The founders of the United States believed that "all Men are created equal...endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights." Today, legalistic interpretations appear to be undermining that vision.

Since WW II a complex infrastructure of human rights declarations, treaties, commissions and courts has been created at the global and regional level to identify, secure, and at times intervene to protect, human rights of all types. But the task of creating reliable guarantees of human rights remains unfinished.

The enactment of international laws permitting the effective enforcement of human rights creates tension between the sovereign rights of individual nations and the values of humanity as a whole. Why are nations more willing to yield power to facilitate trade than to ensure the rights of their own citizens?

On 9/11, the Twin Towers didn't fail - the standards they were built to did. Are we willing to pay for the costs of implementing new standards that can withstand the impact of terrorism?

Two years after an FTC Administrative Law Judge ruled that Rambus, Inc. was not guilty of abusing the standards process, the Commissioners of the FTC unanimously found against Rambus in the latest dramatic reversal in this long-running standards-based litigation battle.

ANSI holds its 2006 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., on October 11 as part of World Standards Week.