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    "title": "[HRC Written Pieces 93-97]: [\"A Call to Action\"]",
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    "ocrText": "FOIA Number: 2006-1733-F\nFOIA\nMARKER\nThis is not a textual record. This is used as an\nadministrative marker by the William J. Clinton\nPresidential Library Staff.\nCollection/Record Group:\nClinton Presidential Records\nSubgroup/Office of Origin:\nFirst Lady's Office\nSeries/Staff Member:\nSpeechwriting\nSubseries:\nLaura Schiller: HRC Speeches 11/94 - 8/95\nOA/ID Number:\n24624\nFolderID:\nFolder Title:\n[HRC Written Pieces 93-97]: [\"A Call to Action\"]\nStack:\nRow:\nSection:\nShelf:\nPosition:\nS\n61\n2\n2\n2\nAm. Women 7-25-75 in Am Demo,\nR\n-\n1\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.02\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n1\nA CALL TO ACTION\nBY\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\nIt was a special honor for me as First Lady of the United States to\naddress the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in\nBeijing. This important gathering of the world's women in 1995 was\na celebration--a celebration of the contributions women make in\nevery aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in the community, as\nmothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens and\nleaders.\nIt was also a coming together, much in the way women come together\nevery day in every country. We come together in fields and in\nfactories, in village markets and supermarkets, in living rooms and\nboard rooms.\nWhether it is while playing with our children in the park, or\nwashing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water\ncooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and\nconcerns. And time and time again, our talk turns to our children\nand our families.\nHowever different we may appear, there is far more that unites\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.03\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n2\nwomen than divides women. We share a common future. And we seek\ncommon ground 90 that we may help bring new dignity and respect to\nwomen and girls all over the world--and in so doing, bring new\nstrength and stability to families as well.\nBy gathering in Beljing in 1995, we focused world attention on\nissues that matter most in the lives of women and their families;\naccess to education, health care, jobs, and credit, the chance to\nenjoy basic legal and human rights and to participate fully in the\npolitical life of their countries.\nThere are some who criticized the United Nations for convening the\nFourth World Conference on Women. Let them listen to the voices of\nwomen in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces. There are some\nwho wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic\nand political progress around the globe. Let them look at the women\ngoing about their daily lives: the homemakers, nurses, teachers,\nlawyers, policy makers, and women who run their own businesses.\nA World Conference on Women compels government and people\neverywhere to listen, look and face the world's most pressing\nproblems. Wasn't it after the 1985 Third World Conference in\nNairobi that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of\ndomestic violence?\nWhat we are learning around the world is that, if women are healthy\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.04\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n3\nand educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from\nviolence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to\nwork and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families\nwill flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations\nwill flourish.\nThat is why every woman, every man, every child, every family and\nevery nation on our planet has a stake in the discussion that took\nplace at the conference in Beijing.\nOver the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues\nrelating to women, children and families. And as First Lady, I have\nhad the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women\nin my own country and around the world.\n1 have met new mothers in Indonesia, who come together regularly in\ntheir village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care.\nI have met working parents In Denmark who talk about the comfort\nthey fell in knowing that their children can be cared for in\ncreative, safe, and nurturing after-school centers. I have met\nwomen in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid\nand are now helping to build a new democracy.\nI have met with leading women of my own hemisphere who are working\nevery day to promote literacy and better health care for the\nchildren in their countries. 1 have met women in India and\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.05\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n4\nBangladesh who are taking out small loans, to buy milk cows,\nrickshaws, thread and other materials to create a livellhood for\nthemselves and their families. I have met doctors and nurses in\nBelarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the\naftermath of Chernobyl.\nOne of our great challenges is to give voice to women everywhere\nwhose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard.\nWomen comprise more than half the world's population. Women are 70%\nof the world's poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to\nread and write. Women are the primary caretakers for most of the\nworld's children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not\nvalued -- not by economists, not by historians, not by popular\nculture, not by government leaders.\nAt this very moment, women around the world are giving birth,\nraising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses,\nplanting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and\nrunning countries.\nWomen also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented\nor treated; they are watching their children succumb to\nmalnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation; they are\nbeing denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and\nbrothers; they are being forced into prostitution; and they are\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.06\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n5\nbeing barred from the bank lending office and banned from the\nballot box.\nThose of us who have the opportunity to speak out, have a\nresponsibility to speak up for those women whose voices cannot be\nheard. As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own\ncountry -- women who are raising children on the minimum wage,\nwomen who can't afford health care or child care, women whose lives\nare threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes.\n1 want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools,\nsafe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves. For older women,\nsome of them widows, who have raised their families and now find\nthat their skills and life experiences are not valued in the\nworkplace. For women who are working all night as nurses, hotel\nclerks and fast food chefs, so that they can be at home during the\nday with their kids. And for women everywhere who simply don't have\ntime to do everything they are called upon to do each day.\nI speak for them and for women around the world who are denied the\nchance to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have\na say about the direction of their lives, simply because they are\nwomen.\nThe truth is that most women around the world work both inside and\noutside the home, usually by necessity. We need to understand that\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.07\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n6\nthere is no formula for how women should lead their lives. That is\nwhy we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself\nand her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-\ngiven potential.\nWe also must recognize that women will never gain full dignity\nuntil their human rights are respected and protected. The goals of\nthe United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women -- to\nstrengthen families and societies by empowering women to take\ngreater control over their own destinies -- cannot be fully\nachieved unless all governments accept their responsibility to\nprotect and promote internationally recognized human rights.\nThe international community has long acknowledged that both women\nand men are entitled to a range of protections and personal\nfreedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to\ndetermine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear.\nNo one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or\npolitical persecution, arrest, abuse or torture.\nTragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are\nviolated. Even in the late 20th century, the rape of women\ncontinues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and\nchildren make up a large majority of the world's refugees. And when\nwomen are excluded from the political process, they become even\nmore vulnerable to abuse.\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.08\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n7\nOn the eve of a new millennium, I believe that it is time to break\nour silence. It is time for the world to understand that we no\nlonger find it acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate\nfrom human rights.\nThese abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of\nwomen has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those\nwho are trying to silence our words.\nOur voices must be heard loud and clear:\nIt is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food,\nor drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because\nthey are born girls,\nIt is a violation of human rights when women and girls are\nsold into slavery or prostitution.\nit is a violation of human rights when women are doused with\ngasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage\ndowries are deemed too small.\nIt is a violation of human rights when individual women are\nraped in their own communities and when thousands of women are\nsubjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.\nIt is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of\ndeath worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are\nsubjected to in their own homes by their own relatives.\nIt is a violation of human rights when young girls are\nbrutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.01\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n8\nmutilation.\nIt is a violation of human rights when women are denied the\nright to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to\nhave abortions or being sterllized against their will.\nIf there is one message that echoes forth as a result of the\nBeijing Conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights.\nAnd women's rights are human rights, once and for all.\nLet us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak\nfreely And the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to\nparticipate fully in the social and political lives of their\ncountries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure.\nFreedom means the right of people to assemble, organize and debate\nopenly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree\nwith the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens\naway from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or\ndenying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful\nexpression of their ideas and opinions.\nIn 1995 America celebrated the 75th anniversary of woman suffrage,\nIt took almost 150 years after the signing of our Declaration of\nIndependence for American women to win the right to vote. It took\n72 years of organized struggle on the part of many courageous women\nand men for women to finally win the right to vote. It was one of\nAmerica's most divisive philosophical wars. But it was also a\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.02\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n9\nX\nbloodless war. Woman suffrage was achieved without a shot being\nfired.\nIn 1995 America also observed the 50th anniversary of the end of\nWorld War 11. We were reminded of the good that comes when men and\nwomen join together to combat the forces of tyranny and build a\nbetter world. We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half\ncentury. We have avoided another world war.\nBut we have not solved older, deeply-rooted problems that continue\nto diminish the potential of half the world's population. Now it is\ntime to act on behalf of women everywhere.\nIf we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be\ntaking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too.\nFamilies rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care;\nfamilies rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly,\nfamilies rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children\nand care for other relatives.\nAs long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace\neverywhere in the world -- as long as girls and women are valued\nless, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and\nsubjected to violence in and out of their homes -- the potential of\nthe human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be\nrealized.\nNANCY NEUMAN\n7175244713\nP.03\nFIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON\n10\nAll of us muet participate in a conversation about how to shape the\nchanges we seek in the world we share. Too often a deafening\nsilence still sounds when women's concerns and women's voices are\nraised. We must move beyond rhetoric, beyond recognition of\nproblems, to working together, to have the common efforts to build\nthat common ground we hope to see.\nWe must call the world to action. We must heed that call so that we\ncan create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and\ndignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and\nevery family has the hope of a strong and stable future.\nThat is the work before us, that is the work before all of us, who\nhave a vision of the world we want to see for our children and our\ngrandchildren. The time is now.\nAdapted from remarks to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,\nBeijing, China (September 5, 1995)."
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