Agence France-Presse:
Outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the United States not to abandon human rights and the rule of law as it prosecutes its war on terrorism around the globe.
"Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity," Annan said in a speech to be delivered Monday at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, according to an advance transcript of his remarks.
"This country has historically been in the vanguard of the global human rights movement. But that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles -- including in the struggle against terrorism," said Annan.
"When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused," he added.
"The US has given the world an example of a democracy in which everyone, including the most powerful, is subject to legal restraint," he said.
"Its current moment of world supremacy gives it a priceless opportunity to entrench the same principles at the global level."
In a not too veiled reference to Iraq, Annan told the assembly, "No state can make its own actions legitimate in the eyes of others. When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose -- for broadly shared aims -- in accordance with broadly accepted norms."
AFP reports, "[Annan] also called on world governments to do a better job observing the human rights of their own citizens, and as well as safeguarding the rights of the oppressed in other countries against genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity," a clear reference to the crisis in Sudan.
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