Tom Lantos: “I deeply regret that my good friend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and I had to offer this amendment to…”

“I deeply regret that my good friend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and I had to offer this amendment to condition our U.N. arrears payment on the resumption of our membership on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. I think it is important to analyze what happened at the vote in Geneva carefully. There are three seats reserved for the western nations and there were four candidates. I predict that every single time this should happen in the future, we will be rejected, because we are the most articulate and principled and outspoken proponents of human rights. Austria does not irritate anybody. The Austrians are getting the votes, but the United States is not getting the votes, because we speak out on human rights violations in Cuba and China and Sudan and Libya and Syria and all over the world. And there are many more human rights violators, Mr. Chairman, than countries that honor human rights.”