Britain and America

Bringing progress and prosperity to struggling nations

George W Bush gave a long speech to the Global Leadership Campaign yesterday, focusing on international development and clean energy. The title of this post is a phrase Bush used four times. He also emphasised as many times that each initiative was ultimately in the interests of American peace and prosperity, a concept BritainAndAmerica strongly believes in, and that America was a leader in these issues. Continue reading to read the key sections of the speech:

Compassionate America

"We are a compassionate nation. When Americans see suffering and know that our country can help stop it, they expect our government to respond. I believe in the timeless truth, and so do a lot of other Americans, to whom much is given, much is required. We're blessed to live in this country. We're blessed to live in the world's most prosperous nation. And I believe we have a special responsibility to help those who are not as blessed. It is the call to share our prosperity with others, and to reach out to brothers and sisters in need."

Helping others is in our own interest

"We help the least fortunate across the world because our conscience demands it. We also recognize that helping struggling nations succeed is in our interest. When America helps lift societies out of poverty we create new markets for goods and services, and new jobs for American workers. Prosperity abroad can be translated to jobs here at home. It's in our interest that we help improve the economies of nations around the world. When America helps reduce chaos and suffering, we make this country safer, because prosperous nations are less likely to feed resentment and breed violence and export terror. Helping poor nations find the path to success benefits this economy and our security, and it makes us a better country. It helps lift our soul and renews our spirit."

How can the UN improve its human rights advocacy?

Samuel Coates writes:

Yesterday the UK Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission – of which I am a member – held an important and distinguished hearing assessing the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.

Tom Porteous, London Director of Human Rights Watch, kicked off the session with his general thoughts on the United Nations as it stands. He cautioned that the US and UK’s moral authority had been tarnished by their own human rights abuses, as had that of the Human Rights Commission and now the Council for having members who fall way short of having the highest standards in human rights domestically.

Tom’s main concern was for the Council to have teeth by the UN beginning to "operationalise the responsibility to protect". This would be easier if the office of High Commissioner of Human Rights scanned the horizon more and the Secretary General spoke out on the RTP agenda. He highlighted the chasm between rhetoric and reality, between pledges made by member states and their own records. The Council seemed to be an improvement on the Commission but the way that regions offered the same number of candidate countries as there were places, meant that unfortunately countries like Egypt in the Africa region went through without any difficulty. The saving grace for this system was that Belarus was blocked from membership (but only because Bosnia was persuaded to stand alongside Slovenia). This served as a useful deterrent to nations with dubious records applying in future, he said.