because that will invite amendments from spoiler states to weaken the council. The time has come to accept the overwhelming consensus behind the council and to work to make it function effectively.

There has been a significant backsliding on human rights and we are seeing that principally in terms of increasing restrictions on what it's possible to say in the press -- certainly what it's possible to say on the Internet.

There had been tremendous progress toward a consensus in creating a human rights council. That consensus has now been damaged because Bolton picked up the pages of the draft document and threw them into the air.

When Western governments try to use economic pressure to secure human rights improvements, China's no-strings rule gives dictators the means to resist.

We welcome Libya's first steps toward reform. But the government has a long road to travel before it meets the international standards of human rights.

The moral authority of the United States depends on its working effectively with other countries to advance human rights protection ? not blocking a consensus proposal that makes so much progress for human rights. The current resolution can be made to work if the United States joins with other democracies to establish the new council and make it function effectively.

If the U.S. accepts this consensus, the proposal is likely to be adopted. But if the U.S. insists on further amendments, we are likely to be worse off. Countries hostile to human rights protection are keen to introduce amendments that would weaken the new council.

As western governments improve relations with Libya, they should press the government to improve its respect for human rights. Libya's cooperation in fighting terrorism should not mean carte blanche to commit abuse.

The Mexican government needs to ensure that rape victims do not have to endure dangerous back-alley abortions or imposed pregnancies. A public official who fails to inform rape victims of how they can obtain a voluntary legal abortion is contributing to a human rights violation and should be disciplined.

It obviously doesn't do everything we hoped for. But it is clearly better than the Human Rights Commission.

It's childish for the U.S. government not to cooperate with the new Human Rights Council when it cooperated for decades with the vastly inferior old Commission on Human Rights.

The EU largely ignored human rights abuses by its friends in Africa. It was very good about speaking out against the pariah Zimbabwe. But when it came to Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, there was little if anything said.

The hypocrisy factor has encouraged copycat techniques around the world by people who do like the U.S. does and has also weakened the United States as one of the traditional important supporters of human rights.