Syria

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, first, I want to thank my colleagues for coming to the floor today and talking about the issue of energy and energy independence and the rising cost of energy. It is critically important. I wish to talk about something else, if I could, for just a few minutes, something I think is of critical importance, eternal importance; that is, the issue of human rights.

As Americans, we have to remind ourselves our Nation was founded on the principles of human rights. If we read back to the earliest documents, the Declaration of Independence first says very clearly at the outset that one of the founding principles that led to the creation of this Nation, and the Republic and Constitution that followed that, was the notion that all of us are created equal. Every human being on the planet who was ever born, ever will be born anywhere in this world, was born with certain rights, and the source of those rights is our Creator.

Think about that for a moment. That is not a common belief. For almost all of our history people believed our rights as people came not from our Creator, they came from the government, from our leaders. Our rights are what the government allows us to have. That is not what founded our country. This country was founded on the very powerful idea that the source of our rights and our value as a human being came from our Creator.

Of course, that manifested itself in all sorts of things in this country, a constitution, for example, that in recognition of those rights created a system of government that said the job of the government was to protect these rights, not to grant them.

And, of course, the American miracle has plenty of witnesses, myself included, and is well documented in the annals of history, particularly in the last half century, the American century, the 20th century, which is shown as an example to the world. Yet the issue of human rights continues to be a central one around the world and one of the places where I think an American example can make the biggest difference.

One of the issues that has interested me since I got to the Senate--my background before I got here just a year ago was in State government, and before that it was in local government. One of the great things about being in the Senate is you have access to sources of information and individuals with information that I didn't have before. One of the issues that has fascinated me on a global scale is how human rights are still summarily violated all over the planet and how, in fact, these powerful ideas that are at the core of our founding as a country are still not widely accepted in many parts of the world.

This is a great time of year to be in Washington. People are on spring break, and they are bringing their kids up here to learn about our Republic. So I think it is a great time to remind ourselves that one of the things that made us different from the rest of the world is that we are one of the few countries on the planet that really believe that every single person who has ever been born has rights they are born with. We take that for granted. If you have been born here and lived here your whole life, you think that is the way it is everywhere. It is not. There are so many societies and countries around the world where people are told: You don't have any rights unless we give you rights. Unless your government or your leaders or your laws give you certain rights, you don't have these rights. In America, we almost take that for granted because we believe we are born with these rights. And the American example to the world has been what can happen when you actually believe that every single human being has worth and value and rights that they are born with and that you have no right to deny them.

Sadly, there is no shortage of examples around the world where those fundamental rights are violated. I think no nation on this planet has a larger obligation to speak out against it than ours. So what I intend to do over the next few weeks is come to the floor and highlight some of these egregious human rights violations because I think they go to the core of our exceptionalism. They go to the heart of who we are as a people and as a nation. They go to the center of what makes us different from other countries around the world and in many respects are at the heart of what is in debate at this very moment in the world.

As we enter this new 21st century, there are a handful of nations across the globe that do not want the issue of human rights to be central. They don't want this issue to be on the front burner because they don't believe in these things. What they seek is a new international order where the violation of human rights is nobody's business.

You see that today in Syria, where people are being murdered, where unarmed civilians are being pursued and shelled by an army, where there are horrifying examples of human rights violations on a daily basis. At least two countries--Russia and China--have taken the position that it is nobody's business, and one of those countries is the topic I want to talk about today; that is, China--an emerging power on the world stage that some people I think falsely claim will replace America on the world stage. I think that is an exaggeration.

By the way, we welcome the economic progress China has made. I think it is great news that there are millions of people in China who a decade ago were riding around on a bike and now have a car. Only a decade ago millions of people were living in deep poverty and today are part of the middle class. I think that is fantastic. But don't get ahead of yourself in believing that China is going to replace America on the world stage. This is still the richest, most powerful country in the world. This is still the most important economy on the planet, and our people are as smart and as creative as they have ever been, and that is not going to change.

But I think we have to look at China because if, in fact, they are this rising power, if they are going to be a growing influence on the international stage, we have to ask ourselves, What is their commitment to human rights? Sadly, it is not a very good one.

If you look at the issue of Tibet, it is a perfect example. These are peace-loving people who have sought a certain level of autonomy. They want to preserve their culture and their way of life. They have gone as far as to say: We are OK being under Chinese rule, but we want to protect some of the things that are innate and indigenous to our own culture and values. And China is systematically trying to erase their culture and their heritage through processes of re-education, through the jailing of people, through the oppression of people, through the destruction of a free press and systems of communication. It manifests itself today. I think yesterday was the latest incident of people in Tibet setting themselves on fire. By the way, we should not encourage that. It is horrifying to see that. We hope it stops. It just leads to an understanding of the level of desperation that exists in Tibet.

Let me ask you a question. If China is a growing influence on this planet, are these the values that are going to replace American values on the world stage? Are these the values that are going to replace our belief that all individuals were created equal, with certain rights that come from their Creator? Are we prepared to retreat from the world stage and allow that to happen without at least speaking against it?

We should not be surprised that China stands by and says: Do nothing. Don't even sanction. Don't even put out a nasty letter about Syria. We should not be surprised because a nation that doesn't care about the human rights of their own people is never going to care about the human rights of others. As Americans, the question we have is, Are we prepared to retreat from the world stage and, in fact, allow nations such as that to play a growing role in the world? Are we prepared to silence our own voice at the expense of their voice? I hope not.

So when we debate in this Chamber about issues of economic policy, we are debating issues about America's influence in the world. And I would say to you that if America is diminished on the world stage, whether it be by choice or by accident, if we fail to confront the issues this nation faces and we choose to decline, it won't be just the Americans who pay the price, it will be people all over the world, including the people who live in Tibet, because then there will be no voice on this planet that condemns human rights violations the way we do, because there will be no nation in the world that can prove that, in fact, you can have a functional society where the innate worth and the value and rights that our Creator gives every human being are respected. That is what is at stake when we debate America's influence and America's standing in the world.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to come to this floor and continue to highlight these egregious violations of human rights. Tragically, there is no shortage of them. In the weeks to come, we will talk about the problems of human trafficking that exist in our own country, in our own hemisphere, and all around the world. We will talk about the violations of religious liberties that exist in societies all over the planet. We will talk about how women have no rights whatsoever in many of these countries. There are some nations where a woman is counted as one-fourth of a man in terms of their worth or their ability to speak out. We will talk about other countries where people are systematically jailed, as they are in our own hemisphere, for putting out pamphlets that criticize the government. We will talk about what is happening in Syria and Tibet.

Human rights is at the core of who we are as a nation. It is at the core of our identity as a people and as a power on the global stage. It is an issue that doesn't belong to the right or to the left, to Republicans or Democrats; it is an issue that should unite us all in this Chamber and in this country, and we hope to be an effective voice in that regard in the years that God permits me to serve here in the Senate.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source