AMBASSADOR NANCY RUBIN
STATEMENT TO THE 4TH SPECIAL SESSION OF THE
UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
GENEVA, OCTOBER 17, 2000

Mr. Chair:

We have come here today to discuss a situation that concerns the entire international community: the recent violence that has shaken the Middle East to its core and has left us all with indelible images of profound suffering. Along with the rest of the international community, the United States offered its condolences and expresses its deepest sorrow to those who are the victims of this cycle of violence. For several decades, the United States has been engaged in conscientious and ongoing efforts to bring that suffering to an end and to bring lasting peace to the region.

Towards these goals, President Clinton, the Secretary General of the United Nations and a host of other officials have been engaged in an extraordinary effort to assist the parties to end the violence that has gripped the region and to return to the peace process. We believe that this is the only way to reverse what could otherwise become an unending cycle of violence, recrimination and grief. As we meet here today, intensive efforts are underway at Sharm al Sheikh, and we share the hopes of the international community that those discussions will help end the violence and bring the parties back to the negotiating table.

The United States opposed the holding of the special session. We did so because we believed it would not contribute to realizing this transcendent goal. That view has not changed. Indeed, we believe that the international community ought to focus all of its energy and efforts on assisting the leaders at Sharm al Sheikh to make the courageous decisions necessary to step back from the brink of confrontation.

We believe that the resolution under discussion is so one-sided and inflammatory as to complicate if not undermine the efforts underway to bring the violence to a halt. An unbalanced, one-sided outcome will not serve the purpose of peace in the Middle East and it will not help to dry the pools of tears that have been shed. Peace can only be achieved through negotiation between the parties, and not through denunciation here in Geneva. We need instead to focus on the task at hand: end the violence in order to find a path back to the long term goal of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace. In our view, ending the violence and ultimately returning the parties to the path of peace is a human rights imperative of the highest order.