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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601994_pf.html
Make Human Rights a Central Part of Any Decision
[Washington Post] Natan Sharansky - In totalitarian regimes there are no human rights. Period. The media do not criticize the government. Parliaments do not check executive power. Courts do not uphold due process. And human rights groups don't file reports. For most people, life under totalitarianism is slavery with no possibility of escape. In a national poll of Iraqis conducted this spring by a British market-research firm, nearly 2 to 1 (49% to 26%) said they preferred life under their new government to life under the old tyranny. By consistently ignoring the fundamental moral divide that separates societies in which people are slaves from societies in which people are free, some human rights groups undermine the very cause they claim to champion.