Speeches

Opening Remarks by DCM Jennifer Brush at the Roundtable Dedicated to Human Rights Day

Dec. 9, 2005

It is my great pleasure to welcome participants to this roundtable in honor of International Human Rights Day. This is our first event in the new office space for the Embassy’s Public Affairs Section. We are pleased to have such a space to host these gatherings and look forward to sharing space with our partners ACCELS and IREX.

Human Rights Day presents the ideal opportunity for a gathering such as this – to bring together activists from different locations and interests, to interact and share ideas of how best to improve life here in Turkmenistan. It follows from a conference we helped sponsor in August on civil society– its constitutional basis and models in other countries, and how civil society functions in countries around the world.

One of the most interesting issues for the participants was the registration of independent groups here, an issue of great interest in the community. We urge you to share your ideas and experiences on NGO registration, to discuss the goals of your various organizations and how your own work might benefit from cooperating with others.

We hope to build on those ideas here today and encourage an exchange of ideas between those of you whom we saw in the summer – and who have been working daily on a range of issues tied to human rights – with those who may have recently returned from the United States and have experiences of their own to share and their own views on Turkmenistan’s development.

Among the hallmarks of American values are the rights to free expression and self-determination. These rights were enshrined in the documents creating our nation in the eighteenth century. But defining these rights in the United States is an ongoing process; each time these rights are tested and challenged, we reaffirm them as a people and strengthen them for future generations.

Here in Turkmenistan, we see such an effort taking place every day. This work takes great vision, but also considerable persistence – it is realized through your dedication and daily work in the long term. We have a saying in English: every success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

As is stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, “the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

The goals of advancing the development of democracy and good governance, promoting education, and strengthening civil society, the rule of law, respect for human rights and religious freedom, are the priorities of our mission. That is why the U.S. Embassy has organized this event.

Again, welcome to all of you. I hope you will participate actively in the discussion with the speakers and your colleagues. Thank you.