WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt yesterday announced that he would seek to establish a commission that would publish an annual review of human rights in the United States, similar to the reports that the State Department produces each year about every other country in the world. 

“This will be a crucial first step in restoring America’s moral leadership in the world, which has been badly damaged in recent years by allegations of human rights violations as well as alliances with regimes that are themselves notorious abusers.”  Delahunt said today.

The International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight Subcommittee, which Delahunt chairs, conducted a hearing this week to examine the State Department’s annual reports on the human rights records of other countries.  In recent years, the annual release of the State Department report has provoked intense criticism from other countries because it comes as America’s own record is in question after scandals at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and elsewhere.  Delahunt observed during the hearing that the our own government does not produce a report that examines its own human rights practices, but that has not prevented the Bush administration from condemning others for their poor human rights record.  Delahunt argued that this practice coupled with our alliances with a number of undemocratic regimes undermines our claim to moral leadership and leaves America open to charges of hypocrisy.

“America’s image has suffered grievously – and, I might add, put our national interests at risk – not because ‘they’ hate our freedoms and democracy,” Delahunt said, “but rather because the world sees us as betraying our values and ideals. The world expects us to practice what we preach.”

Delahunt has warned that such this apparent hypocrisy has not only eroded world opinion, but has actually put at our own national security at risk.  The Government Accountability Office concluded in 2005 that this poses a serious threat to the safety and interests of the American people.  For example, he noted, because of outrage over the CIA’s activities on Italian soil, Italy is now debating whether to allow the U.S. to expand an American airbase in that country, and Italian authorities have issued indictments for several CIA officials.

“America’s power ultimately does not come from our military or economic strength,” said Delahunt.  “It emanates from our core values: our commitment to human rights and democracy.  And from how we fulfill that commitment, in our actions, not just our rhetoric.”

In addition to creating the commission on human rights in the U.S., Delahunt announced that he intends to hold hearings over the next several months on the extent to which human rights priorities – as opposed to economic or military interests – help shape diplomatic relations and priorities with other countries.

“We have to get this one right,” he concluded. “Because the worst thing for America is that our moral leadership continues to erode and we become seen as ‘just another country.’”

To view Congressman Delahunt’s opening statement please click here.

To view a live Webcast of the hearing, please click here.

To read the GAO report, please click here.

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