"To tell a nation that, because of the structure of their government, they are not to participate or to take a leadership role in this debate is to tell them that the rules of humane behavior don't apply to them."

Sorry, Mary Anne, but we can and must promote or exclude different governments on this planet, in all kinds of international debates, forums, activities, initiatives, due to the "structure of their government". Of course economic concerns frequently blind us to this moral imperative, but as an international commuity, we must strive to attain a higher standard of decent, civilized behaviour, and in doing so, we must prefer and promote the values of free, democratic governments over bloody, tyrannical, totalitarian dictatorships. There is no way on earth the government of Saudia Arabia should be allowed to lead, or even participate, in setting international standards on women's rights, for instance. Like wise, there is no way brutal human rights abusers like China, Zimbabwe, Sudan shold be allowed to have anything to do with international human rights forums. To do so reduces the concept of human rights to a joke.

It's an objective and absolute truth that freedom is better than totalitarianism; it's not simply a subjective or cultural choice. Illegitimate totalitarian regimes in China, Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, and throughout the Muslim world are only to be tolerated until they can some day be replaced, by force when appropriate, with legitimate forms of free, democratic government, exactly as has occurred in the last decade in numerous Latin American, Eastern European, African, and Asian states. But there's certainly no need to reward them in the meantime with undeserved recognition and legitimacy.