Issue Position: Human Rights & The Individual

Issue Position

In our Declaration of Independence, these words are enshrined:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights, among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

We may not think of them often, but these profound words provide the basis for our country's success. Many persons throughout the world are seeking to reorder their societies around this ideal. A just nation must ground itself in the dignity of each person, recognizing that power flows forth from that dignity, and that government must be an instrument to preserve that dignity.

Reports of assaults on the human person throughout the world that flow into my office exhaust the mind and heart: to the repression in China should one deviate from the collective notion, to the tribal land degradation in West Africa due to resource exploitation, to the attacks on conscience protections for health care workers by European bureaucracies. America's operative principle--respect for the individual person--still calls upon our conscience as a people and sets a magnetic example for those in the world who seek their own good.

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