CHAIRMAN MENENADEZ ISSUES OPENING STATEMENT AT NOMINATION HEARING FOR SAMANTHA POWER TO SERVE AS US AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Congressional Documents and Publications
July 17, 2013 Wednesday
WASHINGTON, July 17 — Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman ,
John F. Kerry issued the following statement:
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, delivered this opening statement, as prepared for delivery,
at today’s nomination hearing for Samantha Power to serve as Ambassador
to the United Nations. The statement follows:
“Good morning, Ms. Power. Welcome to the Foreign Relations Committee.
Your nomination as Ambassador to the United Nations has come with much
fanfare – and with some criticism, which – at the end of the day –
means you must be doing something right.
But – whether fanfare or criticism – I don’t believe anyone can
question your credentials. No one can question your service.
And, certainly, no one can question your willingness to speak your
mind – often forcefully, always passionately, and usually without
hesitation – and I commend you for your willingness to speak out on
human rights issues around the world, whether as a war correspondent
in Bosnia, in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and Sudan where you –
as you said in your Pulitzer Prize winning book on genocide – witnessed
“evil at its worst.”
You have been an unrelenting, principled voice when it comes to human
rights and crimes against humanity – and I know that voice will be
heard around the world – should you be confirmed.
Personally, I am incredibly appreciative of the principled position
you’ve taken on the Armenian Genocide. In 2007, you wrote in Time
Magazine – “a stable, fruitful, 21st century relationship” [with
Turkey] “cannot be built on a lie,” and I completely agree.
Your belief that we should use the lessons of what clearly was an
atrocity of historic proportions to prevent future crimes against
humanity is a view consistent with my own and which is supported by
your role on the President’s Atrocities Prevention Board.
I agree that we must acknowledge and study the past, understand how
and why atrocities happen, to put-into-practice and giving meaning
to the phrase, “never again.”
As the son of immigrants from Cuba, one whose family and friends bore
witness to, suffered – and continue to suffer – under the Castro
regime’s oppression, I personally appreciate your commitment to
exposing the Castro dictatorship’s total disregard for human and civil
rights and for not idealizing the harsh realities of communism in Cuba.
I know from the conversation we had in my office that you appreciate
the suffering of the Cuban people – the torture, abuse, detention
and abridgment of the civil and human rights of those who voice
their dissent.
I also welcomed your commitment to reach out to Rosa Maria Paya,
daughter of the long-time dissident and Cuban activist, Oswaldo Paya
who died under mysterious circumstances last year in Cuba.
Ms. Paya is in Washington this week accepting a posthumous award
from the National Endowment for Democracy on behalf of another young
activist from Cuba who died alongside Oswaldo Paya, making your
commitment to reach out to her that-much-more timely.
I share your view that we should not lose sight of these moral issues
even as we address the pressing economic and security issues that
confront our nation.
It is fitting that you will be at the United Nations, which was
created after a period of atrocity and conflict with the goal of
bringing nations together to achieve peace and stability.
In the words of the UN Preamble, it was created “to reaffirm faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person,
in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…”
If confirmed your focus at the United Nations will – no doubt – be
on the crisis du jour – the Middle East, Syria, Iran, North Korea,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, increasingly on North Africa, and
the nature of nations that emerge from the Arab Spring but I would
encourage you to also keep your focus and task your staff to watch
what is happening off the front page as well as on it.
What may be happening on freedom of expression in Latin America;
fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and polio in Africa; on the status of talks
to resolve the 66 yearlong question of Cyprus; on women’s rights in
Pakistan; labor rights in Bangladesh, and human rights in Sri Lanka.
The UN for all its faults also has a great ability, to serve as
arbitrator – a neutral fact-finder – and overseer of peace.
I urge you to harness its strengths in the interests of our nation
and – not coincidentally – in the interest of fulfilling the stated
purpose of the UN – “to unite our strength to maintain international
peace and security.”
We will address these issues, among many others, in our questioning,
but let me to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Committee
and to say that we look forward to a full and frank dialogue on the
issues you will face should you be confirmed.
Let me also say – for the record – that if there are additional
questions for the record of this nominee, they should be submitted
by 5:00 PM today.
With that, let me turn to Senator Corker for his opening remarks.”