VOA常速英语2020--不可剥夺的权利及其重要性（在线收听）

Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government. In the Declaration of Independence, America’s founders defined unalienable rights as including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These rights are considered “inherent in all persons and roughly what we mean today when we say human rights,” said Peter Berkowitz, director of the State Department Policy Planning Staff. These rights don’t just protect Americans at home but form the basis for a moral foreign policy abroad, said Mr. Berkowitz: “We took obligations to champion them in 1948. Presidents from both political parties who have championed human rights. And America’s founding commitments involved respect for the dignity that inheres in all human beings.”

以下是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论：美国开国元勋们在《独立宣言》中，将不可剥夺的权利定义为包括“生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利”。美国国务院政策规划办公室主任彼得·博尔考维茨表示，这些权利被视为“所有人与生俱来的权利，大致就是我们今天所说的人权。”博尔考维茨说，这些权利不但保护美国国内民众，还构成了在国外实行外交政策的道德基础。“我们在1948年曾履行倡导这些权利的义务。美国两党总统都曾支持人权。美国的建国承诺包括尊重所有人与生俱来的尊严。”

A year ago, U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo convened the Commission on Unalienable Rights with a specific mandate, said Director Berkowitz: “Secretary Pompeo asked the members of the Commission to investigate, to reground America’s undoubted commitment to human rights in foreign policy, in America’s founding documents - the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States - in the American Constitutional tradition and also to help us understand America’s undoubted commitment to human rights in light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which we signed onto in 1948.” Unalienable rights directly affect U.S. relations with individual countries, said Director Berkowitz: “We saw it in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan championed the human rights of the dissidents that the Soviet Union had cruelly imprisoned in their gulags. We hear it when the administration takes on the Islamic Republic of Iran, which also represses its own citizens.” While “human rights are certainly not the totality of American foreign policy,” noted Director Berkowitz, they are “one essential component, one key part of the mix of American foreign policy.” That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.

博尔考维茨主任说，一年前，美国国务卿蓬佩奥召集了“不可剥夺权利委员会”，并赋予了具体的授权。“国务卿蓬佩奥要求委员会成员研究，并再次明确美国在外交政策，《独立宣言》、《美国宪法》等开国文献，以及美国宪政传统中对人权的坚定承诺。同时根据我们1948年签署的《世界人权宣言》的原则帮助我们理解美国对人权的坚定承诺。”博尔考维茨主任说，不可剥夺的权利直接影响到美国与个别国家的关系。“我们看到，在20世纪80年代，里根总统倡导尊重持不同政见者的人权，这些异见者被苏联残酷关入劳改营，我们听到，美国政府抨击压迫本国公民的伊朗伊斯兰共和国。”博尔考维茨主任说，“人权当然不是美国外交政策的全部”，然而，人权“是美国外交政策的一项重要组成部分、一个关键部分”。这是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。