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FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO THE WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
NOVEMBER 21, 1996
Thank you very much. I am delighted to be here in this
magnificent opera house, one of the architectural wonders of our
world.
I want to thank Mrs. Howard for the warm hospitality that
she and the Prime Minister have extended to my husband and me in
Sydney and Canberra. I also want to thank Senator Newman for her
words. Which I deeply agreed with, in terms of the agenda that
confronts us and our mutual need learn from one another as we
work on these problems. And I would be honored to take the
message back that perhaps we could even strengthen our
relationship. Thank you, too, Ambassador Dalrymple, for chairing
the host committee. And I want to thank someone else -- Kaarn
Weaver -- for the wonderful job you do every day in representing
the United States in Australia.
Let me also thank our sponsors this afternoon: The
Australian Center for American Studies at the University of
Sydney, the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Institute of
International Affairs, and the Research Institute for Asia and
the Pacific, also at the University of Sydney.
Finally I want to thank the Australian people we have met
and seen waving in crowds along every street we have traveled.
You have made my husband and me feel so welcome and have only
increased our desire to return with our daughter to this
extraordinary country. The timing of our next visit, and whether
we come in disguise, may depend more on the outcome of the golf
match my husband is currently playing than on scheduling
concerns. He may wish he had encountered a shark in the harbor -
- rather than on the fairway.
This is my first visit to Australia. I must confess that,
while growing up, I was like many Americans who had a sense of
Australia from seeing movies, images of the vast outback: Much
like our Wild West, a place occupied by roguish types like Ned
Kelly and filled with kangaroos. Just as, I assume, Australians
who have not yet visited the United States might perhaps think
that our country is one long-running episode of Melrose Place,
not to mention that all our children like to dunk basketballs and
wear baseball caps backwards.
I was thinking about our countries when my husband and I
1
arrived here the other evening from Honolulu. A few years back I
had read Jill Ker Conway's memoir, The Road from Coorain, which
included a memorable passage about her return home after a long
sojourn in Europe. In it she describes flying into Sydney and
seeing from above -- the beauty of the harbor, the golden
beaches and the "grey-green city" lying at the edge of a
continent.
At that moment she finally understands Australia's unique
orientation. in the world. The country, she writes, looks "across
the vast expanse of the Pacific, not to Europe, but to Japan and
Continental Asia.
Having read that passage, and being here for a few days now,
before I travel to the Philippines and Thailand the Near
North, not the Far East I feel better oriented in our world
too.
Despite the thousands of miles of ocean that separate your
country and mine, we are bound together in friendship and
partnership based on common experiences and values.
We are united, not least, by our commitment to democracy and
the values that democracy seeks to uphold. As proponents of
freedom, we rejoice in recent developments around the globe:
There is no Iron Curtain any more. In country after country,
dictatorships have crumbled and democracy has come alive. The
threat of nuclear war no longer hovers over us. As my husband
said yesterday in Parliament, opportunities for peace and
prosperity are greater than ever before. And the prospect of a
new and even more dynamic century beckons us.
Yet at the same time, many people in our countries and
around the world feel the strains caused by global competition
and the rapid pace of change. The superficial cultural
homogenization of the world means that people from Boston to
Brisbane, Paris to Perth, and Moscow to Melbourne may wear the
same jeans, eat the same fast food, and listen to the same music.
But these surface similarities do not and cannot override a
longing for identity and meaning in their own lives. Despite
improving material conditions in advanced economies, families
seem under stress. The gap between the rich and the poor grows
wider. Even in the United States and Australia, the social safety
net health care, education, pensions, good wages and good jobs
- - is in danger of fraying for those less able to navigate this
new world.
These pressures pose unavoidable questions for all of us as
we approach the 21st century: Questions about how to balance
individual and community rights and responsibilities; about how
parents will raise children in the face of the influences of the
2
mass media and consumer culture; about personal identity and work
in an age of globalization, information overload and high
technology; about the roles of women in society; about how people
will preserve their ethnic pride and value their national
citizenship; about how nations will protect their sovereignty
while cooperating regionally and globally with others.
Thinking about these challenges, and how free nations like
ours will respond to them, we may need to be reminded that
democracy is not just about our legally protected rights,
elections or even free market economies. It's about the
internalization of democratic values in people's hearts, minds
and everyday lives. It's about how, in the absence of either hot
or cold wars, democracy is rooted in the experiences of our young
people. It's about developing among democratic nations what I
call "an alliance of values" that withstands tyranny and
terrorism. An alliance based on the shared values of freedom,
opportunity, responsibility, community and respect for human
rights.
Building and sustaining democracy has always required a
balance of power that allows those values to flourish: A balance
of public political power, private economic power and the power
of civil society, those formal and informal networks that bring
people together to make decisions for themselves and for the
common good.
Democratic values are at risk when that balance shifts to
the extremes: When government becomes too cumbersome or too
intrusive or too restrictive. When the marketplace, which by
definition knows the price of everything but the value of
nothing, lures citizens into becoming merely consumers who care
only about satisfying their personal wants. When civil society,
which consists of local organizations, and philanthropies, and
volunteer associations, and neighborhood groups and individual
families, is weakened by larger political and economic forces.
Every generation faces the task of achieving the proper
balance of power so that democratic values can survive and
thrive.
Whether we succeed at this task is particularly important
for women, whose voices are still too often silenced in too many
parts of the world. It is equally important for women in
countries such as ours who are still striving to attain and
define their place in government, the economy and civil society
and claim their share of personal, political, economic, and civic
power.
During the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
in Beijing, I said that women's rights were human rights -- and
3
human rights are women's rights. One would think that at the end
of this century that should be an unremarkable statement. I have
been overwhelmed by the response that speech received. And also
bewildered that the proposition should be open to question.
A few months ago I appeared on a radio program for the Voice
of America. I fielded questions from all over the world. And
many callers referred to my Beijing speech. And one male caller
asked what my statement about women's rights really meant. I
told him to imagine the rights men had and wanted and to apply
them to women: the right to be valued as a member of a family, to
be protected from violence and exploitation, to be assured equal
access to the tools of opportunity - - health care, education,
legal rights, political participation, economic empowerment
tools that equip an individual with the capacity to make
responsible decisions for one's life. Where women are given human
rights they help create conditions in which they, their families
and communities flourish.
Yet we know that even in advanced democracies such as ours,
where these conditions are present for the vast majority of
women, women's roles and rights are still being debated. They are
being debated among women as well as between men and women, with
implications for whether our democracies will meet the challenges
of the future.
I know that some of you may recall we recently had an
election in the United States. Many critical issues were raised
during the campaign. But for the first time in America, a new set
of concerns took on political importance concerns about
enhancing the quality of our lives, about raising children, about
meeting the demands of work and family.
Why were these issues suddenly at the heart of American
politics? Because they are real issues on people's minds
kitchen table issues -- and about how public and private power
should be balanced to address them.
For example, will a new mother and her infant be allowed to
stay in the hospital as long as a doctor deems it necessary or
will private business considerations determine when they are
ready to be sent home?
Will parents be allowed to take time off from work to care
for a sick child or a loved one or will they be forced to
choose between meeting their responsibilities to their jobs and
meeting their responsibilities to their families?
The Family and Medical Leave law, the first piece of
legislation my husband signed as President in 1993, took on
greater political significance because my husband's opponent and
4
leaders of the other party in Congress disagreed about the law
and the need to expand it. Family leave became a leading issue
during the campaign, along with maternity stays for new mothers
and how to protect health care coverage for older and poorer
Americans, the majority of whom are women.
Even the book I wrote, It Takes a Village, became an issue
in the campaign after it was attacked as an endorsement of
government taking a dominant role in the raising of children.
Anyone who reads the book knows that was not its theme. Rather,
I argued that, although families bear the primary responsibility
for child-rearing, each individual and institution in society has
a responsibility toward children as well. The village of which I
wrote is not a geographic location but a community of shared
values and relationships.
People all over America started coming up to me at campaign
appearances I made on behalf of my husband wearing buttons that
said "It does take a village" or "I am a villager" or "Welcome to
our village.' They recognized that building a sense of community
based on mutual responsibility not only helps all of us to work
for our own ends - but also to help each other succeed as well.
From what I know of your country, that is an unassailable tenet
of your social contract even though you may disagree over the
specifics.
Many observers in America, however, were perplexed that
these issues were SO important to voters this year. Accustomed to
discussions of defense, diplomacy, economics and trade, some
commentators never really caught on that so-called "women's
issues" mattered because at root they were about the way
that men and women live together and in society.
Such issues instead were often dismissed as marginal to the
larger challenges our nation is facing or derided as "the
feminization of politics."
What an unfortunate term. After all, don't fathers worry
about how long their wives and babies can stay in the hospital
when they need care? Don't men want to be able to take time off
when a family member is gravely ill? Don't sons want to ensure
that their elderly parents have health care coverage in the later
stages of life?
Instead of the "feminization of politics, I prefer to think
of this phenomenon as the "humanization of politics in America.
What we saw being played out in the political arena was how in a
democracy people's personal concerns can become political if they
use their voices and their votes -- to define them.
That represents a maturing of politics. The gender gap we
5
heard SO much about in the American election was simply a measure
of how women, who are experts on the hazards and vicissitudes of
life, voted their self interest and their values. In so doing
they delivered a clear message that the issues they care about
deserve to be on the front burner of national politics.
I have come up with my own term for this phenomenon. Like
some of you, I studied political science in college. I have
followed politics closely in my years as a citizen activist and
political spouse. And I have come to a fairly good understanding
of the historic concept of realpolitik among and between nations.
What women are saying today -- loudly and clearly -- is that
national politics is not just about realpolitik. It's also about
real life politik, how we live together.
I realize there will be women who disagree with me and with
each other about specific issues and where the balance of power
between and among institutions and individuals should rest. In
my country, some women believe the President and Congress over-
extended government's power in legislating family leave and the
length of maternity hospital stays. In contrast, other women
think government needs more power to control economic forces that
can disrupt the lives of families and communities.
And some women are just plain squeamish when the subject of
power arises. It is something, they believe, that should be
discussed quietly behind the scenes and exercised if at all
by women only within the scope of their personal lives.
Regardless of where we stand on any particular issue or on
the larger question of balancing the powers in our lives, we must
acknowledge that much is at stake for women collectively in this
debate. Not just in the United States but here in Australia and
around the world.
Will democracies on every continent come to understand that
issues affecting women are not soft or marginal, but are central
to the progress and prosperity of every nation?
Will public and private institutions help empower women with
the tools they need to expand their choices and take
responsibility for their lives? And by that I mean, among other
things, will education be affordable and accessible to all women
so that they can acquire the skills and knowledge they need to
help themselves and contribute to society? Will businesses
initiate policies that make work more family-friendly, like child
care, flexible hours, or parental leave? Will employers value
women by paying them equal pay for equal work?
Will law enforcement and justice systems act more
6
efficiently to protect women from violations of their legal
rights, particularly from violence in their own homes?
Will financial institutions provide credit for women
especially poor women who, with access to small loans, can lift
themselves and their families out of poverty?
Will individual women be respected for the choices they make
about family, work and personal growth and will they be able
to make those choices free of the burden of other people's and
society's expectations? Will we stop pigeon-holing women and
invoking stereotypes that limit their potential? Will we admit
that there is no formula for being a successful or fulfilled
woman in today's society? That one can choose full-time
motherhood and homemaking. Or be committed to work outside the
home without marriage or children. Or, like most of us today,
balance work and family responsibilities. And that each of our
choices will be supported and respected.
Yesterday at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra my
husband and I visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. One of the
honor guards was a woman. I was heartened that she had the
freedom to choose military service as a way to fulfill her
aspirations. This was the right choice for her. It would not
necessarily be the right choice for me, or for many of you. But
we should all be able to celebrate the diversity of experiences
that women are choosing for themselves today.
And finally, will we acknowledge, once and for all, that
issues of concern to women do not just affect women but affect
men too?
These are the questions we are struggling to answer. They
are about the balance of power and about the balance we seek in
our lives and in the larger community we share.
I welcome the debate. It is a great debate. It is a
contentious debate. It is a necessary debate for any democracy on
the eve of a new century.
And I am optimistic that women will help to shape the
answers we seek. I'm optimistic because I have met women
throughout the world who have seized this moment to make their
voices heard on behalf of themselves and democracy's values. I
have met women in Northern Ireland Catholics and Protestants -
- who are working together to address the root causes of
sectarian violence. I have met women in South Africa -- blacks
and whites who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid. I
have met women in Bosnia -- Croats, Serbs and Muslims who are
transcending long-standing ethnic hatreds to keep the peace in
that war-torn land. I have met women in Russia, Poland, the Czech
7
Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Baltic region and in
Mongolia who are leading the effort to build democratic
governments, free market economies and civil society from the
ruins of dictatorship. I have met women in South America who are
joining forces to improve literacy and health care for women and
children throughout the continent. And I have met women in South
and East Asia who are working to provide economic opportunity for
the poorest of the poor through small loans and credit.
I have met women in my own country who have come together to
make their streets safer, their schools stronger, and the
environment cleaner. And just in the few days I have been here, I
have met women who are enriching this nation though their
contributions to politics, law, science, education, the arts,
journalism and so much else.
Some of the women I have met are famous. But most are not.
They are not high-level diplomats or professional negotiators.
They have not been elected to office. They aren't wealthy or
connected in the right social circles.
They simply took it upon themselves to get organized and to
make their voices heard. They had faith in their own capacity to
affect change. And they were not going to wait around for someone
else to do it for them.
So I am hopeful. Because every country and every time has
its Caroline Chisholm, Edith Cowan, and Mother Mary McKillop
women who, well known or not, understand that we must find common
ground. And that on that common ground we will build a society
that is in balance, where our democratic values are alive and
where individuals can live up to their own God-given potentials.
Mary Wollstonecraft once said "I do not wish women to have
power over men, but over themselves.'
That is what we are all striving for. This is what will
ensure progress for women and their families, safeguard
democracy, and make the world a better place for our children and
ourselves. That is the challenge women face in the 21st century.
Thank you very much.
###
8
'Remarks - Rajiv Gandhi Foundation
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/F./generalspeeches/1995/3-29-95.html
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 29, 1995
Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation
New Delhi, India
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you so much Mrs. Gandhi, Ambassador Wisner, Ambassador Hussain. I have
not seen Mrs. Gandhi's introduction, but I must say after hearing it, she and I have been thinking very
much alike as you will notice.
It is a great honor for me to join you here today, to be in New Delhi, in the company of men and women
who keep alive the high ideals for India and the world that Rajiv Gandhi helped to sustain.
I would like to thank the people of India for extending a warm and gracious welcome to me and my
daughter who is here with me. To President Sharma and Prime Minister Rao, I owe special thanks for
their warm hospitality. The Prime Minister's visit to Washington 10 months ago opened a new chapter in
Indian-American relations, one that promised to build on the many values and aspirations our peoples
share. We greatly appreciate the energy and wisdom he has lent to strengthening the friendship between
our nations.
Although my journey here is far too brief, it is the culmination of a life long desire to visit India. I hope
these days will be the first of many I spend in this country, learning about your extraordinary past and
your vibrant and exciting future; and exploring the shared dreams we hold to the future of the human
family.
I can think of no more fitting setting in which to reflect upon these shared dreams than here at the Rajiv
Gandhi Foundation-an institution dedicated to the realization of Rajiv Gandhi's dream of a better life for
all people of India.
Programs of this foundation such as assisting children orphaned by terrorism, or promoting literacy and
health among women and children in rural areas or providing fellowships for women entrepreneurs are
inspiring examples of how to translate dreams into reality.
Our meeting today occurs at an historic moment. As we approach a new century, we are also on the
frontier of a new world. It is different from the one we have known for the past 50 years. It is a world in
which many old divisions have diminished or disappeared. The long reign of dictators and controlled
economies has given way to democracy and free markets in country after country.
The opportunities for peace and prosperity are greater now than every before. But this is also a world of
profound change that exacerbated old challenges and creates new ones: the challenge of deep poverty
still confronts us. The challenge of living together in peace and harmony in the face of ethnic, religious
and other tensions among peoples has never been greater. The challenge of putting people first--of
including all of our citizens as full participants in our economic and political lives--men and women,
rich and poor, people of all races and creeds--remains fundamental to all of us. These ancient challenges
are compounded by the stresses inherent in a time of rapid change. The so-called Information Age holds
great potential that the virtual reality created by the media and computers can not only help us
communicate more quickly but understand each other better; yet we also know technology poses
difficult problem: a vast majority of our world's people are not prepared with the skills needed for the
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new global economy. And, if consumerism is the primary message being transmitted, the explosion in
material expectations will put additional demands on institutions ranging from the family to the
government that are unlikely to be met quickly or fully. The alienation spawned by disappointment with
the promise of change is likely to increase.
So, together we must address both the opportunities and difficulties that confront us today--for
ourselves, our families, and the future of our children.
I want to talk with you today about what I consider central to a good common future that we can create
together and that is--the importance of ensuring that women are invested in their own lives and able to
participate fully in our national lives. Women represent over half the world's population. And yet in
country after country, they lack access to education, to health services, to jobs, to political and civil
rights. Where women lack access to education, health care and economic opportunity, children tend to
be less educated, less well nourished and families tend to be both larger and poorer. Where women are
illiterate, experience has shown that the environment is often poorly managed and democracy remains
fragile. One lesson the experience of the last several decades teaches us is that where women prosper,
countries prosper.
But the education of women has even greater benefits for societies. Education helps us understand and
tolerate differences and so holds out the promise that we can live together more harmoniously.
Education helps us comprehend the unsettling changes in our lives today and helps us better manage
those changes. Education is as important to peace as it is to prosperity.
But what is it that we must do to bring women fully into our national lives, among other things, we must
be able to attend school and learn, not just to be literate but to acquire the knowledge and skills--of
medicine, of engineering, of management, of computers and so forth-that will contribute to the
prosperity of their families and nations. Women must have access to health care, especially the care they
need as expecting or new mothers. Wives, together with their husbands, must have access to family
planning services to enable them to make voluntary, responsible and informed choices about the size of
their families. And, children--girls as well as boys--must have access to preventive and curative medical
care that will enable them to grow into healthy adults.
I recognize that discussion of such problems as education and health care for girls and women is viewed
by some as "soft," labeled dismissively as a women's issues belonging, at best, on the edge of serious
debate about all the problems we confront on the cusp of the 21st century. I want to argue strongly,
however, that the questions surrounding social development, especially of women, as discussed at the
recent social summit in Copenhagen, are at the center of our political and economic challenges.
Governments, business and citizens must recognize and act upon the truth for the betterment of nations
and our global family. But even assuming you would agree with my argument, what is to be done to
bring about strategies for such development? That is a question that deserves far more analysis and
discussion that I can offer here today, but let me suggest there are five key commitments needed to
achieve this worthy goal of social development for women.
First, governments must continue to expand the general conditions required for democracy and market
economies that we know can unleash the creative energies of millions of people if they are prepared to
take advantage of the opportunities available to them.
The Indian government has recently undertaken major economic reforms and these reforms have already
helped stimulate investment and more rapid growth.
Such reforms are essential. But they are rarely sufficient to achieve sustainable development in any
country. Where social services and women's access to those services remain limited, growth will prove
uneven and unsustainable. My own country is debating vigorously the role of government in supplying
social services because of the recognition that a significant number of our own citizens are not equipped
to share in the rewards of the newly emerging economy.
In addition, every government should invest more resources in the education and health care of children,
especially girls. This should be a priority that takes precedence over competing budgetary demands. For
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some countries like those in South Asia, it means providing schools and clinics where they are needed
and incentives for persuading families to educate and provide health care for all their children. For a
country like the United States, it means delivering existing services more efficiently with greater
accountability for outcomes.
Second, although governments have primary responsibility for creating environments that encourage
economic growth and social development, businesses also have a role to play. But at a time when
businesses are increasingly pressured to perform on the basis of quarterly results, they have to recognize
that the social costs of doing business often have medium and long term economic consequences.
Depleting natural or human resources destroys markets and undermines people's confidence in them.
The world needs socially responsible business leadership now more than ever.
Third, although the role of commitment of government and business is key to development, they alone
cannot achieve these social goals. Citizens, cooperating together in non-governmental organizations, like
this foundation, must also take the initiative and even provide the lead.
NGOs are often created by individuals with a dream--like Mother Teresa whose renowned
compassion--even tenacity--on behalf of the world's most unfortunate moved us deeply when we visited
her home for children here in New Delhi yesterday.
NGO leadership--often volunteer--is typically highly motivated and energetic in pursuing a vision of a
better world. Tomorrow I will visit with Ela Bhatt, that soft-spoken visionary whose work is infused
with the ideals of Gandhi. From her, I hope to learn more about SEWA--the Self Employed Women's
Association-- and how it has empowered poor women to take control of their futures and make better
lives for themselves and their families.
NGOs can give voice to the aspirations of people who are left out of the modern economy and whose
influence on government may otherwise be small. The Prayas School which I visited yesterday
embodies the idea that health, education, and economic development go hand in hand, and that learning
must begin at the earliest stages of life and progress throughout it.
NGOs, where their members must debate and implement programs and elect their officials, are among
the most effective training grounds for democracy. Their activism strengthens democracy by holding
governments accountable for the way their policies and practices affect people.
As Alexis de Tocqueville observed in the last century, voluntary citizen associations are one of the vital
foundations of American society and democracy. That is equally true of India where the long experience
and success of NGOs inspires us.
America recognizes in our partnership with India, our NGOs and yours must play a central role. Our
bilateral aid program relies on NGOs to implement programs and projects, and we are committed to
increasing that partnership.
We recognize, that in no area are NGOs more important than in efforts to educate and empower women.
At the Social Summit in Copenhagen two weeks ago, I announced a new ten year, $100 million USAID
Girls and Women's Education Initiative. I am happy to announce today that India will be the first
country to benefit from this program. (Applause) We will soon provide an initial grant to support
NGOs--US and Indian--to expand girls' education in this country.
The fourth area for concern is that of the family, for it is the family that determines primarily now
2
daughters are treated. Deeply rooted attitudes about the value of girls are hard to change, but we must try
to persuade mother and father to invest love, attention and resources in their girls, starting with
education and health care. The success of that persuasion will rest on a new vision of a world in which
the distinctions between men and women are not viewed as reasons to demean each other, but as
complementary parts of a greater whole.
In this new world, both boys and girls are loved and cared for, first by the family they are born into--by
parents who want them and invest in them; then by their extended family; then by the families they build
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as adults and by the children whom they, in turn, invest with love; and finally by societies that value
every child as a gift to be nurtured and remember, in the words of Rabindranath Tagore: "Every child
comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man."
Finally, women have to be responsible for our own lives and our own futures and work together to
provide opportunities for themselves and other.
All of us must participate in a conversation about how to shape the changes we seek in the world we
share. It is particularly important that women find their own voice and become participants and
decision-makers in the home, the work place, community, and nation. We must develop a new language
to replace the deafening silence that still sounds too often when women's concerns are raised.
I have never seen a better description of the reason why women's silence must end than in a poem I
received yesterday. This was not how my speech was to end, but when I was handed it by Meenakshi
Gopinath, the principal of Lady Sri Ram College in New Delhi. (Applause) A poem entitled, "Silence"
written by a student, Anasuya Sengupta of the Class of 1995. I wanted to share the words of this young
woman who speaks for countless other young women here in India and throughout the world. Because if
we listen to the voices of women and pay particular heed to the voices of young women, the goals we
have for women will be more likely achieved. And this is the poem I received, it is entitled "Silence":
"Too many women in too many countries speak the same language-of silence. My grandmother was
always silent-- always aggrieved--only her husband had the cosmic right (or so it was said) to speak and
to be heard.
"They say it is different now. (After all, I am always vocal and my grandmother thinks I talk too much)
But sometimes, I wonder.
"When a women gives her love, as most do, generously--it is accepted. When a woman shares her
thoughts, as some women do, graciously--It is allowed. When a woman fights for power, as all women
would like to, quietly or loudly, it is questioned.
"And yet, there must be freedom--if we are to speak. And yes, there must be power--if we are to be
heard. And when we have both (freedom and power) let us not be misunderstood.
"We seek only to give words to those who cannot speak (too many women in too many countries) I seek
only to forget the sorrows of my grandmother's silence."
As we work together on behalf of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, and ourselves-let us
avoid the false debate that says, on the one hand, only powerful institutions like government or business,
or on the other, only individuals, are responsible for solving their own problems that we confront. In
fact, we all know we need partnerships to achieve social changes. Governments, businesses, NGOs,
families, and women themselves can either support or undermine people as they face the moral, social
and economic challenges of our time. Individuals can either take initiative and responsibility or fall into
hopelessness and despair. Simply put, no government, no businesses, no NGO, no person can remain
idle given the magnitude of the challenges we face and the uncertainties of the world we live.
If all of us could take our responsibilities seriously. If we use our voices to seek ways to achieve the
goals that really underlie the political and economic aspirations that are now being sought around the
world and women and men will create a better world-for boys and girls-and that ultimately is what the
point of political and economic activity should be here, in America, and around the world. Thank you all
very much.
4 of 4
06/08/98 17:56:43
Katherine Searcy
(310) 337-7625
3/10/98
09:04 PM
1/3
DATE: Tuesday. March 10, 1998
MEMO
TO:
Michael O'Mary, Office of the First Lady
FAX: 202 4566244
FROM: Katherine Searcy
=
PAGES: 3
Katherine Searcy
(310) 337-7625
3/10/98
9:05 PM
2/3
TALKING IT OVER
BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Two and a half years ago, representatives of 189 countries met in Beijing for the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. They articulated this vision: A
country's progress depends on the inclusion of women, the vibrancy of an, economy
depends on the full contribution of women, the richness of civic life depends on the
participation of women, and women's rights are human rights.
Even in the few years since the Beijing conference, governments, non-
governmental organizations and individuals have made tremendous progress
throughout the world. All around the globe, I have seen women striving to become full
participants in their societies, to build democracies and to turn their lives and
communities around.
In Costa Rica, I've met women working to end domestic violence and opening
an astonishing array of businesses through the magic of microcredit. In Africa, I've
seen women beating the odds to bring health care to rural Senegal, to construct
homes in South Africa and to speak out for women's rights in Zimbabwe, Tanzania
and Uganda. And in Thailand, I've learned firsthand about what people are doing to
stop young girls from being sold into prostitution and to care for those -- some as
young as 12 -- who are dying of AIDS.
Everywhere I go, I am reminded of how much our nation's assistance -- and our
example -- contributes to this progress. I've seen a women's health care clinic opened
in Kazakhstan, I've met women whose lives have been rebuilt in Rwanda and Bosnia,
and I've witnessed the United States and Ukraine working together to stop the buying
and selling of women and girls.
There is much to celebrate, but much also remains to be done. In too many
countries, women are barred by law, tradition or ignorance from exercising their God-
given rights. Too many are trapped in an endless cycle of poverty, unable to get
access to education and economic opportunity. Too many live in fear of daily violence.
In Afghanistan, for example, women are brutalized and silenced by the Taliban
militia. Girls are barred from school. Thousands of women cannot go to work, leave
home alone or get the health care they need. Those who don't follow every rule of
attire or conduct are punished with beatings, even with death.
This week at the White House, in recognition of International Women's Day, the
President is taking several steps to assure that women's rights -- in this country and in
Katherine Searcy
(310) 337-7625
13/10/98
9:05 PM
C3/3
TALKING IT OVER 3/10/98
Page 2
every country -- are respected and protected. With the support of the Secretary of
State, the Attorney General, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Members of
Congress and women from around the world, he is once again calling upon the
Senate to consent to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women.
CEDAW, which has already been ratified by 161 other countries, seeks to
combat violence against women, reform unfair inheritance and property rights, and
strengthen women's access to fair employment and economic opportunity. In its failure
to ratify CEDAW, the United States remains alone in this hemisphere, alone among
industrialized democracies and alone among our allies in NATO and Asia. Approval
would be a fitting tribute to the vision of the men and women who gathered in Seneca
Falls, N.Y., 150 years ago this July for the first Women's Rights Convention.
The President is also directing his Interagency Council on Women, the
Secretary of State and the Attorney General to continue -- and expand -- their work to
combat violence against women here in the United States and around the world.
Let us call violence against women what it is -- a violation of human rights. It
doesn't matter if it's by law or custom, ignorance or inaction. It doesn't matter if it's in
war or peace, in our homes or streets. No woman should ever be degraded by
violence.
Finally, the President is announcing several measures to strengthen our fight
against the trafficking of more than a million women and girls all over the world.
Desperate for economic opportunity, and believing they're applying for jobs as baby
sitters, waitresses and sales clerks, they find themselves instead in a nightmare -- sold
as part of an international trade in human beings and forced into prostitution and
modern-day slavery.
Under the President's leadership, we are giving the issues that affect women's
lives -- whether they live in Thailand or Tunisia, Bangladesh or Boston -- the status
they deserve as part of our domestic and foreign policy. Only by assuring that the circle
of citizenship and human dignity is extended to include every person will democracy
continue to thrive and the agenda we adopted in Beijing continue to improve the lives
of women and girls around the world.
COPYRIGHT 1998 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
March 10, 1998
Early childlood
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION
LISBON, PORTUGAL
JULY 17, 1997
child care-
p.21
P.8
1
Acknowledgments: Gulbenkian [Gull-benk-ee-an] foundation --
extraordinary support for the arts, but also for health and social welfare.
Nice sign. ["It Takes a Village" sign behind you.]
I am deeply honored to be here with you to talk about the future of our
children -- particularly our youngest children. It is a pleasure to be in a country that
has made the welfare of its children a top priority.
The United States is fortunate to count Portugal among its oldest and closest
allies. It was in February of 1791 -- a long time in our history, perhaps a slightly
shorter one in yours -- that George Washington, our first President, opened formal
diplomatic relations with Portugal.
We are proud of the strong bonds that have formed between our countries
over the last 200 years -- bonds of friendship, mutual respect, and shared devotion
to democratic ideals. The success of the Portuguese communities in Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New Jersey, California and other parts of the United States is a
tribute to the promise of America and to the traditional values of the Portuguese
people: love of family, belief in hard work, devotion to community.
Our countries share something else: We are by nature explorers. I think we
have all been transfixed by the pictures Pathfinder has sent back from Mars.
Today, these pictures are opening up a new world.
2
But five centuries ago, it was the Portuguese who were the pathfinders to a
new era in the history of humankind.
The record of Portugal's exploration fills one with awe. Portuguese ships
were the first European ships to open the way into the Atlantic, to cross the
Equator, to round the Cape of Good Hope. Your ancestors were the first Europeans
to see Australia, to set foot in South America, to open up trade with China and
Japan.
Next year will mark the 500th anniversary of Vasco de Gama's historic
voyage to India. Though this voyage is memorialized for eternity in your national
epic, "The Lusiads," [Luzeeahdesh] I am pleased that it will be celebrated anew
with a world exposition here in Lisbon devoted to the seas: Expo '98.
I should add that the United States, in partnership with Portugal, will extend
this commemoration to the skies. When the Space Shuttle "Discovery" ventures
into space next May, it will carry with it a Portuguese flag and a physics
experiment created, in part, by scientists from your country.
What has always struck me about Portugal's achievements is that when your
forebears journeyed to the edges of the Earth, ingenuity was your natural resource.
Portugal's greatness derived not from an enormous army or land that went on
forever, but from a knowledge of the seas, a mastery of navigation, and the
intellectual and emotional fortitude to sail beyond the horizon. Portugal's power
resided in the mind.
3
It seems particularly fitting, then, that the newest frontier -- the one we are
exploring together, the one we gather to discuss today -- is, in fact, the human
mind.
Just as science made possible the exploration of land, sea, and sky, so now is
it enabling us to chart and come to understand the brain.
The knowledge we are gathering on this adventure is as valuable today as
opening the spice route to India was half a millennium ago.
For, if there is one truth to our time, it is this: The success of any society
depends on how well it cares for educates, and raises its children. What this
science does is show us what we can do to help every child live up to his or her
God-given promise.
The answer is deceptively simple. In fact, it is what many parents have
known all along -- that the song a father sings to his child in the morning, or a story
a mother reads to her child before bed, help lay the foundation for a child's life,
and, in turn, for a nation's future.
This is such an important issue that, not long ago, President Clinton and I
held a special conference at the White House to give some of America's leading
experts in the field of early childhood development -- scientists, pediatricians,
researchers, and others -- the opportunity to explain their discoveries and to put this
invaluable body of knowledge at the service of families.
4
But not just families. This information is indispensable for anyone in the
position of leaving an impression on a young child's growing mind -- child-care
workers, teachers, doctors and nurses, business leaders, the people who create
television shows, and legisiators.
It is astonishing what we now know about the young brain and how children
develop. Just 15 years ago, we thought that a baby's brain structure was virtually
complete at birth. Now, we understand that it is a work in progress and that
everything we do with a child has some kind of potential physical influence on that
rapidly forming brain. As one scientist told me, "nature and nurture don't compete
-- they cooperate."
A child's earliest experiences, their relationships with parents and care-
givers, the sights and sounds and smells and feelings they encounter, the challenges
they meet, determine how their brains are wired. And that brain shapes itself
through repeated experiences. The more something is repeated, the stronger the
neuro-circuitry becomes. And those connections, in turn, can be permanent. In this
way, the seemingly trivial events of our earliest months that we are unable to
remember -- hearing a song or a story, getting a hug after falling down, knowing
when to expect a smile -- are anything but trivial.
Experiences in the first three years of life can determine how well a child can
learn. When we speak, read, or play with an infant, we activate the connections in
that child's brain that will one day enable her to think and read and speak and solve
problems herself.
5
Experiences in the early years also have tremendous bearing on whether or
not these children will grow up to be peaceful or violent citizens, focused or
undisciplined workers, attentive or detached parents themselves -- for it is during
this time that children learn to soothe themselves when they're upset, to empathize,
to get along with others.
Now in many homes around the world, parents have done this for years. No
one has taught them. They were given that gift when they were children or they
saw and learned themselves how important it was. But in many homes around the
world, children are not spoken to -- they are not given the kind of attention from
mothers and fathers that stimulates brain development. And so by the time they get
to school, they are already far behind.
There is also a connection between the income and education level of a
parent and how much conversation occurs in a home. In one study, researchers in
the United States visited homes that represented three different levels of education
and income.
First, the researchers went into homes like mine, where both the mother and
father went to college and earned good incomes. In these homes -- even when both
parents worked outside the home -- there was plenty of conversation, lots of
reading, plenty of talk in the house.
6
Then the researchers went into stable homes where the parents' education
stopped at high school and where the parents held lower income jobs. These
parents loved their children as much as any parent, but they did not talk to them.
The fathers often had jobs that did not depend on verbal skills. Their livelihoods
depended on what they were able to do with their hands. These parents wanted
their children to be successful, but for them conversation was never a means to that
end. As a result, when their children were four and five years old, their
vocabularies were much smaller than those of children in the first group.
Finally, the researchers went into homes of very poor families. In these
households, not only was there very little talk; the talk that occurred was
overwhelmingly negative. Again, these parents loved their children; they wanted
them to be successful, but life had not treated them very well. Consequently, the
talk was filled with warnings about the world. A child who would go to explore this
microphone, for example, would be told: "No. Get away." Why? Because the child
could get into trouble. And these families were worried about trouble. So, what was
the result of limited talk combined with negative messages? Low verbal
development, limited vocabulary, and children who, because they could not resolve
their problems with words, often resorted to physical violence.
This, then, is what we know.
7
First, the earliest years of a child's life are critical. They cannot be
overlooked, ignored, minimized, shoved to the side. The first three years can set the
₹
course for a lifetime. It's time for us to grow up and take babytalk seriously.
Second, the activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do with a
child are also the best for his or her development -- playing games, reading, story-
telling, just talking and listening. My husband and I loved reading to our daughter,
Chelsea, who is with me here today. We hope the reading was fun for her. But we
had no idea back then that what we were doing was literally turning on the power
in her brain, firing up the connections that would enable her to speak and to read.
Third, not only do we know how the brain develops in the early years, we
also know what we can do to support that development.
For starters, we can do what you in Portugal are doing. You have set a
clear and important goal: To increase the availability and quality of pre-
school education for children between the ages of 3 and 5.
It was with great admiration that I learned of the protocol signed just last
month between the government ministries that oversee public pre-school and three
of your leading private pre-school providers: the church-based network of
charitable organizations, the Union of Mutual Social Support, and the Union of
Private Institutes of Social Solidarity.
Under this venture, public and private pre-schools will cooperate and help
8
each other better meet the needs of Portugal's families. Private pre-schools will
learn from what the government schools do best: focus on the academic needs of
children. Government schools, on the other hand, will learn from what the private
pre-schools do best: offer flexible hours, with early morning and late afternoon
care; meals for children; facilities that permit a greater range of activities.
As important as what you are doing, is how you are doing it: By bringing
together all sectors of society in pursuit of a common cause -- to lift your children
up.
In the last few years, I have been privileged to see other initiatives
around the world that are focusing on the development of children in the
crucial early years.
Outline:
Visited countless programs in my country and abroad that see to it that
at-risk children in at-risk families get help and guidance right from birth.
Parents, many of whom are living under the intense pressure of poverty, are shown
how to care for their children, to meet their infant's physical and emotional needs.
Home visitations are constant. The community is encouraged to get involved. The
result? Fewer incidents of child abuse and neglect. Stronger bonds between parents
and children.
Early Head Start and Head Start expansion.
9
Child-care expansion in U.S. Studies that show good care is good care,
whether given at home or a day-care center.
French chiid-care system.
Prescription for Reading: especially for poor families; pediatricians are
important authority figures -- when a pediatrician prescribes an immunization
schedule, he should also prescribe reading for the child. Brings together libraries,
publishing houses, doctors, clinics, hospitals.
Minnesota's Early Childhood and Education Program: provides
parenting education through home visits; screens health and development problems
for children under the age of four.
Colorado: Campaign to encourage parents to read to children every day.
Florida: child care, adoption, and abuse prevention programs work together
in comprehensive, integrated effort to promote well-being of young children.
Because SO much development takes place SO early, we must do
everything we can to strengthen the foundation of security for our youngest
10
children. We must see to it that all pregnant women have access to quality prenatal
care, we must ensure that children have health care coverage, and we must teach
police officers how to care for very young children who have witnessed or been
subject to violence.
We must remember, too, that the early years are not the only years. The
brain is the last organ to become fully mature anatomically. The neurological
circuitry for many emotions isn't completed until a child reaches 15. The good
work we do to promote development in the first 3 years must be continued over a
lifetime of learning -- from grade school, to high-school, to college, and beyond.
Modest investments in the sound development of our children will yield
great returns tomorrow -- in terms of increased prosperity, better health, fewer
social ills, and ever-greater opportunities for our citizens.
It takes a village: A child's life depends on so many different people; kids
are not rugged individualists; everyone has responsibility.
Conclusion:
11
I want to close where I began -- on the subject of exploration. Why do we
explore? There are a number of reasons: treasure, power, curiosity. But beneath
them all, I believe, is the desire to find a better place, a place where our hopes can
be realized. The time has come, as we stand at the close of this century, to realize,
finally, that our pursuit need no longer be directed to the other side of an ocean or
to a place beyond the stars. The frontier we are searching for can be right here. It
can be as close as the nearest well-cared for child. That must be our new
destination. Together, let us find the way.
Thank you and God bless you all.
12
DRAFT 7/10/97 1:00 P.M.
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO VITAL VOICES CONFERENCE
AUSTRIA CENTRE
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
JULY 11, 1997
Acknowledgments: Conference sponsors; Ambassador Hunt for leadership and
commitment.
Before I begin, I would like to thank the Austrian people and their government. There is
so much richness here: the music; the architecture; the landscape; and, as I must confess from
personal experience, the pastries.
Austria should be recognized, too, for its willingness to put itself at the service of peace
and democracy. Home to the United Nations and other crucial international organizations, host to
the critical summits of the Cold War, haven for refugees -- Austria has given the people of
Europe and the world a safe place to challenge, hear out, and come to understand each other, so
that they may shape a common future.
We come together in the same spirit today -- to advance the cause of women, to advance
the cause of democracy, and to make clear that the two are inseparable.
1
In this part of the world, the architecture of revolution is nearly complete. The old order
has been replaced by democratic institutions and open markets. A free press, functioning
parliaments, political parties, basic rights of assembly and association are now facts of life. Last
month, Russia joined the community of creditor nations. This week, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, and Poland were invited to join NATO. Today, my husband, President Clinton, is in
Poland and Romania to reiterate America's support for democracy's progress.
But democracy has always depended on more than its architecture: free markets and
institutions. It depends on whether democratic values live strongly in the hearts of the citizens
who inhabit that architecture. These values are both reflected and transmitted through civil
society -- the informal grouping of organizations and associations that bind us together and that
extend the ability of people to participate in the decisions that touch their lives. As the Croatian
writer, Slavenka [Slahv-un-kah] Drakulic [Draw-koo-lich], points out, "for everyday life, the
revolution consists much more of the small things -- of sounds, of looks, and images."
For democracy to succeed, one of those sounds must be the sound of women's vital
voices.
On my visits to Central and Eastern Europe, the sound of these voices has rung through
the air. I heard women of many countries articulating their visions for the world after
communism. Despite the enormous differences between them, everyone seemed to speak the
same mother tongue: The language of freedom.
2
I heard it in Estonia, when I visited a clinic that is the first in that country to offer a broad
range of health services for women.
I heard it in Romania, when I met with teachers who are developing a new pedagogy that
emphasizes civic participation and democratic values.
I heard it in Ukraine, when I met with nurses who had just started their own professional
organization.
I heard it in Hungary, when I visited a center that is helping the minority Roma
community overcome barriers to education, employment, and full participation in Hungarian
society.
I heard it in the Czech Republic, when I met with leaders of non-governmental
organizations who are involved in local projects to protect the rights of children and to safeguard
the environment.
I heard it in Belarus, when I spoke with women health professionals struggling to bring
quality care to the critically ill children of the Chernobyl region.
I heard it in Russia, when I talked with listeners on Radio Nadyezhda [Nah-Djyej-Da], a
women-owned radio station, which broadcasts across that country's vast expanse.
3
I heard it in Poland, when I sat around a table with women who were participating in one
of the simplest, most important of democratic acts -- disagreeing with one other respectfully as
they were debating the issues of the day.
And yes, I heard it in Bosnia, where women told me how they were working to rebuild
their lives and their nation in the face of unspeakable hardship.
Across Central and Eastern Europe, I have heard women's voices. And everywhere I have
heard them, democracy has been that much the stronger.
Two years ago in Beijing, at the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women,
)
representatives from 189 different countries -- including many of you in this room -- came
together to declare, in clear and unequivocal terms, that women's voices must be heard and
respected around the world. We offered a clear proposition: That a nation's progress depends on
the progress of women. That the strength of its political system depends on the inclusion of
women. That the vibrancy of its economy depends on the full contributions of women. That the
richness of its civic life depends on the participation of women. That human rights, simply put,
are women's rights. And that women's rights are human rights.
The Beijing conference sparked changes across the globe -- including in Central and
Eastern Europe.
4
In Slovakia, it inspired a law to guarantee paid maternity leave.
In Albania, it brought about the birth of a parliamentary caucus devoted solely to issues
affecting women.
In Bulgaria, it launched a non-governmental organization to teach judges, lawyers, and
even citizen jurors about the legal rights of women.
In Bosnia, it meant resources for the Muslim women of Srebenica to reconstruct their
town.
In Ukraine, it led to the creation of a government ministry devoted to women's affairs.
In Lithuania, it resulted in new services to support the needs of elderly women.
In Poland, it led to the creation not just of one of the largest microenterprise networks in
the world but of a new agency started this very week supported by the Polish and American
governments and the World Bank whose sole mission is to teach women important new work
skills and then to help them find lasting, well-paying jobs.
5
And yet. And yet despite enormous economic and democratic progress, we know that our
work is far from done. The transition from communism to free markets and democracy has not
been painless for women across Central and Eastern Europe. It would be unrealistic to pretend
otherwise.
Throughout the region, cuts in pensions, child care, kindergartens, and health care mean
women are shouldering a double burden that was heavy enough to begin with.
The oppressive structures of communism have been torn down. At the same time, the
political, judicial and marketplace advocacy organizations that protect women's rights in a
democracy are just now finding their way in the face of truly daunting challenges.
That is why this conference comes at such an important time. For it is enabling us to
share practical ideas and methods to advance the presence of women in the political, legal, and
business spheres. It is giving us a priceless opportunity to exchange views. To learn from each
other. To show how what is working in one place can work in another.
6
This is rarer than you might think. When I am privileged to travel -- in the United States
and abroad -- I try to meet with groups of women for informal discussions. And what always
amazes me is that when we sit down, it is often the first time that these women have been
together. They may live close to each other. They may share the same concerns. But hardly ever
do they get the opportunity to spend time talking with each other. That's a tremendous loss.
Because every single one of these meetings has generated energy and ideas. Each of us here must
take it upon ourselves to let others know the good that can come of forging networks and
alliances among women. Not only will we improve our own lives and those of our families, we
will strengthen civil society and extend our alliance of values across borders and beyond political
differences.
I want to mention one other contribution this conference is making. This conference
offers the most emphatic counterpoint to the communist ethos that I can think of for the simple
reason that it is built on a foundation of honesty and personal responsibility. We confront a
problem head-on. We find solutions. And then we all set out -- as individuals and as
communities -- to repair our world. And most of the time we are restricted by nothing more than
our own human limitations.
The United States is your partner in confronting these challenges.
7
The United States government, largely through the Agency for International
Development, has supported a broad range of programs that provide grants, training, and
technical assistance to citizens working to strengthen democracy at the grassroots. These grants,
awarded to non-governmental organizations, promote civil society: They help local groups
protect the environment, improve health services, spark economic development. They protect
families against the newly emergent threats of crime and drugs. They teach children the basic
democratic values of opportunity, responsibility and community.
They also bolster initiatives designed to help women negotiate this time of transition and
take their rightful place in the lives of their countries. That means teaching lawyers how to
prosecute domestic violence, helping women who live in areas affected by Chernobyl to receive
screening and treatment for cancer, making credit available so women can start small businesses,
advising women's groups on how to raise financial support from the private sector.
Today, we build on that commitment. I have the honor of announcing that the
United States will commit $3 million next year to projects that will directly support the
objectives of this conference. The funds -- entirely new funds -- will be reserved solely for
efforts that help women enter and ascend the realms of politics, law, and business.
Moreover, we will continue to see to it that women have full and complete access to the
entire range of democracy and business programs we support.
8
These efforts -- along with the work of this conference and the work you do every day --
will go a long way toward easing the symptoms of women's inequality.
We know what these symptoms look like in real life. We see them when women are
beaten, sold, denied credit, passed over for promotions, not listened to.
But as we do our utmost to alleviate the symptoms of injustice against women it is
essential that we not lose sight of their root cause: Disrespect for women's spirit as citizens.
One Russian woman I spoke with put it simply, but eloquently: "We're educated," she
said. "But we do not have jobs and we do not have respect."
Here in Vienna in 1993, leaders from around the world gathered to craft the United
Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This is what they called
for: "The universal application to women of the rights and principles with regard to equality,
security, liberty, integrity, and dignity of all human persons."
Though it comes last, that coda -- "dignity" -- is essentially the premise on which the
democratic effort in our home countries will stand or fall.
9
It is time for us as a global community to get it once and for all: We have run out of
excuses not to. Here we are, at the very close of the 20th century, at the heart of a continent that
has been scorched by war time and again. If the history of this century teaches us anything, it is
that whenever the dignity of any group is compromised by a derogation of who they are, of some
essential attribute they possess, then we will leave ourselves open to nightmares.
Conversely, if the century has a lesson for us all that is redeeming, it is that by extending
the circle of citizenship and human dignity to include everyone -- without exception -- we have
the basis for new worlds of hope to flourish.
This conference and others like it are helping us develop a widespread understanding of
the relationship between respecting and honoring women as citizens and the fulfillment of the
promise of democracy. It is giving us a glimpse of what the newsroom and the courtroom, the
corporate board room and the political back room, the factory and the front office, and, most
importantly, the family home, will look like when women are truly honored for the use of their
fullest capacities. That vision is the most transformative of all.
10
In closing, I have to tell you that I stand here in awe. I can only imagine the strength it
took to do what so many of you in this audience have done: To join Charter 77; to march for
Solidarity; to expose human rights abuses; to make freedom's voice carry over the heads of those
of who would silence you. I think of all this and I ask myself how you kept your eyes trained on
this vision of human dignity through those years of totalitarian oppression.
Perhaps the answer lies in a speech that was given in Austria seven years ago -- just after
communism's fall. Part of it goes as follows: "Many of us who, in recent years, strove to speak
the truth in spite of everything were able to maintain an inner perspective, a willingness to
endure, a sense of proportion, an ability to understand and forgive others, and a light heart, only
because we were speaking the truth. Otherwise, we might have perished from despair."
Many of you will recognize Vaclav Havel talking about the totalitarian lies that recently
prevailed in this part of the world, and about those heroic individuals who struggled against
them. But all of us here -- women -- know how these words reflect our own lived experiences,
too: We know these words are true now, and have long been true for those who struggle on
behalf of women's dignity as well.
11
We here know that we get the inner strength to keep fighting the many forms of
opposition that each of us faces in her own country because we know that women's full humanity
is an unshakable God-given truth -- and that democracy itself can never be fulfilled unless
countries come to know and uphold that truth as intimately as they know their own names and
histories.
You who tore down communism did so because you believed in democracy. You who
now fight for women's rights do so because you believe in democracy. One barrier is rubble. The
other is crumbling. With the strength of our commitment and the power of our voices, it, too, will
surely fall.
12
Jama Tellare is hits
AS PREPARED
Humanilan and
american
mustal
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
ph
REMARKS FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
MAY 27, 1997
Princess Margriet; Mrs. Kok; Mayor Patijn; Ambassador and Mrs. Dornbush;
Vim Slootweg of UNICEF; Sylvia Borrem of NOVIB; President Gevres,
Administrators, Faculty, Students, and Friends:
It is an honor to be here. Let me thank UNICEF, Novib and the Atlantic
Pacific Exchange for sponsoring this gathering. This is my first trip to the
Netherlands and I must say that the individuals and groups assembled in this hall are
a testament to the Dutch example of community and partnership: A university that
gives voice to ideas and knowledge and is part of this great city's living history. An
organization that reflects the commitment of nations and governments to securing
our common future by protecting our children. An NGO that brings together public
and private interests to create opportunity for more people worldwide. A foundation
that provides for greater dialogue and understanding between our nations. And of
course, lots of tulips which, for me, just confirms something that you already know:
Social progress and flowers go hand-in-hand.
In a few hours, my husband will arrive in the Netherlands to help mark the
50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan and to help celebrate a legacy of
international commitment and cooperation that is needed just as urgently among our
nations now as it was 50 years ago.
For today, on the eve of a new century, we see even more clearly that the
enduring power of Secretary of State George Marshall's vision rested not solely in
the financial commitment it represented, but in its understanding of our joint
opportunities and responsibilities to create a united, peaceful and democratic
Europe,
1
The Marshall Plan helped restore the economies of nations on this side of a
cruel and arbitrary line that divided the Continent. But just as important, it gave
strength to the democratic ideals upon which prosperity and peace depended:
freedom, opportunity, responsibility, community and respect for human dignity.
It reminded us, through the darkest days of a Cold War, that economic
renewal and the flowering of democracy go hand-in-hand.
Today, we live in a time of great transformation. As promising as the future
is, powerful forces are reshaping our world -- both for good and for ill. And the map
to the future is still filled with uncertain forks in the road, just as it was in
Marshall's day.
One need only read the daily headlines to know that, even as country after
country embraces democracy and free markets, the rapid pace of change, global
competition and the Information Revolution are creating new pressures on every
institution in society, from governments on down to families.
The greatest threat to democracy is no longer a Communist monolith with
imperial designs, but the volatile economic, political and social conditions that have
emerged in the aftermath of the Cold War.
While the superficial homogenization of the world means that people on
every continent wear the same jeans, eat the same fast food, and listen to the same
music, these surface similarities do not override a longing for identity and meaning
in our lives. Despite improving material conditions in advanced economies such as
ours, families seem under greater stress. The gap between rich and poor in many
countries grows wider. The social safety net -- health care, education, pensions,
decent wages and good jobs -- is in danger of fraying for those less able to navigate
this new world.
These pressures pose unavoidable questions for us as we approach the 21 st
century:
2
Questions about how to balance individual and community rights and
responsibilities; about how families will raise children in the face of pressures from
the mass media and the consumer culture; about personal identity and work in an
age of globalization, information overload and high technology; about the roles of
women in society; about how people will be able to preserve their ethnic pride and
value their national citizenship; about how nations will protect their sovereignty
while cooperating regionally and globally with others; about how or whether
multinational corporations will be regulated within or across borders; and about how
governments will combat threats from international cartels and terrorists.
As my husband often says, our challenge as democratic nations is to balance
the competing and sometimes contradictory pressures of global integration and
disintegration.
In the United States and across Europe, there is serious debate underway
about how to achieve that balance -- and particularly, how to sustain economic
growth without tearing at the social fabric.
In my country as in yours, the government is working hard to provide citizens
with the tools of opportunity they need to confront the realities that await them in
the 21 st century. We are working hard to promote disciplined economic policies
while still ensuring that our people are equipped with the education, health and jobs
they need to succeed in a highly competitive world.
This is not to minimize equally pressing concerns of trade, diplomacy, and
defense. We know, for example, that expanding the family of democratic nations in
Europe is vital to our interests individually and collectively as democracies.
However, I would suggest that the future of democracy depends not solely on
our concept of realpolitik between and among nations, but on what I have come to
call real life politik. In other words, building and sustaining democracy is not just
about allowing free elections, creating free markets, and protecting people's legally
protected rights. It's about the internalization of democratic values in people's
hearts, minds and everyday lives. It is about developing an "alliance of values"
based on a shared belief in freedom, opportunity, responsibility, community and
respect for human rights.
3
And it is about every nation rethinking how it can strengthen this alliance of
values by doing more for its own people and for humanity.
You, the Dutch, have understood this better than most. Both when it comes to
investing in your own people and in supporting social investments that improve
the prospects for democracy and prosperity around the world.
Your leadership is reflected not only in the amount of foreign assistance you
provide -- seven-tenths of your gross national product -- but in the public support
such assistance enjoys among your own citizens. This has been an historic
commitment: I recently learned that the first loan John Adams secured for the new
Congress of the United States in 1782 came from banks in Amsterdam.
Surss
Today, the impact of Dutch assistance is felt around the world. In Bosnia.
Among refugees in Central Africa. In the special attention you have paid to health,
health, education, and women's issues at home and abroad.
Given this long tradition of social investments, I am especially proud of the
collaborative efforts between our governments and their development programs to
enable people the world over to take responsibility, seize opportunities and live up
to their God-given promise.
Two years ago I had the privilege of speaking at the United Nations Summit
on Social Development in Copenhagen. What I said at the time, and what I believe
is equally true today, is that social investments are as critical to democracy and
prosperity around the world as free markets and trade.
But as we think of ways to protect our most vulnerable citizens at a time of
increased global competition
as we consider the best strategies for creating
conditions that can encourage individual initiative and a vibrant civic life
as we
seek to ensure human rights, especially for women and children
we must also
recognize that solutions cannot be solely government-driven or market-driven. They
must reflect a balance of public, private, and individual power.
From the great capitals of Central Europe to villages in Africa, I have seen
how social investments are giving more people, especially women, the chance to
participate fully in the political, economic, social and civic lives of their countries.
4
And more often than not, I have seen that such investments are the result of
innovative public-private partnerships sponsored by groups like NOVIB and other
non-governmental organizations, UNICEF, corporations, foundations, and
governments.
When I was in Central Europe last summer, I saw how the development of
NGOs was becoming synonymous with the burgeoning of civil society. Grass roots
organizations were building the pillars of democracy by helping to strengthen the
free press, create an independent judiciary, establish a civics pedagogy for teachers,
up
steward the environment, and honor the rights of all citizens, including minorities.
I\saw the same grass roots efforts in a village in Senegal, where women
performed a skit that taught local villagers about the importance of participating in
local politics and taking responsibility for their common concerns.
From India to Uganda, I have seen a growing commitment to the education of
girls. Economic prosperity is simply not possible when half of the population is not
taught to read and write. And no investment yields greater rewards in developing
nations than investments in the schooling of girls. I have seen myself how education
has lifted whole populations out of poverty, enhanced women's roles as mothers,
and increased their participation in civic life.
Equal rights and equal opportunities for women must also mean increasing
access to health care and valuing women for the work they do.
Recently I was in Central America, where government leaders, private
economists, and business people are recognizing that expanding economic
opportunity to those on the margins -- especially women is essential to democratic
progress. No wonder microcredit is finally finding its rightful place as a vital tool in
the alleviation of poverty and the building of democracy around the world.
Throughout the developing world, we have also seen the transformation that
can occur when women have access to health care, including family planning. Not
only do such programs givs women the chance to determine the number of children
they have, they help reduces maternal mortality. And family planning is shown to
have positive economic effects, enabling families to become more prosperous and
thus improving the prosperity of nations as well.
5
In places as distant as Brazil and Zimbabwe I saw family planning programs
that brought education and resources to people too long deprived of what most of us
take for granted. And I am pleased that the United States Agency for International
Development is working with your government in the Philippines on a program for
medical education in reproductive, maternal and child health.
We have also witnessed in recent years the toll that ethnic conflict and civil
strife have taken on the world's poor and disadvantaged, especially women. In
Bosnia. In Rwanda. In other areas where the cataclysmic effects of violence and war
leave their greatest scars on women and children.
Here again, I commend the Dutch people for recognizing that those of us who
care about democracy have an obligation to help people rebuild their lives when
3-4
history and circumstances have conspired against them.
And I want to offer special thanks for the Dutch role in drawing world
attention to the tragic abuse and exploitation of children. You have galvanized many
people and many nations to respond to that challenge, as I have seen from Thailand,
to Brazil, to Nepal, where programs are working to rescue girls and boys from
bondage, sexual exploitation, and abuse in sweatshops and factories.
Although I am not a student of Dutch history, I do know that your country has
long been a leader in upholding the ideals of tolerance and respect for individual
dignity and in promoting the common good. One reason that these values have
thrived here is that you seem to have an uncommon capacity to achieve consensus,
even in the face of serious problems. In fact, I recently read an article in which a
leading Dutch economist, discussing the "polder economy," said that "a tradition of
consensus runs deep in the Dutch psyche."
It is a tradition that every nation would do well to learn from as we confront
the political, social and economic challenges of a new century. Cooperation,
partnership, and a belief in our shared future is as essential to us now as it was when
this continent was emerging from the ruins of war a half century ago.
Later today, I will visit the house on Prisengracht Street where Anne Frank
and her family hid during the Second World War. Tomorrow, I will travel with my
husband to The Hague for the commemoration of the Marshall Plan.
6
At each stop, I know I will gain greater insight into the unique role this
country has played in moving us closer to a world in which peace, justice, and
freedom prevail. And I will leave for home on Thursday with a new appreciation of
the ties that have existed between our nations -- from the time the Dutch traders
arrived in New York in 1609 to our joint efforts to bring peace and democracy to
Bosnia and Haiti in the 1990s.
Benjamin Franklin once said: "In love of liberty and in defense of it, Holland
has been our example." And I might add, the world's example. With your continued
leadership -- and with the continued cooperation of our friends across this continent
and around the globe -- we will fulfill George Marshall's vision in a lasting
testament to humanity.
Thank you.
###
7
AS PREPARED
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPETOWN
CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH 20, 1997
Vice Chancellor Ramphele, Deputy Vice Chancellor West, administrators,
faculty, students, distinguished guests and friends:
Greetings to the people of the new South Africa.
It is an honor to join you at this great citadel of learning, the University of
Capetown. And I am especially grateful to be here with Dr. Ramphele, whose
contributions to education, medicine, anthropology, and the struggle for human
rights make her a role model not only for young people in South Africa, but for
young people throughout the world.
Little could have prepared me for the swell of emotions I have felt on this
visit. When I was last in South Africa, for President Mandela's inauguration
three years ago, I was moved beyond words by the spirit of forgiveness and
reconciliation that seemed to embrace this land. Today my heart is stirred anew
by the patience and perseverance with which South Africans are uniting to build
a strong and lasting democracy.
The human zeal for freedom is a remarkable thing. Just in the last ten
years, we have seen men and women unlock the bonds of tyranny and seek their
own destinies from the Czech Republic, where a Velvet Revolution peacefully
loosened decades of iron-fisted rule and paved the way for a newly democratic
Central Europe; to Estonia, where men and women yearning for democracy
literally sang their way to freedom; to Mongolia, where nearly a century of
domination and oppression at the hands of dictatorship could not suppress the
popular will for self-expression and self-rule.
And today in Africa, we find country after country becoming a touchstone
of democracy and freedom.
History has taught us that no nation -- and no continent -- has a monopoly
1
on tragedy or evil. We have learned from instances too numerous to count that
human beings of all backgrounds, persuasions, and geographies have an equal
capacity for depravity. But so too have we learned that from disaster and
calamity can spring the noblest acts of courage, selflessness and human decency.
Who could have imagined just a short decade ago that the blood and tears
of Uganda would soon give way to the warm embrace of peace and democracy?
Who could have imagined years of civil war in the Horn of Africa would
lead to the birth of a new democratic nation called Eritrea -- and that women
freedom fighters would help lead the way?
Who could have imagined that a country like Mozambique, whose people
had known nothing but war and civil strife, would itself become an example of
national healing and unity?
Yet nowhere has the triumph of the human spirit -- the power of love to
conquer hate -- been greater than in South Africa. Here, the spirit of
reconciliation has enabled a nation of diverse peoples to overcome forty
stubborn and violent years of apartheid and begin the difficult journey to
democracy.
Just think of the progress we human beings could make if that same spirit
of reconciliation echoed in all corners of the world -- in the streets of Belfast, the
killing fields of Burundi, the countryside of Bosnia. You, the people of South
Africa, are teaching countless others that, as interdependence is the inescapable
condition of humankind, so is tolerance the greatest weapon for peace.
When he spoke on this campus 31 years ago, Robert F. Kennedy reminded
us that "it is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human
history is shaped."
And it is those acts by individuals as much as any action by your
government that will determine the success of your new democracy.
South Africans and Americans live in countries which represent great
experiments in multi-racial democracy that depend on the human heart's deepest
reservoirs of good will and forgiveness and the human spirit's capacity for
progress.
2
The consciences of both our nations have been seared by racial inequality
and injustice. And yet, often against great odds, our people have searched inside
themselves and found ways to forgive the wrongs of an ugly past to create a
future of promise and reconciliation.
In his Second Inaugural Address, delivered at the end of a Civil War that
claimed more American lives than all other conflicts in United States history
combined, President Abraham Lincoln urged a divided nation to forgive, heal
and unite around a common humanity.
He said: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in
the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we
are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the
battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations".
Surely American history would have been different if President Lincoln
had lived to lead us on our journey of truth, forgiveness and reconciliation.
One hundred years later, another great American, Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., lent his words, actions and moral weight to a non-violent crusade for civil
rights that moved our country ever closer to the ideals of democracy.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that," Dr. King
declared. "Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."
Here in South Africa, the message of reconciliation and forgiveness has
found many eloquent messengers whose names are well-known to you and the
world: among them President Mandela and Archbishop Tutu. But the success of
this great experiment in nation-building depends ultimately on each citizen --
people whose names never appear in the newspaper, but whose acts of courage
and belief are just as sure to guide South Africa's future.
As President Mandela once explained: "We are all 'warmed by the same
summer' and 'chilled by the same winter.' And it is recognition of that common
humanity that shall bond us into a nation."
Today, we Americans find inspiration in the generous and forgiving spirit
that has won you this democracy -- and we find inspiration in the democratic
institutions that have come to life here in just a few short years.
3
We find inspiration in your progressive new Constitution, which is being
distributed around the country this week, and especially in the rights it enshrines
for women and children.
We find inspiration in the work you are undertaking in every sector of
society to build your new nation. We have an old saying in America that idle
hands are the Devil's work. From what I have seen in just a few short days, the
Devil will have no help here. South Africa is a coutnry that is too busy to hate.
In all of these ways, your experience in South Africa reminds us just how
precious freedom, peace and democracy are -- and how we all have a stake in
their success around the globe.
I hope that you, too, can find some inspiration in America's experience.
For we Americans can offer you a reminder that democracy is a
complicated business -- as complicated and hard to manage as human nature
itself. We have been striving to perfect it for more than 200 years -- without any
assurance that we will ever fully succeed. And yet we keep working at it because
nothing is more precious to us than the freedoms our ancestors struggled to win -
- and struggled to preserve.
Now South Africa is building a multi-racial society rooted in human rights
-- and nourished in the fertile soil of reconciliation and forgiveness.
And I have been privileged to witness some of your efforts.
Yesterday, I had the chance to join Archbishop Tutu at a meeting of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission here in Capetown. In the most ordinary of
conference rooms, people are undertaking the most extraordinary of efforts:
They are working to complete South Africa's healing. They are seeing to it that
South Africans fully understand their past, so that they may also create a future
in which every citizen finally has the opportunity to live up to his or her God-
given promise.
As important as it is to weave history into your memory, it is just as
important to weave women into the fabric of everyday life. For neither this
democracy, nor any other, can flourish if half of the population is unschooled,
unskilled, unfed, unhealthy or unheard.
It is clear that you know that. In Soweto, I met a principal at a primary
4
school who is working overtime to get much needed resources for her students.
a teacher who will not rest until every child in her class has mastered the
basics of English
a woman at an orphanage a few miles away who gave up
her own job to keep the home open when the government cut off funding in
1977. She was motivated by the belief that every child deserves love, a sense of
belonging, and the simple necessity of a safe place to sleep.
In Johannesburg, I met with women social workers, psychologists, law
enforcement experts, politicians and grass-roots activists who are working to end
the plagues of domestic violence and child abuse, which afflict not only your
country, but mine and many others. (And let me say that we all owe thanks to the
women of Africa for focusing international attention on domestic violence and
putting it on the agenda, first at the United Nations Conference on Women in
Nairobi, and later in Beijing.)
But perhaps the best illustration I have seen of how women are rooting
democracy in South Africa is found in a patch of land in Cape Town that I
visited yesterday.
It's a brown, dusty place once occupied by squatters. Understandably, the
women there were not satisfied with their situations. They wanted to do better
for themselves and their families. So, after hearing about a housing program in
India, they formed their own local housing and credit association. Before long,
they requested and received information from government officials about how to
lay a foundation for a house. They put in a sewer line. With money saved
through the association, and some support from the government, they bought
shovels, wheelbarrows, paint, and cement.
And together they worked. And worked. And worked.
Today, they have completed 18 houses. And they are building more.
Now some of you may be wondering: What does a house-building project
for squatter women have to do with democracy?
As the women themselves said in a song they sang while I was there:
Strength, money and knowledge -- we cannot do anything without them.
Here in South Africa, you are showing the world that democracy will
succeed only if every citizen -- black, white, or coloured; man, woman, or child
-- enjoys the full political, economic, social and civic power that he or she is due.
5
The task before each and every one of you whether you are in
government, whether you run a business, whether you teach, whether you
minister to your people, or whether you farm the land -- is to help translate one
of the greatest political triumphs of this century into social and economic
conditions that mean better lives for all South Africans.
Forty years of institutionalized inequality and injustice are hard to
overcome. Yet even in my brief stay I have seen men and women who are
joining together to make democracy work for all citizens by ensuring that
children are afforded the chance to pursue their dreams, especially the dream of
education; that women are not relegated to the margins of society; that relations
among racial groups are expanded and strengthened; that the climate is right for
businesses to prosper; that all South Africans are free of violence and crime in
and out of their homes; and that every man, woman and child is treated with the
respect and dignity they deserve.
President Mandela and his government should be applauded for pursuing
a program of reconstruction and development that seeks to make the
transformation to democracy complete on all fronts. They are working hard to
erase inequities in health care and education and to assure that women have a
voice in charting the future of their country. They are working to reduce crime,
strengthen the economy, and give all people the tools they need to succeed in a
democratic society.
I want all of you to know that as Americans we celebrate your
accomplishments. And we want to be partners in securing your democratic
future.
To that end, President Clinton has pledged an additional $19 million
through the United States Agency for International Development to assist
President Mandela's teacher training initiative; and $87 million in USAID
assistance this year for housing, health care, and business development
initiatives.
One of the most tangible signs of our new partnership is the Binational
Commission chaired by Deputy President Mbeki and Vice Presiden Gore. Last
year, they signed an agreement to cooperate to fight crime. As a result, the
United States is providing funding this year to assist South African law
enforcement agencies with criminal justice expertise and training.
6
We are working together to improve the business environment by
lowering taxes and tariffs so that bilateral trade can thrive, creating jobs for the
people of South Africa and the United States.
South Africans and Americans are also learning from each other through
education, medical and cultural exchanges at colleges and universities, as well as
fellowships at some of our leading scientific institutions. In addition to funding
from USAID, many of these programs are supported by corporations,
foundations and universities themselves.
And let me deliver one more piece of good news. Today I am announcing
that the United States is expanding support for the campaign to eradicate polio in
Africa by the year 2000. Initiated by the World Health Organization's Regional
Office for Africa, the "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign is a partnership in
the truest sense. It involves national and local governments, non-governmental
organizations, businesses, and bilateral donors. It is led by your President. And,
thanks in part to his visionary leadership, extraordinary progress was made on
this front last year.
It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the United States is committing
an additional $16 million, through USAID, to assist in this vital effort to bring
better health to the people of Africa. With us today are representatives from key
organizations in this important partnership.
Each of these investments reflects our belief that the future of this country,
and this continent, are inextricably linked to the futures of countries throughout
the world. It reflects our belief that peace and prosperity can and will prevail for
all of us in a new century. Most of all, it reflects the faith we have in you -- and
in the democratic path that you have chosen to follow at this difficult time of
transformation.
That said, I must add that there are no panaceas, no quick fixes, in the
march to democracy and a free market economy. Democracy's success in South
Africa will not depend solely on free elections, open markets, or government
policies. It will not depend solely on foreign investment. It will depend as much
on the internalization of democratic values in people's hearts, minds and
everyday lives.
For those of you who are students, perhaps your experience at this
university can serve as a guide. Universities, after all, are where we learn about
the importance of responsibility and community. They are training grounds for
7
individual freedom. They are incubators of ideas. They are repositories of free
speech and free thought. And ultimately they are a collective meeting point for
individuals of different attitudes, interests and aspirations. They are places where
we test the balance between individual and community rights, where we struggle
to find the right balance between "me" and "we."
This university has always been a vanguard of change. Now you have a
chance to help create a new South Africa. You have a chance to shape the course
of history.
The world is watching. The democratic world is with you. It has been
given to you -- as to few other peoples in history -- to hold in your hands your
own futures, and the future and dreams of countless of millions of others
everywhere.
May God bless each and every one of you, and all of the people of this
great country as you realize your destiny.
###
8
DRAFT
REMARKS FOR SPEECH IN HONOR OF JOYCE MCCARTEN
OCTOBER '97, UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER
Greetings and thank you. It is a great pleasure to be back in
Northern Ireland, to visit with your president, Mary Robinson, and
to reunite with so many of the courageous women and men whom I met
when I first came here two years ago with my husband. Once again,
you've made me feel so welcome. It's also a great privilege to
participate in this lecture series in honor of one of Ireland's
great peace makers -- Joyce McCarten. Thank you for inviting me.
I find it a particularly eloquent tribute that this event in her
memory is being held at such an historic moment in Irish history --
as the leaders of Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant
communities are sitting down for the first time in over 25 years to
discuss how to end a generation of violence. It's a milestone that
so many of you have longed for so deeply, and worked for so hard.
I believe -- as I'm sure you do -- that this first effort toward a
lasting peace would not have taken place without the tenacity and
courage of women like Mary Robinson and Joyce McCarten.
As some of you may know, I met Joyce during my 1995 visit here, and
spent an afternoon with her and a number of other women at the
restaurant Ye Olde Lamplighter, which is part of the Women's
Information Drop-In Center that she helped found. She told me
about the work of the Center, and how her efforts to bring Catholic
and Protestant women together for peace had evolved into plans to
strengthen the local economy. Joyce understood how the struggle
for peace must also overcome the deep-rooted causes of violence:
poverty, limited education, and joblessness. She knew she had to
empower women in their own lives in order to promote the cause of
peace and justice in her country.
As we talked, I could see that as much pain and suffering as Joyce
and the other women with us had endured over the years, as they
watched their sons, husbands, brothers and friends lose their lives
in this terrible struggle, that her vision was always toward the
future. She was on a mission to promote understanding, to save
lives, to preserve families, to defy history.
While I had never met Joyce before, I felt, in a strange way, that
I had met her many times, and seen her compassion in other eyes as
well. Her yearning for a more peaceful and democratic world
resonates through the ages, and stretches across the globe.
Joyce follows in the well-worn footsteps of strong and courageous
Irish women over the years -- women like Betty Williams, Mairead
Corrigan, and so many others, who despite the unbearable loss and
pain in their own lives, have spoken out in the universal language
of reconciliation and non violence.
Mothers. Wives. Daughters. Ordinary citizens. Their insistent
voices for peace -- raised sometimes in a roar, sometimes in a
whispered prayer -- have inspired women around the world to pursue
-2-
their claims for more open, democratic, and peaceful communities.
And this chorus can be heard today, in the Middle East, in Bosnia,
in Haiti, and wherever people are working to end the violence and
start the healing in their families and nations.
As First Lady, I've been privileged to travel widely overseas, and
have met the world's top leaders. Yet it's often in small
communities -- sitting around a kitchen table or at a local
workplace, and talking with women like Joyce about how they're
improving their lives and strengthening their families -- where
I've learned the most valuable lessons. And one of those lessons
is the central role that women are playing -- and have always
played -- in the building and sustaining of democracy around the
world.
When we talk about democracy, we talk about the highest of ideals:
freedom of religion; freedom of association; freedom of speech and
the press; freedom to participate fully in the civic and political
life of your country. But democracy is also about every citizen
having equal access to education, health care, jobs, and credit.
Democracy is about upholding human dignity, and giving people
choices. And it confers to every individual the right to live up to
his or her God-given potential.
Democracy, in other words, is the fulfillment of our deepest
yearnings to live in a just and peaceful world, and it speaks a
universal language of hope. Our poets seem to best capture this
profound sense of longing. And here, I'd like to draw on one of
America's great poets and an African American women, Maya Angelou,
who stands as a powerful and often painful reminder of America's
own struggles - past and present -- to gain civil rights and human
dignity for every citizen. She writes: "The caged bird sings with
a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still; and his
tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of
freedom."
Yet what we've learned over the years is that these lofty ideals
and beautiful words are only made real through the every day
efforts of ordinary citizens. Yes, we need the laws and a system
of justice that upholds those laws. But democracy is nurtured and
sustained in the hearts of people; in the principles they stand
for; in the way they conduct their daily lives; and in the lessons
they teach their children before they tuck them into bed at night.
And that's the profound yet simple lesson that Joyce McCarten and
so many women understood so well. These grass roots struggles
against sectarian violence teach us, once again, that democracy
calls us to live peacefully with people who are different from
ourselves -- whether they live across the street or on the other
side of the world. That love of family runs deeper than calls to
hatred. That faith can bring us together instead of divide us. And
that an extraordinary power is unleashed when ordinary women reach
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out to their neighbors to find common ground, and are empowered to
begin solving problems in their own communities.
The power of ordinary women making extraordinary contributions to
peace was again recognized by the world a few weeks ago, when the
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an American activist, Jody
Williams, who helped lead the international campaign to ban
landmines. Like Joyce McCarten, she didn't have a large office or
major funding: her effectiveness lay in her ability to organize
people in a grass roots campaign around a common cause: to protect
the world's children.
But today, while we celebrate these women for their invaluable work
on behalf of peace and democracy, we must also begin to acknowledge
the contributions of others whose names we do not know, and whose
work still goes unheralded. By putting the spotlight on women
working in the front lines, we will broaden the lens of our own
understanding about what it takes to sustain the spirit and
institutions of democracy around the world.
The women I've met here in Northern Ireland who are working with
young people to break the cycle of hatred are surely at the
forefront of the fight for democracy. Because what does freedom
mean if we can't overcome division and suspicion, and find our
common humanity?
Women involved in microcredit operations in small rural villages in
Bangladesh, India, Nicaragua, and Chile, are in the business of
strengthening democracy. Because what does freedom mean if people
don't have equal access to the financial resources that enable them
to gain independence and self sufficiency?
Women in South Africa and in some of America's inner cities who
have set up domestic violence councils are contributing to the
strengthening of democracy. Because what does freedom mean if a
woman is afraid to leave her home, or protect her children, because
of a violent husband or lover?
Women in Zimbabwe and Bolivia who are setting up rural health
clinics are champions of democracy. Because what does freedom mean
if families are denied access to basic health care services, and
women are denied the right to plan their own families?
Women in Romania and Estonia who are leading electoral education
projects are on the front lines of democracy. Because what does
freedom mean if people are ignorant about the procedures for
electing their own representatives?
And women in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Thailand who are campaigning
for the right of girls to get an education are making an invaluable
contribution to democracy in their countries. Because what does
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freedom mean if women are denied the knowledge and opportunity to
participate in the free flow of ideas?
Women are not only critical to advancing democracy and free market
economies in every corner of the globe. They are redefining the
very notion of what we mean by a democratic society.
Historically, however, these efforts have been overlooked and under
appreciated. It's time to bring their achievements out in the open
and to celebrate them as well. In fact, I see a growing part of my
work now, as I travel around my own country and other nations, is
to pull back the curtain on women's emerging roles in promoting
democracy.
Doing so is important for two reasons. First, the efforts of women
to build strong families, to reach out to others different from
themselves, to teach their children tolerance and compassion, and
to empower themselves and others to lead productive and independent
lives, should be recognized for the simple reason that we can all
learn from them, and be inspired by their efforts.
But more importantly, democracy cannot flourish if women aren't
full partners in the social, economic, political and civic lives
of their communities and nations. Validating their contributions
will help deepen movements for change, and ensure greater progress
toward democracy. Women are the world's greatest untapped
resource. We must begin to unleash the full power of their vast
potential.
In the last presidential election in the United States in 1996,
people were surprised that so much attention was being given to
"women's issues." All of a sudden, the swing vote was in the hands
of "soccer moms" who were talking about the stress of parenthood or
drugs in school or the lack of quality day care for their children.
But why should this have surprised us? The topics that women talk
about around the kitchen table -- whether it's in a small town in
Chile or a row house in Belfast -- are in fact the issues that we
need to listen to the closest.
Women are concerned with questions that impact the entire
community: how to balance work and family; how to improve the local
public school; how to stretch their budgets to cover the rent; how
to protect a neighbor who is the victim of domestic abuse. They
want to stop the violence on TV; and they want to teach their
children to play with kids who are different from them. Yet when
I talk about many of these issues, they are often dismissed as
"marginal," or only "women's issues." During the United Nations
Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing a few years ago,
I said that women's rights were human rights, and human rights were
women's rights. Yet that unremarkable statement set off a
firestorm of controversy.
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When will people understand that the concerns of women and families
are universal concerns that are at the heart of our civil society?
When will people understand that strong families and nurturing
communities form the foundations of a free nation? When will
people understand that solving problems like day care and health
care and education and teen violence -- still called "women's
issues" -- will be the most critical test of our entire generation?
Today, we face a daunting challenge. The most formidable threat to
democracy is no longer a communist monolith with imperial designs.
It's the volatile economic and social conditions that come with the
growing disparity of poor and wealthy; with ongoing discrimination
and bigotry; and with the collapse of the old order. Democracy is
weakened wherever there's the dissolving of a sense of community.
And democracy is threatened whenever and wherever the full
partnership of women is held back.
We must strengthen the laws and institutions and alliances that
uphold the principles of democracy and freedom -- in our own
countries and in fledgling democracies around the world. Perhaps
most importantly, we must keep the spirit of democracy -- our
deepest hopes for a better future -- alive.
No one has to remind the women of Ireland how rocky and hard is
this path toward justice, or how fragile are these efforts toward
peace. Yet if there's anything we've learned, it's the willful
determination of women here and around the world to listen to the
message of their hearts, and to persuade others to respond to their
better angels. Your gifted Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, claims for
poetry this special power: "the power to persuade that vulnerable
part of our consciousness of its rightness, in spite of the
evidence of wrongness all around it." I would say that women too
hold that power.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said that "The future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams." It's difficult to imagine
a more compelling beauty than a true and lasting peace here in
Northern Ireland. Please know that women around the world stand by
you as you take the risks for peace. The future belongs to you, and
as you pursue it, may God hold all of you in the palm of his hand.
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO THE WOMEN OF ARGENTINA
COLON THEATER
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
October 16, 1997
Thank you, Mrs. Schiavoni.
To all of you -- Ambassadors, Ministers, Representatives, of the federal and local
government, academicians, business women, homemakers, artists, teachers -- to all of you, I
thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today. I would like to exte nd a special
thanks to the staff of the United States Embassy, but particularly to the National Council of
Women and their staff for the outstanding work that was done to make this gathering
possible, and I believe we should show appreciation to Mrs. Schi avoni and all associated
with the National Council of Women by another round of applause. Thank you.
I also understand I should give a special greeting to all the mothers in the audience, on the
eve of Mother's Day, and I do so.
I am, as you may know, an empty-nest mother now, and I called my daughter last night to
tell her that I had seen just a small sample of tango, because she loves dance of all forms
and wrote a paper in Latin American history on tango and its origins, so I was so pleased to
be able to tell her what my husband and I had done on our first night together here in this
beautiful city.
I must confess that it is somewhat awe-inspiring to be in this magnificent theater on a stage
that has been graced by Domingo and Carusso and Callas. I am almost tempted to sing, but
in the interest of preserving warm ties between our countries, I will refrain.
But I would like to talk about voices, powerful voices, the voices of women in this country
and my country, throughout our hemisphere and our world, and what we can do to make all
of our voices heard. To have our voices heard about our shared commitment to advancing
the cause of women's rights, advancing the cause of democracy, and making clear that the
two are inseparable.
I can think of no better place to do that than in Argentina. The women of Argentina have
long been pioneers on the frontiers of human rights and equality.
From the Argentine Beneficent Society to the National Women's Council to the
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo -- with whom I will meet shortly, you and your
foremothers have forged a remarkable record of speaking up in your communities, caring
for those who cannot help themselves, opening the doors of education to boys and girls,
lifting up lives and voices for democracy and human rights.
We are pursuing our goals of equality at a moment in history that is full of hope, a time ripe
for positive social change. Countries that were once paralyzed by debt or runaway inflation
have embarked on tough reforms and are now on the move.
Economic renewal has been accompanied by democratic transformation. Across the
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Americas, military dictatorships have given way to freely elected governments. For the first
time in decades millions of people enjoy the right to choose their own leaders, t o engage
actively in political life, to speak frankly, to meet in support or opposition to a cause, and to
form opinions based on information gathered by a free and inquiring press.
Yet we know that democracy, whether newly rooted or centuries old, is fragile. The process
of building and tending democracy is ongoing. Democracy flourishes when its principles are
internalized in the hearts and minds of all people, when no one fears t he consequences of
standing up or speaking out for justice. And democracy thrives when women are not barred
by law, by ignorance, by tradition or by intimidation from making their voices heard at the
ballot box, and from pursuing their most cherished dre ams.
In short, empowering ever-more women to seek and claim their rights as citizens and as
human beings will ensure that democracies -- yours and mine, old and new survive and
thrive in the twenty-first century.
bome
mens
The word "empowerment," I am told, does not translate well. But I am sure that every
woman gathered here knows its meaning. Empowerment means the right to participate in
the political and economic life of our countries. Empowerment means being able to lead
lives free of sexual and domestic violence. It means access to justice under law, to
education, to health care, to credit and property ownership:
Empowering women makes sure our voices are heard and we are treated as full citizens in
our countries.
No nation can hope to succeed in our global economy if half of its people lack the
opportunity and the right to make the most of their God-given promise. And, as we can all
attest, in too many countries, my own as well, too many rights are still denied a nd too many
doors of opportunity still remain tightly closed.
Too many women and children are trapped either in an endless cycle of poverty a cycle
perpetuated by inadequate health care, poor access to family planning, and limited education
or they are trapped inside social constructs that impoverish their spi rits and limit their
dreams.
Too many women are unable to participate in the economic lives of their countries because
they cannot get credit on their own to start small businesses.
Too many women live in fear of violence at the hands of family members. For them, home
provides no refuge, the law no protection, and public opinion no sympathy.
Too many women, especially those who are poor and less educated, are unaware of their
legal rights in the workplace, of their rights to own and inherit property, of their rights to
vote and choose their leaders. While these laws may exist on the books, t 00 many
governments have not enforced them and too few women have been made aware of them.
Such problems as these may be daunting, but their solutions are in full view. Across the
Americas, from Boston to Buenos Aires, there are cutting-edge, common-sense initiatives to
give girls and women access to what I call the tools of opportunity: educa tion, decent
health care, legal protections, and credit. These efforts prove that women can be empowered
to lift themselves, their children, families, and communities out of poverty.
Educa
Let me begin with education. for nothing outside the family is more central to advancing the
cause of girls and women. And Argentina has long recognized that fact.
Our two nations have a history of warm ties. One of the most notable was the friendship
between Horace Mann, the father of public education in the United States, and President
Domingo Sarmiento, the father of education in Argentina, who was ahead of his time with
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his deeply held belief that girls should attend school.
The fruits of his conviction are there for the world to see today: In Argentina's strong and
established system of education. In a literacy rate of 96 percent. And in a primary school
completion rate of 90 percent.
Other countries in the Americas are rededicating themselves to improving access to and the
quality of education for all their citizens as you have long done. Education will be the
centerpiece of the Second Summit of the Americas in Santiago next April, a nd it will
highlight models that are working.
Yesterday in Sao Paulo, for example, I saw an elementary school in one of the city's poorest
neighborhoods. For years, the school struggled. Many students were not learning and most
did not stay in school. Fortunately, the business community, recogniz ing the importance of
education, got involved, and created the Institute for Quality Education. Working with the
local government, parents, and teachers, they have transformed the school. Teachers who
themselves may not have finished high school have no W received additional training.
Students were tested. Parents were encouraged to get involved. In less than a year, test
scores in mathematics and language went up more than 200 percent. Even in countries like
ours, Argentina and the United States whe re we don't face such daunting challenges as
Brazil does, we have to do more to improve the quality of education in both urban and rural
areas and to ensure that all students have access to information technology. Concentrating
on education and insuring that all the children of the hemisphere have a chance to learn will
be the most important way that we can enable all of our economies to grow and flourish.
And an economy that grows and flourishes in Argentina or in the United States is good for
their citizens and for other neighboring countries' citizens. But if we can create the capital of
education in all the other countries in the hemisphere, that too i S good for Argentina and the
United States.
Another tool of opportunity is Microenterprise, Microenterprise provides small loans to
people, mostly women, who would not otherwise receive them. This concept started in Asia
about 20 years ago when it was determined that a very small amount of money given to a
hard-working woman who might be landless and totally ignorant, but she had skills that
were marketable -- she knew how to sew, she knew how to plant crops, she could do things
with a little bit of credit that could bring income into her f amily.
I have seen all over the world how access to such credit sparks a woman's entrepenurial
spirit. Just in the last week I have seen two more examples here in our own hemisphere. In
Panama I visited a group of women who, with a small grant from the United States Agency
for International Development, started a business in a small village growing plants and
seedlings to sell in city markets and also to sell to the Panamanian government's
reforestation programs.
Now here is something that women have known for the millennia -- how to tend and nurture
plant life. Women have held the secrets of medicinal plants and herbs. There are so many
women throughout this hemisphere with those kinds of skills. To create a m arket for their
product gives them a chance to use their skills to earn income to improve the standard of
living of their families, and that is what I saw. Within two years, these women had sold
enough orchids, medicinal plants and seedlings to expand t heir business. They had also
furnished enough seedlings to restore 48 acres in one of Panama's national parks; and I
talked with women who were using their new income to improve their homes and send their
children to school.
I met an equally impressive group of women in Caracas. I entered an ordinary-looking
building in one of what I was told to be one of the worst neighborhoods in Caracas. And
yet, in this very well-kept space, sitting on an open-air, rooftop terrace, talk ing with these
women, I was very moved and impressed. The walls were adorned with weavings and art
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works that they had made. As a light breeze blew in, one woman told me how she had
started a thriving taxi company. She knew how to drive, she was respo nsible and
hard-working, there was no transportation adequate to the numbers of people in her
community, so she had this idea but no one would give her the credit to purchase the van
that she needed until she came to this Microenterprise Institute. She S aid that when she
finally got her own business, it was as if "the sky had opened up."
Another woman used a small loan to expand her juice stand that she ran with her husband.
Then a few years later she had a restaurant and a butcher shop employing ten people. She
had even been able to send one of her children to university a woman who had never
finished primary school. She said the loan had given her the opportunity "to spread her
wings."
Now these are not unique stories. I have met similar women in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, in
Bolivia and Chile and Mexico, and I know they are here in Argentina and in my country as
well.
Because a real job is the best form of social welfare, microenterprise works for the
individual, the family, and society. And the more we can expand credit, to both women and
men who appear on the surface to have no collateral, to be poor, but who have S kills that
keep them going every day in the hard lives that they face, the more we will create free and
broader markets that will enhance the economies of our countries.
Access to quality health care especially family planning and reproductive health services
is also crucial to advancing the progress of women. I have seen first-hand, as I know
many of you have, what happens when women are given access to such healt h services.
Just two days ago in Brazil, I witnessed the signing of an agreement between my
government and two Brazilian state governments to support a family planning initiative.
This came about because two years ago I visited a maternity hospital in Salvador de Bahia,
Brazil, and I saw men and women getting the information they would need to enable them
to make wise choices about planning their families. I saw mothers cradling their new-born
babies in the hallways as they stood in line for their check-ups. I S aw young women, very
100%
pregnant, waiting for their pre-natal check-up. I saw infants were getting immunization. T
saw parents were being taught what to feed their young children and how to care for them.
And I also saw wards of women who were there becau se they had not received good quality
health care.
In short, family planning and reproductive health programs were integrated in that hospital
into maternal and child health services And talked with a number of mothers, as well as
with the Minister of Health, who told me that for the first time they felt they could
adequatély care for the children they had, that they could invest in those children not only
their love but other resources as well.
The result of a program like that was that rates of maternal mortality and, importantly, rates
of abortion decreased because women received the health care they needed in a timely
manner and furthermore, as the Minister of Health, an esteemed medical doct or and
university professor, told me, for the first time poor women received the same health
services that rich women have always been able to receive for themselves.
This approach of integrating the services and reaching out to poor women and men has
proven so successful that it has been adopted as a hemisphere-wide strategy to reduce
maternal mortality, and was announced at the First Ladies of the Americas Conference in La
Paz last year
Now the promotion and expansion of women's legal and political rights may, perhaps, be
the most difficult challenge we face. And yet slowly but surely we are witnessing the
emergence of legal reforms that will raise the status of women in the home and in society.
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Domestic and sexual violence against women remains one of the most serious and
under-reported human rights violations in the Americas. In country after country, we are
finally bringing out into the light of day what has been thought to be a private matte r. In
Argentina, women have worked to incorporate domestic abuse issues in police training, and
I applaud you. Many countries now have human rights ombudsmen with special offices
dedicated to protecting the rights of women. In Panama, legislators ha ve reformed the
Family Code to better regulate such matters as alimony, child support and child custody.
And in the United States, we have introduced comprehensive violence against women plans
that provide counseling for victims, training for police officers, and prosecution of offenders
in all 50 states.
Throughout Latin America, countries are finding ways to open up political participation for
women at all levels, from the grassroots to the voting booth, and I understand that there are
record numbers of women running for political office here in Argentin a, and I know what a
difficult choice that is to put yourself into the electoral system, and I congratulate all the
women who are standing for public office or who hold public office because of the courage
it takes to do so.
As more women hold office, we have to show that we care about the issues that brought us
into the political process. That is especially critical when it comes to human rights.
At the conference in Panama City, I witnessed the signing of another agreement this one
between USAID and the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights in Costa Rica. The
Institute was founded-to defend and foster respect for human rights at a time wh en
repressive regimes controlled the lives of many people in the Americas. It offered crucial
support to brave individuals throughout the region who spoke out against torture and
repression at a time when such acts often meant risking one's job, one's ho me even one's
life.
In 1990, the Institute embarked on a new mission in human rights advocacy: It established a
formal program on gender and human rights. When I visited the Institute with Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright in May, I had the opportunity to meet and spea k with women who
are in the forefront of women's rights issues throughout the Americas. As they said, there is
Postary
little difference in a woman's life between violence in politics and violence at home. Both
dishonor democracy and respect for the God-given i ndividual dignity of each human being.
As the Secretary of State said on that occasion, domestic violence can never be excused as
cultural. It is criminal and should be treated as such.
There are many examples that I could give you, and you could give me so many more of
what you have seen happening in your own lives, in families, in workplaces, in communities
and countries. But I have seen, as you have, how efforts such as these in educ ation and
health care and credit and in human rights are transforming lives. None of this progress
would have happened if women themselves had not spoken out, demanded change, and
forced their governments to respond.
Now we must encourage more women to make their voices heard, to join together in both
community and national organizations, to press for political change beneficial to all women,
to encourage women to vote in local and national elections, to make politics relevant to the
lives of women, to send more women into political office.
Only women can make democracy work for ourselves, our children and our families. It is a
message that is coming alive throughout the world. Last summer, at a conference in Vienna,
Austria, I met with a group of women from the newly democratic countries of Eastern and
Central Europe. They had just begun to recognize the power of independent citizen action to
address challenges, and they had gathered to share ideas, to renew and strengthen their faith
in democratic values and freedoms.
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This kind of convening might be beneficial for our hemisphere as well. As our countries
continue to expand our political, economic and strategic alliances, as my husband today is
speaking with your President about, the women of this hemisphere can lead t he way in
building an alliance of democratic values that will strengthen our democracies into the next
millennium.
Now many of the issues that are faced throughout the hemisphere and the world may seem
far away from the lives of women here and in the United States. Because in many ways,
women of Argentina and the United States have a wider spectrum of opportunities t han the
women and girls who live in the countries that lie between our own. I was reading in
President Sarmiento's book, Life of the Argentine Republic, and I saw this quote which
described the lives not just of women in Argentina at the time it was written but of women
generally throughout the world, and still describes the lives of most women living on earth
today.
Here is what he said: "Women look after the house, get the meals ready, shear the sheep,
milk the cows, make the cheese, and weave the coarse cloth used for garments The boys
exercise their strength and amuse themselves With early manhood comes com plete
idleness and ease."
Now I am sure the men in the audience would object to that description, but it is not mine. It
is President Sarmiento's. And I am sure that none of us would describe our early adulthood
as ones of "idleness and ease" in today's fast paced world, but th e point is still valid that
there are too many women whose horizons are very limited, but there are many women like
ourselves whose horizons seem to be limitless and yet we, too, face formidable challenges
in our own lives and the life of our societies.
I believe we have a responsibility to work on behalf of women who still struggle for the
rights we have won. But we also must confront the new question that has edged up to gur
own front doors.
While the superficial homogenization of the world means that people on every continent
wear the same jeans, eat the same fast food, listen to the same music -- these surface
similarities do not override a longing for a deeper identity and meaning in our 1 ives.
Despite improving material conditions around the world, many people are not satisfied and
families are under new stresses. The gap between the rich and poor grows wider in many
places. The social safety net of health care, education, pensions, de cent wages, good jobs --
is in danger of fraying for those less able to navigate this new world. And even for those of
us blessed with good health, education, and affluence, we also ask ourselves many questions
about the meaning of our own lives.
Questions about how we strike the right balance among our personal roles as wife, mother,
homemaker, employed worker, citizen; about how we claim a personal identity in an age of
anonymous globalization and high technology; about how families will raise c hildren in the
face of pressures from the consumer culture and mass media that undermine parental
authority and glorify instant gratification.
This last question is of particular importance to those of us who are mothers concerned
about the future of our daughters.
For we have not won our places in society, we have not fought for women's rights to make
the choices that are best for them, to stand by while the consumer culture does its best -- in
my country and yours -- to objectify women and make girls believe that only their
appearances, not their hearts, their minds or their souls, are important.
All the material possessions in the world cannot substitute for a rich and deep spiritual life;
all the affluence in my country or yours cannot answer the eternal questions that are posed
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by every generation. We cannot permit the pace of our life today, the use of automation and
technology, to substitute for what is most important-- the human connections and
relationships that are the stuff of what life is made and which are so essential to creating
those habits of the heart that every child needs to bel ieve in themselves, to have the
confidence to be able to do what they know is right.
This is difficult against the backdrop of this fast paced world in which we live. And I know
that life is changing sometimes faster before our eyes than we can even make sense of. But
we cannot leave the raising of our children, the inculcating of value S to the mass media and
the consumer culture. We have to do a better job through our churches, our families, our
civic associations; we have to build up civil society to reach out to all young people to help
them understand why so many of you have fought so long and so hard for the values, the
rights and the privileges that now in my country can be too easily taken for granted.
Democracy cannot survive unless those values are passed on to the next generation and one
of the values has to be that a woman's full humanity is an unshakable, God-given truth, and
that democracy itself cannot be fulfilled unless women are treated with d ignity and respect.
Last year, I participated in a call-in show on the radio for the Voice of America which went
all over the world. One male caller asked me very earnestly what I meant when I said,
"Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's-rights" at th e Beijing
Conferenee on-Women.
I told the caller to close his eyes and think of all the rights and privileges he enjoyed as a
man. Then I asked him to imagine a world where every woman enjoyed those same rights.
The right to make the choices that fit with that woman's conception of h er future. That
means that a woman may choose to be a full-time wife and homemaker and it is a choice
worthy of respect. That means that a woman may choose to give herself fully to a
professional or business or artistic profession that means she does no t have a place she
believes in her life for marriage or children.
That too, should be respected. And for the vast majority of us who attempt to balance our
commitment to family with an interest in the outside world and a profession that we care
about -- that too should be respected. There should no longer be "one size fits all"
prescription for the way a woman's life should be lived. And because we are fortunate to be
women at the end of this century with many more years than our grandmothers and
great-grandmothers ever could have dreamed, we will have many opportunit ies in our
lifetimes to fulfill our various dreams and aspirations.
The acoustics in this hall are famous throughout the world. So what is said here perhaps can
carry throughout this hemisphere and beyond if we raise our voices on behalf of women to
proclaim that we will not rest until we have repealed discriminatory law S, expelled the
mythology about a woman's proper and only role, stared down the forces of physical and
psychological intimidation that stifle the potential of women and children, and gives full
flower to the belief that a woman has the opportunity and the God-given right to chart her
own destiny, and then to work together to provide the tools of opportunity so that every girl
and boy in this hemisphere can look with confidence toward the future. That should be our
promise to our children for the next cen tury. They, in many ways face, a more difficult life
than we did. It does not seem as clear and set as to what direction many of them should take.
We have to stand with them and with each other as we create conditions that give each a
chance to stand b efore anyone and say "I am a free person, I believe in democracy, and I
believe in building a better world for those who come after."
Thank you all very much.
7 of 8
03/20/98 10:18:18
ADDRESS BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
THE FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES
THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH
JANUARY 31, 1998
Good evening. President Cotti [Ko-TEE]; Governor Ernst Buschor [boo-
SHORE]; Rector Schmid [ShmEED]; and Ambassador Kunin -- who was born
here in Zurich. I'm grateful to the sponsors of this event, the Swiss American
Chamber of Commerce and the Swiss National Council Women's Organization.
Thank you all for this warm welcome to this historic city and your beautiful
country.
It's a particular honor to be here at the University of Zurich, a jewel in the
crown of Switzerland's institutions of higher learning, and home to many of your
country's leading teachers and intellectuals -- including a Nobel Prize-winner. And
I'm pleased to learn that the first woman in the German speaking world graduated
from this university -- in 1867.
1
Universities such as this one are the real incubators of the democratic values
we share and espouse: the practice fields for responsibilities and opportunities that
come with living in a free society. Universities are havens of free speech and free
thought, and a collective meeting point for men and women of different
backgrounds, interests, opinions, and aspirations. And it is our universities, here in
Switzerland, in my country, and around the globe, where many of us first learn to
strike a balance between the rights and needs of individuals, and those of the larger
community.
These institutions of democracy -- our schools, our places of worship, our
community associations, as well as our daily actions as citizens -- hold us together
as diverse people, and strengthen our efforts to work toward the common good.
And it is these shared values, and this commitment to a vibrant civil society, that
will be our bulwark in the new millennium, as we face this time of tremendous
global change and opportunity.
As two of the world's oldest democracies, Switzerland and the United States
understand well the challenges of building a democratic nation, and the struggles
we continue to face in perfecting our democratic ideals. In fact, we've stood
together as "Sister Republics" since our early moments as democratic nations,
and have learned valuable lessons from each other over the years. We know, for
example, that Thomas Jefferson greatly admired two Swiss authors, whose
writings on the theory of natural law, and the inalienable rights of individuals are
thought to have inspired Jefferson as he was writing the Declaration of
Independence.
2
And in 1848 -- when Switzerland was establishing its modern federal state
and drafting its Constitution -- you looked to our United States Constitution, and
its system of checks and balances, as your model. I want to take this opportunity
to congratulate you on the historic occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Swiss
Constitution.
Today, I saw your longstanding commitment to democracy in action, when I
had the privilege of visiting the Children's Parliament in Luzern. You've given
some of your youngest citizens the opportunity to engage in and contribute to
democratic decision making. And that's an invaluable gift indeed.
These future leaders debated two budget issues: supplemental appropriations
for a Dragon Maze project for one of the city's parks, and the snack policy:
croissants vs. the jelly doughnut. We smile at these topics, yet the fact is, these
young people are learning fundamental lessons about the value of open debate, and
the challenges of how we ensure public investment at a time of scarce resources.
There is no more important mission than instilling in our children a respect for
democratic values, and teaching the next generation of leaders the skills they need
to govern wisely. I commend Switzerland, and the people of Luzern, for this
innovative project.
3
So yes, we share a strong -- and unique -- bond in our democratic heritage.
But our ties bind us in other ways as well. You have been strong trade and
investment partners, and as many as 200,000 American jobs have been created as a
result of Swiss investment in the United States. We share a deep love of music
and the arts, and have a long history of cultural exchange -- from a play about
William Tell and his compatriots that was performed in New York City in 1796 --
to the recent visit of the Zurich Symphony to Washington D.C.
Our two nations are also committed to common efforts in confronting threats
to international peace and stability, which include joint measures to combat money
laundering and organized crime, and cooperation in preventing the spread of
weapons of mass destruction.
While our two countries are held up as models of pluralistic democracies,
people often forget how long it took to shape our democratic institutions, and the
ongoing challenges we face in continuing to forge more just and prosperous
nations. In our country today, we are dealing with the difficult questions of how
to continue to widen the circle of opportunity in an increasingly diverse nation.
We recognize the many gains that people of all races and background have made in
our country. But we're also trying to face squarely the ongoing inequality and
discrimination that continues as a consequence of America's history of slavery and
racial division.
4
President Clinton's Initiative on Race seeks to educate all of our citizens
about the realities of race in America today, to encourage constructive dialogue to
work through these issues, and to develop solutions. We know we have a long way
to go.
And here, I want to acknowledge that Switzerland shares this commitment to
to maintaining balance and cohesion in a multi-cultural society. Your system of
small cantons [KAN-TAWNS] drawn together in a united federation, reflects that
universal aspiration of our two countries: out of many, one.
Issues of tolerance and inclusion and equal opportunity are some of the
toughest challenges we face. But we aren't alone in grappling with them. Across
the globe, from Bosnia to South Africa, we are witnessing similar efforts to
confront the pain and divisions in our societies, to seek answers that will help heal
the wounds of the past, and remind people of what they hold in common, not what
keeps them apart.
5
These are the same pursuits driving Switzerland to take an honest look at
its own history, and to address issues that arose in during World War II, and the
terrible events of the Holocaust. In the audience here today there is a very special
group of individuals, students from the Neufeld Gymnasium in Bern, who have
worked together to raise money to aid survivors of the Holocaust; and with whom I
will meet later. As individual citizens determined to make a difference, these
young people embody the finest spirit of humanitarian assistance. They also
reflect efforts that the Swiss government, as well as the private sector, are making
to seek answers to the past, and assist the survivors of the Holocaust.
Switzerland is to be applauded for its willingness to face these issues. You
have taken major strides to uncover the truth and serve the cause of justice, through
historical commissions, through mechanisms to return dormant accounts, and
through the establishment of funds that are already helping needy Holocaust
victims -- many of whom are the double victims of the Holocaust and communist
repression in central and Eastern Europe.
These are difficult steps, and you have faced them courageously. Today, I
want to encourage you to stay on the constructive path you have chosen. We all
have much to do to bring this tragic chapter of modern European history to a just
end. But we owe it the victims of the Holocaust -- and to ourselves -- to complete
that task. The spotlight of history can be harsh, but it strengthens our commitment
to democratic ideals, and keeps us working together to fulfill those ideals.
6
Today, as we continue to learn the lessons of the past, we also look to the
future, and to powerful forces that are reshaping our world -- both for good and for
ill. Even as more and more countries embrace democracy and free markets, the
rapid pace of change, global competition, and the information revolution are
creating new pressures on every institution in society, from governments to
families. Our two countries have stood together as we formed our democratic
nations, and we've worked as partners to support fledgling democracies around
the world. And today, we need to join other freedom loving nations around the
world in common efforts to confront these extraordinary forces of change and
transition.
Today, the greatest threat to democracy is no longer a communist monolith
with imperial designs, but the volatile economic, political and social conditions that
have emerged in the after- math of the cold war. And here, our most powerful
tool to ensure balance in these volatile times will be our re-commitment to
democratic values, and our expanded investments in strong and vibrant civil
societies.
While the superficial homogenization of the world means that people on
every continent wear the same jeans, eat the same fast food, and listen to the same
music, these surface similarities do not override a longing for identity and meaning
in our lives. Despite improving material conditions in advanced economies such as
ours, families seem under greater stress. The gap between rich and poor in many
countries grows wider. The social safety net -- health care, education, pensions,
decent wages and good jobs -- is in danger of fraying for those less able to navigate
7
this new world.
And in too many places, women have been denied their rightful place as full
participants in the life of our societies. We know that a nation's progress depends
on the progress of its women. I'm pleased that my country and yours worked
closely together in preparing for the Fourth World Conference on Women held in
Bejjing. We shared the same positions on important issues, including women's
rights, violence against women; women in armed conflict; and the health of women
and girls. I know that both of our countries will work to ensure the fullness of equal
rights for women.
These issues of social and economic inequality and discrimination pose
unavoidable questions for us as we approach the 21 st century:
Questions about how to balance individual and community rights and
responsibilities; about how families will raise children in the face of pressures from
the mass media and consumer culture; about personal identity and work in an age
of globalization, information overload and high technology; about the role of
women in society; about how people will be able to preserve their ethnic pride and
value their national citizenship; about how nations will protect their sovereignty
while cooperating regionally and globally with others; about how or whether
multinational corporations will be regulated within and across borders; and about
how governments will combat threats from international cartels and terrorists.
8
As my husband often says, our challenge as democratic nations is to balance
the competing and often contradictory pressures of global integration and
disintegration.
In the United States and across Europe, there is serious debate underway
about how to achieve that balance, particularly how to sustain economic growth
without tearing at the social fabric of our communities. I believe that balance
comes only when what I call the three legs of the stool are securely in place: a free
market economy, democratic institutions, and a strong and vibrant civil society.
I believe that the future of democracy, in our own countries and in nations
around the world, demands that we go beyond crucial social investments in our
people and communities, and beyond even the concerns of trade, diplomacy, and
defense. Building and sustaining democracy is more than allowing free elections,
creating free markets, and protecting people's rights. It's also about the
internalization of democratic values in people's hearts, minds, and everyday lives.
It's about developing what I call an "alliance of values" based on a shared belief in
freedom, opportunity, responsibility, community, and respect for human rights.
9
Over 50 years ago, Winston Churchill spoke at this university, and urged the
re-creation of the European family, after the horrors of the war. He called for "an
enlarged patriotism and common citizenship," values that are no less important
today.
In many ways, Switzerland has always recognized the importance of such a
broadened "alliance of values," through its commitment to providing
humanitarian support around the world. I applaud this nation's generous
contributions in assistance to developing countries, international institutions, and
non governmental organizations (NGOs). From helping to eliminate toxic waste in
Hungary; to improving milk production in Poland; to reducing pollution in
Slovakia; to assisting the world's earthquake victims, to the legendary work of the
international Red Cross, Swiss foreign and humanitarian aid continues to help
countries meet the difficult challenges of tomorrow.
The nations of the world have also benefitted from Switzerland's
commitment to lend your "good offices" to help mediate conflicts and establish
international norms.
Individuals, NGOs, and governments working together can make a
difference. And we must ensure that these public/private partnerships -- drawing
from all sectors of our societies -- are strengthened and expanded in the years
ahead.
10
We struggle every day to make our democracies work better. We know
there are no easy answers. And we know we must work every day, year after year,
to ensure that the bounty of our nations are shared among all of our people, and the
people of the world. Those of us who hold the torch of democracy have a
fundamental obligation to help people rebuild their lives when history and
circumstances have conspired against them. We can't possibly accomplish this
alone -- either as individual nations, or as individual citizens.
Acknowledging this interdependence is crucial if we are to successfully
meet the political, social, and economic challenges of a new century. I often talk
about the themes found in the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child.
It can also be said that it takes a community of nations to build a global society.
This engagement is essential if we are to offer future generations the opportunity
to live without fear of war, poverty, disease, or social disintegration.
11
Tomorrow, I will be going to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum.
Leaders in business, government, the media and academia from around the world
will be discussing how best to confront the challenges of the 21 st century. And as
I participate in those discussions, I will be thinking in particular about how to
ensure a better future for our young people -- here in Zurich, across Switzerland,
and throughout the world. And I will be thinking about how we, as "Sister
Republics" and as members of a community of nations, can build an alliance of
values based on our shared belief in freedom, opportunity, community, and respect
for human rights.
Out of our shared experience of building democracy, I know we have the
tools to create that alliance of values for this new millennium, and that we can
fulfill for our children and for our children's children -- the dream of democracy
and freedom that our two countries first aspired to so many years ago.
12
ADDRESS BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
THE FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES
THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH
JANUARY 31, 1998
Good evening. President Cotti; Governor Ernst Buschor; Rector Schmid;
and Ambassador Kunin -- who was born here in Zurich. I'm grateful to the
sponsors of this event, the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce and the Swiss
National Council Women's Organization. Thank you all for this warm welcome to
this historic city and your beautiful country.
It's a particular honor to be here at the University of Zurich, a jewel in the
crown of Switzerland's institutions of higher learning, and home to many of your
country's leading teachers and intellectuals -- including a Nobel Prize-winner. And
I'm pleased to learn that the first woman in the German speaking world graduated
from this university -- in 1867.
Universities such as this one are the real incubators of the democratic values
we share and espouse: the practice fields for responsibilities and opportunities that
come with living in a free society. Universities are havens of free speech and free
thought, and a collective meeting point for men and women of different
backgrounds, interests, opinions, and aspirations. And it is our universities, here in
Switzerland, in my country, and around the globe, where many of us first learn to
strike a balance between the rights and needs of individuals, and those of the larger
community.
1
These institutions of democracy -- our schools, our places of worship, our
community associations, as well as our daily actions as citizens -- hold us together
as diverse people, and strengthen our efforts to work toward the common good.
And it is these shared values, and this commitment to a vibrant civil society, that
will be our bulwark in the new millennium, as we face this time of tremendous
global change and opportunity.
As two of the world's oldest democracies, Switzerland and the United States
understand well the challenges of building a democratic nation, and the struggles
we continue to face in perfecting our democratic ideals. In fact, we've stood
together as "Sister Republics" since our early moments as democratic nations,
and have learned valuable lessons from each other over the years. We know, for
example, that Thomas Jefferson greatly admired two Swiss authors, whose
writings on the theory of natural law, and the inalienable rights of individuals are
thought to have inspired Jefferson as he was writing the Declaration of
Independence.
And in 1848 -- when Switzerland was establishing its modern federal state
and drafting its Constitution -- you looked to our United States Constitution, and
its system of checks and balances, as your model. I want to take this opportunity
to congratulate you on the historic occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Swiss
Constitution.
Today, I saw your longstanding commitment to democracy in action, when I
had the privilege of visiting the Children's Parliament in Luzern. You've given
some of your youngest citizens the opportunity to engage in and contribute to
democratic decision making. And that's an invaluable gift indeed.
2
These future leaders debated two budget issues: supplemental appropriations
for a Dragon Maze project for one of the city's parks, and the snack policy:
croissants VS. the jelly doughnut. We smile at these topics, yet the fact is, these
young people are learning fundamental lessons about the value of open debate, and
the challenges of how we ensure public investment at a time of scarce resources.
There is no more important mission than instilling in our children a respect for
democratic values, and teaching the next generation of leaders the skills they need
to govern wisely. I commend Switzerland, and the people of Luzern, for this
innovative project.
So yes, we share a strong -- and unique -- bond in our democratic heritage.
But our ties bind us in other ways as well. You have been strong trade and
investment partners, and as many as 200,000 American jobs have been created as a
result of Swiss investment in the United States. We share a deep love of music
and the arts, and have a long history of cultural exchange -- from a play about
William Tell and his compatriots that was performed in New York City in 1796 --
to the recent visit of the Zurich Symphony to Washington D.C.
Our two nations are also committed to common efforts in confronting threats
to international peace and stability, which include joint measures to combat money
laundering and organized crime, and cooperation in preventing the spread of
weapons of mass destruction.
While our two countries are held up as models of pluralistic democracies,
people often forget how long it took to shape our democratic institutions, and the
ongoing challenges we face in continuing to forge more just and prosperous
nations. In our country today, we are dealing with the difficult questions of how
3
to continue to widen the circle of opportunity in an increasingly diverse nation.
We recognize the many gains that people of all races and background have made in
our country. But we're also trying to face squarely the ongoing inequality and
discrimination that continues as a consequence of America's history of slavery and
racial division.
President Clinton's Initiative on Race seeks to educate all of our citizens
about the realities of race in America today, to encourage constructive dialogue to
work through these issues, and to develop solutions. We know we have a long way
to go.
And here, I want to acknowledge that Switzerland shares this commitment to
to maintaining balance and cohesion in a multi-cultural society. Your system of
small cantons drawn together in a united federation, reflects that universal
aspiration of our two countries: out of many, one.
Issues of tolerance and inclusion and equal opportunity are some of the
toughest challenges we face. But we aren't alone in grappling with them. Across
the globe, from Bosnia to South Africa, we are witnessing similar efforts to
confront the pain and divisions in our societies, to seek answers that will help heal
the wounds of the past, and remind people of what they hold in common, not what
keeps them apart.
4
These are the same pursuits driving Switzerland to take an honest look at
its own history, and to address issues that arose in during World War II, and the
terrible events of the Holocaust. In the audience here today there is a very special
group of individuals, students from the Neufeld Gymnasium in Bern, who have
worked together to raise money to aid survivors of the Holocaust; and with whom I
will meet later. As individual citizens determined to make a difference, these
young people embody the finest spirit of humanitarian assistance. They also
reflect efforts that the Swiss government, as well as the private sector, are making
to seek answers to the past, and assist the survivors of the Holocaust.
Switzerland is to be applauded for its willingness to face these issues. You
have taken major strides to uncover the truth and serve the cause of justice, through
historical commissions, through mechanisms to return dormant accounts, and
through the establishment of funds that are already helping needy Holocaust
victims -- many of whom are the double victims of the Holocaust and communist
repression in central and Eastern Europe.
These are difficult steps, and you have faced them courageously. Today, I
want to encourage you to stay on the constructive path you have chosen. We all
have much to do to bring this tragic chapter of modern European history to a just
end. But we owe it the victims of the Holocaust -- and to ourselves -- to complete
that task. The spotlight of history can be harsh, but it strengthens our commitment
to democratic ideals, and keeps us working together to fulfill those ideals.
5
Today, as we continue to learn the lessons of the past, we also look to the
future, and to powerful forces that are reshaping our world -- both for good and for
ill. Even as more and more countries embrace democracy and free markets, the
rapid pace of change, global competition, and the information revolution are
creating new pressures on every institution in society, from governments to
families. Our two countries have stood together as we formed our democratic
nations, and we've worked as partners to support fledgling democracies around
the world. And today, we need to join other freedom loving nations around the
world in common efforts to confront these extraordinary forces of change and
transition.
Today, the greatest threat to democracy is no longer a communist monolith
with imperial designs, but the volatile economic, political and social conditions that
have emerged in the after- math of the cold war. And here, our most powerful
tool to ensure balance in these volatile times will be our re-commitment to
democratic values, and our expanded investments in strong and vibrant civil
societies.
While the superficial homogenization of the world means that people on
every continent wear the same jeans, eat the same fast food, and listen to the same
music, these surface similarities do not override a longing for identity and meaning
in our lives. Despite improving material conditions in advanced economies such as
ours, families seem under greater stress. The gap between rich and poor in many
countries grows wider. The social safety net -- health care, education, pensions,
decent wages and good jobs -- is in danger of fraying for those less able to navigate
this new world.
6
And in too many places, women have been denied their rightful place as full
participants in the life of our societies. We know that a nation's progress depends
on the progress of its women. I'm pleased that my country and yours worked
closely together in preparing for the Fourth World Conference on Women held in
Bejjing. We shared the same positions on important issues, including women's
rights, violence against women; women in armed conflict; and the health of women
and girls. I know that both of our countries will work to ensure the fullness of equal
rights for women.
These issues of social and economic inequality and discrimination pose
unavoidable questions for us as we approach the 21 st century:
Questions about how to balance individual and community rights and
responsibilities; about how families will raise children in the face of pressures from
the mass media and consumer culture; about personal identity and work in an age
of globalization, information overload and high technology; about the role of
women in society; about how people will be able to preserve their ethnic pride and
value their national citizenship; about how nations will protect their sovereignty
while cooperating regionally and globally with others; about how or whether
multinational corporations will be regulated within and across borders; and about
how governments will combat threats from international cartels and terrorists.
7
As my husband often says, our challenge as democratic nations is to balance
the competing and often contradictory pressures of global integration and
disintegration.
In the United States and across Europe, there is serious debate underway
about how to achieve that balance, particularly how to sustain economic growth
without tearing at the social fabric of our communities. I believe that balance
comes only when what I call the three legs of the stool are securely in place: a free
market economy, democratic institutions, and a strong and vibrant civil society.
I believe that the future of democracy, in our own countries and in nations
around the world, demands that we go beyond crucial social investments in our
people and communities, and beyond even the concerns of trade, diplomacy, and
defense. Building and sustaining democracy is more than allowing free elections,
creating free markets, and protecting people's rights. It's also about the
internalization of democratic values in people's hearts, minds, and everyday lives.
It's about developing what I call an "alliance of values" based on a shared belief in
freedom, opportunity, responsibility, community, and respect for human rights.
Over 50 years ago, Winston Churchill spoke at this university, and urged the
re-creation of the European family, after the horrors of the war. He called for "an
enlarged patriotism and common citizenship," values that are no less important
today.
In many ways, Switzerland has always recognized the importance of such a
broadened "alliance of values," through its commitment to providing
humanitarian support around the world. I applaud this nation's generous
8
contributions in assistance to developing countries, international institutions, and
non governmental organizations (NGOs). From helping to eliminate toxic waste in
Hungary; to improving milk production in Poland; to reducing pollution in
Slovakia; to assisting the world's earthquake victims, to the legendary work of the
international Red Cross, Swiss foreign and humanitarian aid continues to help
countries meet the difficult challenges of tomorrow.
The nations of the world have also benefitted from Switzerland's
commitment to lend your "good offices" to help mediate conflicts and establish
international norms.
Individuals, NGOs, and governments working together can make a
difference. And we must ensure that these public/private partnerships -- drawing
from all sectors of our societies -- are strengthened and expanded in the years
ahead.
We struggle every day to make our democracies work better. We know
there are no easy answers. And we know we must work every day, year after year,
to ensure that the bounty of our nations are shared among all of our people, and the
people of the world. Those of us who hold the torch of democracy have a
fundamental obligation to help people rebuild their lives when history and
circumstances have conspired against them. We can't possibly accomplish this
alone -- either as individual nations, or as individual citizens.
Acknowledging this interdependence is crucial if we are to successfully
meet the political, social, and economic challenges of a new century. I often talk
about the themes found in the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child.
9
It can also be said that it takes a community of nations to build a global society.
This engagement is essential if we are to offer future generations the opportunity
to live without fear of war, poverty, disease, or social disintegration.
Tomorrow, I will be going to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum.
Leaders in business, government, the media and academia from around the world
will be discussing how best to confront the challenges of the 21 st century. And as
I participate in those discussions, I will be thinking in particular about how to
ensure a better future for our young people -- here in Zurich, across Switzerland,
and throughout the world. And I will be thinking about how we, as "Sister
Republics" and as members of a community of nations, can build an alliance of
values based on our shared belief in freedom, opportunity, community, and respect
for human rights.
Out of our shared experience of building democracy, I know we have the
tools to create that alliance of values for this new millennium, and that we can
fulfill for our children and for our children's children -- the dream of democracy
and freedom that our two countries first aspired to so many years ago.
10
Nanda Chitre
04/03/98 02:17:17 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
See the distribution list at the bottom' of this message
CC:
Subject: MARCH 23, 1998 REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY AT DECEMBER 31ST WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
DAYCARE CENTER, ACCRA, GHANA
-
MORE
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Accra, Ghana)
For Immediate Release
March 23, 1998
REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY
AT DECEMBER 31ST WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
DAYCARE CENTER
Accra, Ghana
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you very much. (Applause.)
I am delighted to be here with all of you today. It is a great honor to be at one of the 31st
December Women's Movement Daycare Centers and to be surrounded by so many women who are creating a
new future for themselves, their families, and for their nation.
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge all of the dignitaries who are here. Thank you for
coming and making me feel so welcome.
And I want to say a special word of appreciation to my hostess, Mrs. Rawlings.
(Applause.) I remember so well our meeting in the White House in 1994. I knew when I met Mrs. Rawlings that
I had met a very dynamic, creative leader. (Applause.) And I have looked forward to this day, along with my
husband, ever since. We have wanted to come to visit Ghana, and I am so pleased that we are here finally today.
(Applause.)
I cannot think of a better place to start with my husband on this historic trip to Africa, the
first visit ever by a United States President to your country. (Applause.) And I must say that I cannot think of a
better way to start my journey than right here with all of you -- (applause) -- surrounded by women and men and
children, because this is where a country is really judged, isn't it? What do we do for our children?
And I have visited many, many different schools and daycare centers, not only in my own
country, but throughout the world. And I must say, I have never seen brighter, better behaving, more impressive
children than the ones I have seen today. (Applause.) I would like to take all the children who danced and spoke
home with me and -- (laughter and applause) -- tour them around my own country because I think their messages
would be just as welcome in many parts of the United States as they were here today.
Everything we do as individuals, as parents, as grandparents, as citizens begins with our
children -- giving our children the chance to learn, to grow, to dance, to sing, to become who they are meant to
be, to give them the opportunity to fulfill their own dreams. And so much of what we give our children depends
upon the opportunities and respect we give our women. Because if women are empowered, if women are
respected, if women are given the chance to live out their own dreams, then boys and girls will as well. And so
when I look out at this crowd of such distinguished women in so many walks of life, I know that you share my
belief.
We have what Efua Sutherland called a "sacred responsibility" to children. And you are
showing the world the role that women in Ghana and across Africa are playing in transforming their lives, their
communities, and their nations. Like many of the women throughout Ghana's history and throughout Africa, you
have come together to help build a strong democracy, a strong economy, a vibrant civil society, with the dream
that every woman will have the health care, the education, the jobs and credit, the opportunities she needs to make
the choices that are right for her. That is a very important part of what we are attempting to achieve here in your
country and in mine -- not that we dictate what a woman's choice will be but that we empower women to make
the right choices for themselves. (Applause.)
During my visit to Africa last spring -- and I told Mrs. Rawlings 1 very much wanted to
come to Ghana, but I also very much hoped my husband would come to Ghana. And I was told, save Ghana for
the President. (Laughter.) So I hope that I will be able to return again on my own to see what I have seen in
other parts of Africa as well. (Applause.)
I have seen women building with their own hands their own homes. I have seen women
working against diseases that are ravaging the children of your continent. I've seen women working with other
women to teach them about their legal rights. I've met with women working to end the sometimes deadly, but
always inhumane, practice of genital mutilation. And I want to congratulate this nation for your leadership, not
only by passing a law outlawing this practice, but by making sure that the law changes hearts and minds so that
individuals understand what the law means and why it should be enforced in every village throughout Ghana.
We share common victories and also common challenges. Every day, women are
managing the crops, feeding and caring for children, providing water and fuel for their homes, but every day in
too many parts of the world, women are still being fed less and last. Too many are caught in a deadly cycle of
conflict and violence, some in their own homes. Too many are treated as children under the laws of their nation,
unable to buy land, get credit, or receive an inheritance. Too many cannot find good child care like that offered
here for their children when they have to go out to work.
All of this is now changing thanks to leaders like you. And I want to commend you for
everything you and your government are doing to ensure that the rights of women are protected and that the voices
of women are heard. (Applause.)
All of us must speak out. We must speak out to ensure that no girl is ever denied an
education. Can you imagine the tragedy of seeing these bright young girls whom I have seen, listening to them
with their pride and confidence, standing and performing in front of such a large group, being told at the age of
10, or 12 or 14, you cannot be educated any further. What a loss. Not only a loss to the nation, but a loss to
their families. So we must ensure that all girls are enabled to have an education, because when you educate a
woman, you do educate a family and a community and a nation. (Applause.)
We must also speak up to end violence against women in all forms. It does not matter if
that violence is in our homes or on our streets. Violence against women must never to dismissed as trivial or
explained away as cultural. Violence against women should be called what it is -- a crime -- whether it happens in
Ghana or the United States or anywhere else in the world. (Applause.)
We must speak with one voice -- women across the world. And I'm pleased that my
government, through the USAID and the Embassy's Democracy and Human Rights Fund, is working as partners
with the women of Ghana.
And today I am pleased to announce that the United States government will provide $1
million to create Powernet. (Applause.) Powernet will be a new electronic bridge, linking our two countries
across the ocean, linking women from all walks of life in the United States and throughout Africa.
We know in the United States that there is much we have to learn from you, and we want
the opportunity to learn from you. You are finding new ways of resolving conflicts, creating micro-enterprises,
improving the health of families, improving the legal system, educating girls. This new Powernet will use the
Internet to create dialogue between us, to enable us to share road maps for successes and strategies for the future.
I am so pleased that this kind of opportunity will enable you and the women of my country
to learn from each other so we can build a stronger, better, more just world for our children. (Applause.)
Efua Sutherland wrote something that I liked very much. She said: Our fathers found for
us the paths; we are the road makers. They bought for us the land with their blood; we shall build it with our
strength. We shall create it with our minds.
With the women of Ghana continuing to lead the way, I know that will happen. And I
want to thank you for your example and for your leadership, for your encouragement and for all that you are
doing, not only to lift up the people of Ghana, but to give heart to women, men, and children everywhere.
Thank you all so much. (Applause.)
END
Message Sent To:
EXCERPTS FROM HRC SPEECH AT UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH
(This is part of transcript of speech, where she includes parts of written speech -- and adds her
own words as well.)
While our two countries are held up as models of pluralistic democracies, people often
forget how long it took to shape our democratic institutions, and the ongoing challenges we face
in continuing to forge more just and prosperous nations. In my country, we are struggling with
some of the unfinished business of democracy. We are working hard to make sure we truly are a
united people, taking advantage of our many diverse races, religions, ethnic groups that populate
America. We're also trying to face squarely the ongoing inequality and discrimination that
continues as a consequence of America's history of slavery and racial division.
My husband's Initiative on Race seeks to educate all of our citizens about the realities of
race in America today, and encourage constructive dialogue to work out these issues, and to
develop solutions. There are some in our country who say we should not raise this issue. We
should just ignore it; pretend that it is taken care of; that it is divisive to talk about how we can
live together; and that race will never be solved, so why confront it? My husband's opinion is
that we always have to face our history; we have to face the truth of who we are, in order for us
to move beyond; and I hope that in my country, this commission will succeed.
The spotlight of history -- whether it is on race and slavery in the United States, or
apartheid in South Africa, or the Holocaust here in Europe, can be harsh. But it is only through
facing that history that we can strengthen our commitment to democratic ideals, and keep
working together to fulfill those ideals. And we shall learn the lessons of the past, because we
ignore them at our peril.
ADDRESS BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
THE FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES
THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH
JANUARY 31, 1998
Good evening. President Cotti [Ko-TEE]; Governor Ernst Buschor [boo-
SHORE]; Rector Schmid [ShmEED]; and Ambassador Kunin -- who was born
here in Zurich. I'm grateful to the sponsors of this event, the Swiss American
Chamber of Commerce and the Swiss National Council Women's Organization.
Thank you all for this warm welcome to this historic city and your beautiful
country.
It's a particular honor to be here at the University of Zurich, a jewel in the
crown of Switzerland's institutions of higher learning, and home to many of your
country's leading teachers and intellectuals -- including a Nobel Prize-winner.
And I'm pleased to learn that the first woman in the German speaking world
graduated from this university -- in 1867.
1
Universities such as this one are the real incubators of the democratic
values we share and espouse: the practice fields for responsibilities and
opportunities that come with living in a free society. Universities are havens of
free speech and free thought, and a collective meeting point for men and women
of different backgrounds, interests, opinions, and aspirations. And it is our
universities, here in Switzerland, in my country, and around the globe, where
many of us first learn to strike a balance between the rights and needs of
individuals, and those of the larger community.
These institutions of democracy -- our schools, our places of worship, our
community associations, as well as our daily actions as citizens -- hold us
together as diverse people, and strengthen our efforts to work toward the common
good. And it is these shared values, and this commitment to a vibrant civil
society, that will be our bulwark in the new millennium, as we face this time of
tremendous global change and opportunity.
As two of the world's oldest democracies, Switzerland and the United States
understand well the challenges of building a democratic nation, and the struggles
we continue to face in perfecting our democratic ideals. In fact, we've stood
together as "Sister Republics" since our early moments as democratic nations,
and have learned valuable lessons from each other over the years. We know, for
example, that Thomas Jefferson greatly admired two Swiss authors, whose
writings on the theory of natural law, and the inalienable rights of individuals
are thought to have inspired Jefferson as he was writing the Declaration of
Independence.
2
And in 1848 -- when Switzerland was establishing its modern federal state
and drafting its Constitution -- you looked to our United States Constitution, and
its system of checks and balances, as your model. I want to take this opportunity
to congratulate you on the historic occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Swiss
Constitution.
Today, I saw your longstanding commitment to democracy in action, when
I had the privilege of visiting the Children's Parliament in Luzern. You've given
some of your youngest citizens the opportunity to engage in and contribute to
democratic decision making. And that's an invaluable gift indeed.
a
These future leaders debated two budget issues: supplemental
appropriations for a Dragon Maze project for one of the city's parks, and the
snack policy: croissants vs. the jelly doughnut. We smile at these this topics, yet the
fact is, these young people are learning fundamental lessons about the value of
open debate, and the challenges of how we ensure public investment at a time of
scarce resources. There is no more important mission than instilling in our
children a respect for democratic values, and teaching the next generation of
leaders the skills they need to govern wisely. I commend Switzerland, and the
people of Luzern, for this innovative project.
3
So yes, we share a strong -- and unique -- bond in our democratic heritage.
But our ties bind us in other ways as well. You have been strong trade and
investment partners, and as many as 200,000 American jobs have been created as
a result of Swiss investment in the United States. We share a deep love of music
and the arts, and have a long history of cultural exchange -- from a play about
William Tell and his compatriots that was performed in New York City in 1796 --
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Our two nations are also committed to common efforts in confronting
threats to international peace and stability, which include joint measures to combat
money laundering and organized crime, and cooperation in preventing the spread
of weapons of mass destruction.
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While our two countries are held up as models of pluralistic democracies,
people often forget how long it took to shape our democratic institutions, and the
or
ongoing challenges we face in continuing to forge more just and prosperous
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nations. In our country today, we are dealing with the difficult questions of how
to continue to widen the circle of opportunity in an increasingly diverse nation.
We recognize the many gains that people of all races and background have made
in our country. But we're also trying to face squarely the ongoing inequality and
discrimination that continues as a consequence of America's history of slavery
and racial division.
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And here, I want to acknowledge that Switzerland shares this commitment
to maintaining balance and cohesion in a multi-cultural society. Your system of
small cantons [KAN-TAWNS] drawn together in a united federation, reflects that
universal aspiration of our two countries: out of many, one.
Issues of tolerance and inclusion and equal opportunity are some of the
toughest challenges we face. But we aren't alone in grappling with them. Across
the globe, from Bosnia to South Africa, we are witnessing similar efforts to
confront the pain and divisions in our societies, to seek answers that will help heal
the wounds of the past, and remind people of what they hold in common, not
what keeps them apart.
5
These are the same pursuits driving Switzerland to take an honest look at
its own history, and to address issues that arose
during World War II, and the
terrible events of the Holocaust. In the audience here today there is a very
special group of individuals, students from the Neufeld Gymnasium in Bern, who
have worked together to raise money to aid survivors of the Holocaust; and with
whom I will meet later. As individual citizens determined to make a difference,
these young people embody the finest spirit of humanitarian assistance. They
also reflect efforts that the Swiss government, as well as the private sector, are
making to seek answers to the past, and assist the survivors of the Holocaust.
Switzerland is to be applauded for its willingness to face these issues. You
have taken major strides to uncover the truth and serve the cause of justice,
through historical commissions, through mechanisms to return dormant accounts,
and through the establishment of funds that are already helping needy Holocaust
victims -- many of whom are the double victims of the Holocaust and communist
repression in central and Eastern Europe.
These are difficult steps, and you have faced them courageously. Today, I
want to encourage you to stay on the constructive path you have chosen. We all
have much to do to bring this tragic chapter of modern European history to a just
end. But we owe it the victims of the Holocaust -- and to ourselves -- to complete
that task. The spotlight of history can be harsh, but it strengthens our commitment
to democratic ideals, and keeps us working together to fulfill those ideals.
6
Today, as we continue to learn the lessons of the past, we also look to the
future, and to powerful forces that are reshaping our world -- both for good and for
ill. Even as more and more countries embrace democracy and free markets, the
rapid pace of change, global competition, and the information revolution are
creating new pressures on every institution in society, from governments to
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families. Our two countries have stood together as we formed our democratic
nations, and we've worked as partners to support fledgling democracies around
the world. And today, we need to join other freedom loving nations around the
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world in common efforts to confront these extraordinary forces of change and
transition.
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Today, the greatest threat to democracy is no longer a communist monolith
with imperial designs, but the volatile economic, political and social conditions
have
that have emerged in the after- math of the cold war. And here, our most
powerful tool to ensure balance in these volatile times will be our re-commitment
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to democratic values, and our expanded investments in strong and vibrant civil
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societies.
While the superficial homogenization of the world means that people on
every continent wear the same jeans, eat the same fast food, and listen to the same
music, these surface similarities do not override a longing for identity and
meaning in our lives. Despite improving material conditions in advanced
country)
economies such as ours, families seem under greater stress. The gap between rich
and poor in many countries grows wider. The social safety net -- health care,
education, pensions, decent wages and good jobs -- is in danger of fraying for
7
those less able to navigate this new world.
And in too many places, women have been denied their rightful place as
full participants in the life of our societies. We know that a nation's progress
depends on the progress of its women. I'm pleased that my country and yours
worked closely together in preparing for the Fourth World Conference on
Women held in Bejjing. We shared the same positions on important issues,
including women's rights, violence against women; women in armed conflict; and
the health of women and girls. I know that both of our countries will work to
ensure the fullness of equal rights for women.
These issues of social and economic inequality and discrimination pose
unavoidable questions for us as we approach the 21 st century:
Questions about how to balance individual and community rights and
responsibilities; about how families will raise children in the face of pressures
from the mass media and consumer culture; about personal identity and work in an
age of globalization, information overload and high technology; about the role of
women in society; about how people will be able to preserve their ethnic pride and
value their national citizenship; about how nations will protect their sovereignty
while cooperating regionally and globally with others; about how or whether
multinational corporations will be regulated within and across borders; and about
how governments will combat threats from international cartels and terrorists.
8
As my husband often says, our challenge as democratic nations is to balance
the competing and often contradictory pressures of global integration and
disintegration.
In the United States and across Europe, there is serious debate underway
about how to achieve that balance, particularly how to sustain economic growth
without tearing at the social fabric of our communities. I believe that balance
comes only when what I call the three legs of the stool are securely in place: a free
market economy, democratic institutions, and a strong and vibrant civil society.
I believe that the future of democracy, in our own countries and in nations
around the world, demands that we go beyond crucial social investments in our
people and communities, and beyond even the concerns of trade, diplomacy, and
defense. Building and sustaining democracy is more than allowing free elections,
creating free markets, and protecting people's rights. It's also about the
internalization of democratic values in people's hearts, minds, and everyday lives.
It's about developing what I call an "alliance of values" based on a shared belief
in freedom, opportunity, responsibility, community, and respect for human rights.
9
Over 50 years ago, Winston Churchill spoke at this university, and urged
the re-creation of the European family, after the horrors of the war. He called for
"an enlarged patriotism and common citizenship," values that are no less
important today.
In many ways, Switzerland has always recognized the importance of such a
broadened "alliance of values," through its commitment to providing
humanitarian support around the world. I applaud this nation's generous
contributions in assistance to developing countries, international institutions, and
non governmental organizations (NGOs). From helping to eliminate toxic waste
in Hungary; to improving milk production in Poland; to reducing pollution in
Slovakia; to assisting the world's earthquake victims, to the legendary work of the
international Red Cross, Swiss foreign and humanitarian aid continues to help
countries meet the difficult challenges of tomorrow.
The nations of the world have also benefitted from Switzerland's
commitment to lend your "good offices" to help mediate conflicts and establish
international norms.
Individuals, NGOs, and governments working together can make a
difference. And we must ensure that these public/private partnerships -- drawing
from all sectors of our societies -- are strengthened and expanded in the years
ahead.
10
We struggle every day to make our democracies work better. We know
there are no easy answers. And we know we must work every day, year after year,
to ensure that the bounty of our nations are shared among all of our people, and
the people of the world. Those of us who hold the torch of democracy have a
fundamental obligation to help people rebuild their lives when history and
circumstances have conspired against them. We can't possibly accomplish this
alone -- either as individual nations, or as individual citizens.
Acknowledging this interdependence is crucial if we are to successfully
meet the political, social, and economic challenges of a new century. I often talk
about the themes found in the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a
child. It can also be said that it takes a community of nations to build a global
society. This engagement is essential if we are to offer future generations the
opportunity to live without fear of war, poverty, disease, or social disintegration.
11
Tomorrow, I will be going to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum.
Leaders in business, government, the media and academia from around the world
will be discussing how best to confront the challenges of the 21 st century. And as
I participate in those discussions, I will be thinking in particular about how to
ensure a better future for our young people -- here in Zurich, across Switzerland,
and throughout the world. And I will be thinking about how we, as "Sister
Republics" and as members of a community of nations, can build an alliance of
values based on our shared belief in freedom, opportunity, community, and respect
for human rights.
Out of our shared experience of building democracy, I know we have the
tools to create that alliance of values for this new millennium, and that we can
fulfill for our children and for our children's children -- the dream of democracy
and freedom that our two countries first aspired to so many years ago.
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
Internal Transcript
March 28, 1997
REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY
Nile Center
Kampala, Uganda
MRS. CLINTON: Thank you very much, Mrs. Museveni, for your kind remarks and
your gracious hospitality and for your friendship as you accompany me through this wonderful
visit that I have enjoyed here in Uganda. Madame Vice President, ministers, members of
Parliament, ambassadors, commissioners, distinguished guests -- it seems fitting that we gather
on Good Friday here in this great (inaudible) center because this is the day that Christians around
the world know marks the passage of sorrow and despair to hope and renewal. (Applause.)
And that is also the journey that Uganda and so many other countries in Africa have
taken in the last 10 years. Just over two weeks ago I stood at a podium like this in the United
States State Department and spoke about why I was coming to Africa. The President and
Secretary of State had asked me to come to Africa in order to highlight Africa's economic and
democratic renewal.
I wanted to come to remind Americans of the importance of our partnership with Africa
-- (applause) -- to underscore how America's modest contributions in foreign aid yield enormous
results. I wanted to help our country understand the importance of investing in the people of
Africa. I wanted to make sure that my country understood what was happening in your country
and throughout so many of the countries in Africa as you are growing and trading and
strengthening democracy.
I also knew that Africa had a positive story to tell --(applause) -- one that Americans
could learn from. All across Africa individuals like yourselves and communities are coming
together, forging bold and creative solutions at the grass-roots level and at the highest reaches of
government. Today I can report that this trip has exceeded even my most optimistic
expectations. (Applause.)
Starting in Senegal and going on to South Africa and Zimbabwe and Tanzania and now
Uganda, I have been privileged to meet Africa's leaders and to see Africa's renewal firsthand.
Nowhere has Africa's progress been more impressive than in the building of democracy. Until
very recently, as you know so well, there were only five democracies on this great continent. In
the last six years that number has jumped to 23. But democracy is not just about one election; it
is about free and fair elections that are repeated successfully. It is also about other essential
processes and institutions: a functioning parliament, an independent judiciary. It is about
political parties, a free press, and the basic rights of assembly and association.
Now that we have seen democracy emerge strongly in this country, on this continent, the
question for all of us who care about the future of democracy in Africa includes what can be done
to sustain and deepen this democratic transformation. What is needed to ensure that new
democracies take root and prosper. How can we spur other nations to make the transition to
sustainable democracy. To thrive, a democracy depends on many essential elements, some of
which (inaudible).
It should be obvious, but often isn't, that the health of a democracy also depends
fundamentally on empowering and enabling average citizens to participate fully in the decisions
that touch their lives. It depends, in short, on what you are doing here in Uganda. The efforts I
have seen here and the other countries I have visited are essential to building a vibrant
democracy.
Now, what are some of those elements and what have I seen, and, particularly, what
have I learned here in Uganda? First, a vibrant democracy requires that all women become full
participants in their society. (Applause.) As the Vice President and Mrs. Museveni has said
before, for too long in too many places, both in Africa and around the world, women have lived
on the outskirts of opportunity. Yet we know we cannot build the kind of future we want for
ourselves and our children without the contributions of women.
Over the last two weeks, I have been privileged to see women shaping their own
destinies and the destinies of their countries -- building homes on a worn patch of land in
Capetown; learning to manage a health clinic in a village in Senegal; working to reform the laws
affecting property ownership and inheritance rights in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Women are
playing a greater role than ever here in Uganda. Women's rights are now enshrined in your
constitution and I congratulate you. (Applause.) Women in Uganda have been welcomed into
the government at the highest levels.
As President Museveni has rightfully said, women form more than half of our society, so
you'd be hurting yourself if you left behind six of every 10 people. To your wise President,
whom I enjoyed meeting first in Washington a few months ago and then again last evening, I
would simply add: you wouldn't just be hurting yourself, you would not be living in a
democracy, because a democracy without women's full participation is a contradiction in terms.
Only with women's rights, the fullness of human rights are respected. When women begin to
experience the authority over themselves that is the bedrock of the democratic experience, only
then can they begin to experience the consciousness of full citizenship and the action that
inspires.
Moreover, women will not flourish and neither will democracy if women continue to be
undervalued inside and outside of the home. I'm often told by economists and others who look at
what makes up the economy of countries that the work women do does not count. And I often
respond -- when I think of the women gathering fire wood, fetching water, raising children,
doctoring family members, keeping communities together I often think to myself, if women
stopped working inside and outside the home tomorrow, the economy of the world would stop
working. (Applause.)
But women constitute 70 percent of the world's poor, and so we have not done enough
yet to liberate the economic potential of women the world over. Women must be assured the
respect their work deserves, inside and outside the home. And they must be assured the
opportunity to earn a decent income and become economically self-sufficient. When women are
able to contribute to their own economic self-sufficiency, their husbands and children prosper,
and their communities prosper as well.
But if more than the half citizens on this earth are underpaid, uneducated,
under-represented, fed less, fed worse, not heard, threatened by violence in their own homes and
on the streets of their communities, we cannot sustain the democratic values and way of life we
have come to cherish.
What I have seen here in Uganda is that from your President all the way through the
teachers in the primary school I visited, the workers in the AIDS information center, the women
in the bank that is run by FINCA, I have seen that the people of Uganda understand that women
will be a necessary part of building this nation's future. And that is a very important recognition
indeed. (Applause.)
It is also true that a vibrant democracy requires investing in the education and health care
of the people. That means we are willing to make a commitment to the future. 1 saw that for
myself this morning. At the primary school, I heard how teachers as part of a national effort are
getting better training. I saw new and creative learning materials in the hands of children. And in
the energy-filled classrooms that we visited, I saw the results of your government's promise of
free and expanded primary education.
While this commitment has put tremendous pressures on your schools, it has provided
infinite hope for your people. Two million new students have registered nationwide for school.
In the school I visited, the enrollment has nearly doubled. (Applause.)
I was also very pleased to see at Seguku school that you value education of girls as
much as the education of boys. In other places I have visited around the world, that has not been
the case. But we now know, based on both research that has been done, as well as first-hand
personal observation by many people involved in government and politics and development
around the world, that the single most important investment any nation can make for building a
very prosperous democratic future is in the education of girls and women.
In country after country, the benefits of educating women go far beyond the school
house. They turn up in stronger families, better nutrition, and higher wages. They also result in
stronger democracies because, by telling girls that if they work hard and make the grade they too
can have a rightful place in society, we are supporting the most important of democratic ideals --
the belief that every citizen, regardless of where that man or woman comes from, who their
parents might be, what kind of village or family they call home that that person is entitled to his
or her rightful share of personal, political, economic, and civic power.
So teaching people to read and write is essential, as is investing in health and addressing
public health challenges. I have seen many programs in my visits that focus on trying to expand
health care access to citizens. But I was very impressed by what I saw today. Uganda's
world-leading efforts to educate its people against HIV and AIDS is a clear demonstration of
your country's commitment from the highest levels to help.
At the AIDS Information Center, I learned that the center has already served more than
320,000 families and is part of a broader campaign to slow the spread of HIV and AIDS, and one
in which the government, starting with your President, has assumed an important responsibility.
Because your President refused to ignore HIV-AIDS and instead championed openness toward
this terrible disease, you have seen positive results. (Applause.)
I know I have seen the results of the public information campaign on the more than a
dozen billboards I have seen since I landed at the airport yesterday. You have made an all-out
effort. There is still much to be done. The Minister of Health was eloquent in our meeting this
morning in pointing out that there are many challenges ahead -- not only with HIV-AIDS, but
with malaria, diarrhea, and many other diseases. But as a result of Uganda's commitment to
fighting HIV-AIDS, Uganda is the only country in Africa where the rate of new HIV infections is
actually decreasing. (Applause.)
As the (inaudible) group sang to me this morning, Ugandans are fighting to ensure that
AIDS cannot win. And the United States is committed to helping you with that fight.
(Applause.)
Other countries in Africa are tackling various health problems. In Zimbabwe, I saw a
commitment, also on the national level, to family planning, to giving woman the knowledge that
they needed to determine for themselves how many children they want to have and when they
want to have them. As a result of Zimbabwe's cutting-edge family planning clinics, fertility rates
are falling and contraceptive use is high. Infant mortality rates are low for the simple reason that
healthier woman are having healthier babies. So there is progress in health and education in those
countries committed to improving the conditions of life of their people.
And by doing so, we are recognizing that a vibrant democracy requires that every citizen
be given the opportunity to participate fully in the economic life of their countries. It is hard to
be a full economic participant if one is not educated, if one is not healthy. But I think one can
participate in the economy, then one can raise one's own standard of living and, by doing so, raise
the standards of living of one's country.
Africa has been making tremendous progress to this end. Last year, 30 African countries
reported positive economic growth, and Uganda was one of them. I know you are proud of your
surging economy. An economy that had been destroyed by decades of war now registers the
stunning growth rate of 8 percent a year.
And it is not only at the level of big business, investment, and trade that we are seeing
this kind of growth rate in Uganda; I saw it for myself when I visited the FINCA village bank
today. That bank provides modest loans to about 4,000 women, helping them to start small
businesses. I visited similar programs in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. In each country, these lending
institutions are helping to stabilize democracy because they assure women and men the
opportunity to earn a decent income. They help families and communities become self-sufficient.
I have also been impressed by the economic reforms carried out by your government that
have encouraged Ugandan farmers to increase their agricultural production. Hundreds of new
farmers have not only bolstered your economy through exports but they have brought you true
security. In the last five years, child malnutrition rates in Uganda has dropped by 20 percent.
That is a remarkable accomplishment.
When you expand economic opportunity, you do much reinforce democracy because
people feel that they have a stake in the future of their country.
Uganda is also reinvesting new revenues in better social investments for people such as
health and education. So the cycle of hope repeats itself, enriching successive generations.
A vibrant democracy also requires citizens to take personal and collective responsibility
for creating a civil society. Civil society means that we call on all elements individuals,
community groups, houses of worship, businesses, academia, government -- to take responsibility
for the common good.
And again, I have seen that happening on my trip. In Senegal, I watched as villagers
acted out a drama about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy. There and in
Tanzania, in a village outside of Arusha, I saw community groups coming together to work on
ways of improving the common good. I've also today met with a remarkable group of Rwandan
women working to rebuild their country. I was privileged to hear how they're working to heal
their country from the experience of genocide, to ease the great sufferings of women and children
in the refugee crisis they have endured. They described to me how they are growing together in
associations to better their lives.
I was moved by what they told me, and I know how much Uganda has supported
refugees and supported the Rwandan reconstruction, and I assured them that all of us would stand
with them in their efforts to reconcile and rebuild their torn society. We know from our own
experience -- (applause) in the United States, where we have been working at democracy for
more than 200 years, that democracy requires patience, hard work, flexibility, and the
acceptance of inherent human imperfection.
Not only does democracy ask each of us to take responsibility and to do our share, it
also asks us to count on others people whose views you may never agree with; people from
different religions and ethnic groups and tribes; people who hold ideas you may never
understand. But democracy asks that we trust and rely on people unlike ourselves. With
democracy, there is no day off For democracy depends on the internalization of these values in
people's hearts and minds.
Finally, we believe that a vital democracy requires Africa's friends and partners to make a
contribution to Africa's democratic transformation. The United States intends to continue its
partnership with Africa in its efforts to deepen and strengthen democracy. We can do this by
supporting programs such as the ones I saw today efforts to allow women to take their rightful
place at every table, efforts to educate all Africa's people, efforts to see to it that everyone has
access to good health care, efforts to ensure that women as well as men have access to credit so
they can participate in Africa's growing economies. These are the tools of opportunity, and
these are the tools that will help sustain democracy.
I am proud of the role that America has played in African renewal. I wish the American
people could see for themselves what I have seen, what is happening in Africa today. They
would see that a modest contribution in United States aid to Africa, less than one-tenth of one
percent of our budget, yields extraordinary returns. Aid from the United States helps train
teachers, supports AIDS prevention, sparks microenterprise development, keeps family planning
centers open, helps to strengthen democratic institutions.
I'm also pleased that American assistance creates the conditions of self-sustained
economic growth. Assistance go hand in hand with private investment. I've had the opportunity
to see American companies do well themselves, and doing well for the countries of this
continent. I know that President Clinton is eager to work in Congress to find new and effective
ways to support Africa through a balanced approach that involves a continuing developing
partnership and an expanding role with trade and investment. We believe this approach will
enable African countries to achieve their goals of greater self-reliance and full integration into the
global economy.
As President Museveni told me last evening, he looks forward to a time when America's
relationship with Uganda is based on investment, trade, and tourism. I am mindful that there are
other threats to Africa's fragile democracies that require our concern and vigilance. That is why
the United States attaches such high importance to its collaboration with regional leaders and
organizations in seeking to resolve conflicts that threaten economic and democratic progress.
That is why the United States is eager to support African efforts to enhance their capacity to
respond to crises, such as the African Crisis Response Force. And that is why we seek to
strengthen measures to protect us all from new threats to security and welfare of democracies
everywhere, such as crime, narcotics trafficking, and international terrorism.
And my husband asked me to make clear his commitment on another issue. He asked
me to tell you that he will come to Africa during his second term as President. (Applause.) We
will have much to show him based on my own remarkable visit. I have been very privileged to
learn what is happening here. And as I prepare to return home, it is with the hope that this trip
may reflect the growing consciousness in the minds of the people of Africa and America that,
despite the wide ocean between us, we are neighbors on this shared earth. We cannot, if we ever
could, any longer live without each other. And we have much to learn from each other. In our
relationship, there must no longer be an "us" or a "them" but only a "we," a "we" committed to
(applause.)
Yesterday, I was in a place in Tanzania, the Oldavai Gorge, where many of the
discoveries about our ancient ancestors have company from. And it was very clear to me as I
walked through that gorge with the archaeologists and anthropologists, that we black, white,
brown, of every religion, of every corner of the globe we come from the same place. We share
a common home. We are part of a larger family. And if we stop for a minute to think about
what we have learned about the origins of humankind, we know that we come from Africa.
(Applause.) The message embedded in that rock is that we must recognize both our common
past and our common future, and we must never let respect for any human being be eroded. We
must make the dignity of every single person our governing principle.
Tomorrow I will end my trip to Africa in a place that is just beginning Eritrea a new
country founded on timeless ideals. And I hope that its story, like that of Africa, will be one of
constant renewal. One cannot come to Africa, and particularly one cannot come to Uganda
today, without being moved by the faces of the people people who lined the streets, greet me
as Mrs. Museveni and I came from the airport, the people who were out on the streets this
morning, the people who were out on the streets this morning, the faces of those I saw at the
school, at the center, at the village (inaudible).
The Vice President is correct that my visit has been much too short. I have not been in a
home for a meal. I have not been in many other places in this beautiful country outside Kampala.
And I will look forward to opportunities to return when I can see more of the natural beauty
(applause.) But I have seen enough to convince me that you have a commitment to a future that
transcends all the divisions and the differences of the past. (Applause.) And I can see that most
clearly in the faces of your children.
As I stood in the classroom at the primary school and the teacher proudly told me that
she had 30 boys and 44 girls -- a brave woman to teach 74 8-year-olds I heard in her voice
what I love to hear. I heard love and commitment, I heard determination, and then I saw on the
faces of those boys and girls that they were loved, they were valued. There were adults -- not
just parents, but teachers and political leaders and businessmen and women and others in Uganda
who believe in them.
And if you believe in a child and you set high expectations for a child, you are more
likely to see that child reach and grow. What Uganda is doing is setting those high expectations.
I thank you for what you have shown me. But more than that, I thank you for the example you
are setting and what you are giving every day to your children so that they, too, will join the
children in America to build the kind of future that all of us want them to have. Thank you very
much. (Applause.)
END
REVISE 11/13/97
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
TALKING POINTS FOR BRADLEY FELLOWS
TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN
NOVEMBER 13, 1997
I want to thank the people of Uzbekistan for their warm welcome and
extraordinary hospitality. I have come to Uzbekistan and Central Asia on behalf of my
husband, President Clinton, and the American people to witness firsthand the important
progress you are making as you move toward democracy, civil society, and an economy that
helps all citizens to reach their full potential. I have also come here to reinforce the young,
but strong ties between our two countries.
That is why I wanted to meet with you. Because the future of this country and
the future of our alliance will depend on you -- Uzbekistan's young people. I am particularly
pleased that we are joined today by so many students who have taken part in the Bradley
High School Exchange Program. Since its establishment by Senator Bill Bradley in 1990, the
program has provided the opportunity for thousands of students from the Newly Independent
States to come to America each year -- to live with American families, to attend American
schools, to deepen their understanding of American culture and society.
This program yields immeasurable rewards. I am very eager to hear how it
altered your life, your outlook, your perceptions. I would like to learn what effect it had on
your family and your community when you returned home. As someone who has had the
privilege of meeting with your counterparts and hearing about the program over the years, I
know that the Bradley students make very real contributions to the people of the United
States. To begin with, you remind us of something that is too easily forgotten: that freedom
is a blessing.
I hope that your time in our country, in turn, renewed your commitment to
democracy. I also hope that it underscored the fact that the work of democracy is never
done. A democracy requires constant commitment on the part of its citizens. There are no
days off. After more than two centuries of democratic government, we in the United States
are still trying to get it right.
It is clear that we have much to learn from each other. Later today, I will travel
to Bukhara. Tomorrow, I will go to Samarkand. In both places I am very eager to learn
more about how the ancient and modern people of Uzbekistan have managed to forge a
society that honors so many different religions, that accepts people from so many different
places. I imagine these values, grounded in respect and based on tolerance, have much to do
with the fact that both these cities are more than 2000 years old.
1
Before we begin, I want to make two statements about how I hope we can extend
our partnership. First, I am proud that as part of our Partnership for Freedom Initiative, the
United States government will increase support for the Bradley High School Exchange
Program -- along with other educational exchange initiatives designed to promote
understanding around the world. Second, we are committed to creating a new alliance
between the government of Uzbekistan and the United States to recognize excellence in
teaching. The Teaching Excellence Awards would go to outstanding teachers of English and
American Studies from around your country. The awards would bring teachers together to
share techniques. The schools where award-winning teachers work would receive important
educational materials. And the teachers who win would have the opportunity to visit the
United States -- to learn about our educational system and to teach us about yours'. I am also
delighted that as part of this program, award-winning American teachers will come to
Uzbekistan to meet wth students, fellow teachers, and members of the educational
community.
I am delighted that we have had an opportunity to meet today. Now, I very much
look forward to hearing from you.
2
Nanda Chitre
04/03/98 02:18:04 PM
Record Type:
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Subject: MARCH 25, 1998 REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY AT MAKERERE UNIVERSITY, KAMPALA,
UGANDA
MORE
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Kampala, Uganda)
For Immediate Release
March 25, 1998
REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY
AT MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
Kampala, Uganda
4:51 P.M. (L)
MRS. CLINTON: Bana' Uganda. Muli mutyano. (Applause.) It is such a great honor
and pleasure for me to be here on the campus of this great university. (Applause.) Before I begin, I want to
thank President and Mrs. Museveni for the warm hospitality that they have extended to us during our visit. And I
particularly want to thank Mrs. Museveni, not only for that kind introduction, but I want to acknowledge her
leadership on so many fronts, especially her creation of the Uganda Women's Effort to Save the Orphans.
(Applause.) I also want to congratulate her on her recent graduation from the university. (Applause.)
Thank you for your warm welcome, Mr. Vice Chancellor. And, no, I do not mind at all,
for you're asking that the needs of the students and faculty here be met, and I will carry your message back to the
United States. (Applause.)
It is a pleasure once again to be with your Vice President, whom I admire so much and
who told me that she, too, was a student and a teacher here at the University. (Applause.) I am also delighted to
be joined by the Speaker of the Parliament, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, the Minister of Justice and
Attorney General, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Deputy Chief Justice, the Minister of Education,
the Minister of Gender and Community Development, and so many of you distinguished guests and faculty and
students.
It is wonderful for me to have been able to return to Uganda. Last year when I visited
with my daughter I made the promise that I would return with my husband. And I'm very pleased I could keep
that promise. (Applause.) I learned a lot about your country, your struggles and challenges, last year. Since
then I have followed your development with great interest and very great admiration, because I have some small
sense from the conversations I have had with many men and women here in Uganda and Ugandans in the United
States about what you have had to overcome.
As the choir sang the Uganda National Anthem a few minutes ago, I thought about how
appropriate it is for these words to fill Freedom Square today -- united, free for liberty. For 75 years, Makerere
University has stood for those principles. And, yet, I know that that forces of evil stole the life of Makerere's
first Ugandan Vice Chancellor. I know that the forces of evil arrested, tortured and vilified students. They
pushed faculty out of the country and tried to demean those who stayed. They wanted to destroy this world-class
university. (Applause.)
People like Idi Amin and his ilk are not comfortable in the light of freedom and education
-- they prefer ignorance and backwardness. And you did not let them succeed. (Applause.) Instead you healed
the wounds of the past and you are now building this university for the future, just as Uganda is doing, just as
Africa is doing.
Out of the hard soil of the Cold War, democracies, free market economies and civil
societies are all taking root. Students who once fought oppression underground re-emerged as liberators and now
as leaders of a free Uganda. And voices for freedom and dignity and human rights once silenced are now again
echoing through the halls of this university and across this country.
Many such voices are here with us today. I could call the names of many faculty and
students, government and academic leaders, members of the professions and the businesses here in Uganda
people who stood up for freedom when it really counted. We can hear the voices of freedom from Sister Rachele
Frassera, the Deputy Head Mistress of St. Mary's College in Aboke. When the Lord's Resistance Army
kidnapped 139 girls, 75 percent of the student body, she chased down the terrorists, convinced them to release 109
girls and is working day and night to make sure all of them return safely. (Applause.)
We can hear the voice of freedom from Dr. Joy Kwesiga, the former Chair of Action and
Development, the former Chair of the Women's Studies Department, and now Dean of Social Sciences here at
Makerere. (Applause.) She has worked hard to ensure that the victims of domestic violence are heard, that their
accusations are treated seriously and that the crimes are punished.
We can hear the voice of freedom from Sarah Bagalaliwo. As a founder and Chair of the
NGO FIDA, Sarah instituted a legal aid clinic, which over the last 10 years has helped thousands of vulnerable
women understand and exercise their fundamental legal rights. (Applause.)
Just a few hours ago my husband and I were in Rwanda, where we spoke with survivors of
the 1994 genocide. It is still hard to imagine that in the space of three months, one million people were
murdered. Nowhere has that number of people ever been murdered in such a short period of time in history. We
listened to a delegation of six Rwandans who spoke of their experiences. One member was a woman whom I met
exactly a year ago here in Kampala. I could not myself go to Rwanda, but several women came to see me and we
met here to talk about their experiences.
Last year and again today, I will forever see the faces of the people I spoke with as they
described the human toll of Rwanda's violence and what they were doing to rebuild their lives and communities.
As my husband said in his remarks today, genocide destroys not only individuals, but our humanity. We must
continue to bring healing to the victims, and we must bring the perpetrators of genocide to justice. (Applause.)
We must continue to be vigilant about the dangers that still exist and do everything we can to make sure that
nothing like what happened in Uganda in the '70s and what happened in Rwanda in 1994 happen again.
That means every one of us must act. Not just our leaders -- we must hold our leaders
accountable it is for all of us to stand up for the rights of all people. We must work to end atrocities around the
world, not just the ones that grab headlines, but the indignities that people suffer quietly, when they are denied the
chance to speak or learn, to work or eat; when they're denied the chance to live free from fear or want. In other
words, we should stand up for the rights of all persons to be fully human.
You have made many steps toward that goal here at this university. I could not name them
all, but I want particularly to commend the University for creating the Department of Women's Studies, and now
for creating the Human Rights and Peace Center. (Applause.) There is no better time than for all of us now to
reaffirm our commitment to human rights and peace, for it was 50 years ago that the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights was born and the world acknowledged a common standard for human dignity. The document puts
it very directly: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. All human beings -- not just
men, not just adults, not just people of particular cultures or nations, races or religions.
This declaration means that we must expand the circle of human dignity to all human beings.
And just think how much wider that circle has grown in Africa in just a few short years.
Only a decade ago who would have imagined that Nelson Mandela would move triumphantly from prisoner to
President in South Africa. (Applause.) Or that more than 30 years of turmoil would give way to healing and
unity in Mozambique. And who would have imagined that it would have been your brave President, President
Museveni, that would have taken on the scourge of AIDS with his public health campaign, and that he would and
you would, working together, stem the rise of AIDS in Uganda. That is also standing up for human rights.
(Applause.)
And who would have imagined that Uganda would produce your Vice President, the
highest ranking woman in any African government. (Applause.) I could add, the highest ranking woman in many
governments around the world, not just in Africa. (Applause.)
And yet, despite the steady march of progress, the commitment here to universal primary
education, for example, there are still who will claim that human rights are a luxury of the West; that they have
nothing to do with Africa, or Asia; that they are just the province of people like Americans. But the beliefs
inscribed in the Universal Declaration were not invented 50 years ago; they are not the work of any single culture
of country. They are universal and timeless.
Sophocles wrote about universal human rights 25 years ago, when he had Antigone declare
that there were ethical laws higher than those of even kings. Confucius articulated them in ancient China. And
we can look throughout this continent and find examples of ancient leaders of Africa who also said that all people
walk the same way, all people must be treated with dignity. These are the core teachings of all major faiths in the
world. They are the foundation of what it means to be a respected human being -- in Africa, in Asia, in America
because they live in the human soul.
Around the globe, I have seen many women and men pushed to the margins of their
societies. They may know nothing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but they are eloquent in their
beliefs that they were born with God-given rights just as surely as they were born into the human family.
It is absolutely untrue that individual human rights and community rights cannot co-exist.
The truth is, they are indispensable to each other. Democratic progress is possible when all citizens can be heard.
Economic progress is possible when all citizens have the tools of opportunity, such as education and health care,
that will enable them to support their families.
Yesterday, President and Mrs. Museveni went with my husband and me to visit a village
the Jinja Village. We saw women who are working together through a village bank to make their lives better,
increasing their income, helping their husbands support their families better, taking care of the children that were
orphaned that they have taken in from brothers or sisters or other relatives. And they are doing it because they've
been given access to credit; they've been given tools to enable them to make economic progress.
Real security is only possible when we learn to live together and to respect each other's
fundamental differences. I found a quote I particularly like from a Dinka Chief, who put it like this: "If you see
a man walking on his two legs, do not despise him; he is a human being. Bring him close to you and treat him
like a human being. This is how you will secure your own life."
But yet, it is not an easy task, in my own country, or any country, to make human rights a
reality. The work is not done when a law is passed or a constitution is drafted. Securing human rights for all
people is a never-ending struggle. In my own country, it has taken most of our 222 years -- some of them bloody
and few of them easy -- to extend the benefits of citizenship to all Americans.
We went from a very small group of white, property-owning men having citizenship, and
gradually expanded it to include black men, and then to include women. But then we had to work to make sure
that the words in a constitution meant what they said. One of my predecessors, Eleanor Roosevelt, who helped to
write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was 35 years old before she could vote. My own mother was
born before women were allowed to vote in the United States. And yet, if we do not secure human rights for all,
none of us is secure in our own rights.
Some of you may recall the words of the Protestant minister living in Nazi Germany who
said: "In Germany, first they came for the Communists, but I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade
unionists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't
speak out because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak out."
At the dawn of the millennium, those of us who have the power to speak, and all of you
here associated with this great university, by virtue of you being here and attaining this education, not only have
the power to speak, but the obligation. We must speak up wherever we see injustice and inequality.
And particularly today, I want to speak up and ask you to speak up for the women in
Africa and all over the globe. Too many of them every day do the work that needs to be done -- managing the
home: feeding, schooling, and caring for children; providing water and fuel. But every day, too many women are
also being fed less and last; too many are trafficked like drugs and sold into prostitution; too many are left out
when important decisions are made about their lives and their families and in their communities.
I want to commend Uganda for your new Local Government Act, which will help more
women be part of the decisions that affect their lives. (Applause.) I am pleased to announce today that the United
States government will provide $2 million to help train these elected official women as they assume their new
roles and responsibilities. (Applause.)
Because, yes, women's rights are human rights. And everywhere I travel, I meet women
who are struggling to make sure that occurs. We have to speak out when either law or customs treat women like
children or second-class citizens, when women are blocked from owning land, receiving inheritances, securing
credit, or participating in the political process. We also have to speak out for more countries like Uganda to make
sure that girls are educated.
Two-thirds of the 130 million children out of school worldwide are girls. I wish that some
of the people in those countries that still prevent girls from being educated would come and visit the classrooms I
have seen here in Uganda the bright faces of young boys and girls ready to learn so that they can become better
citizens. I am so pleased that universal primary education is a critical part of Uganda's future.
There
is much else we must speak up against: violence against women; the practice of
genital mutilation; women and children who are brutalized by conflict wherever it occurs.
In Uganda, a pilot program here has reduced the number of women who endure genital
mutilation by more than one-third. And when I go to Senegal in a few days, I will meet with a group of women
who over the last year have voted in their villages to end this practice and are helping others to do the same.
We must also speak up for women and children caught up in war and conflict around the
world. It used to be that women, children, and civilians were to be protected during a war. Today, they are
increasing the targets of war. Since the turn of this century, civilian fatalities during war have increased from 5
percent to 90 percent, and 80 percent of war's refugees are women and children.
You have seen this here in your country, because nothing so offends any definition of
human rights than the use of children as pawns of war and the mistreatment and abuse of women as a tactic of
war. The war in Rwanda was waged against the lives and dignity of women. Rape and sexual assault were
committed on a mass scale. Here, according to a U.N. report, the children of northern Uganda like children
throughout the world, are also at risk.
Last year when I spoke with President Museveni, he talked to me about the more than
10,000 Ugandan children who have been abducted by the Lords Resistance Army. One of those children is
Charlotte, and she is one of the girl's that Sister Rachele tried to save. I met with her mother, Angelina, at the
White House a few weeks ago before we came on this trip. She told me what had happened the night that the
LRA kidnapped Charlotte and the other girls from St. Mary's school; how they broke the windows, tied up the
girls, beat them if they cried; took them away into a life of unspeakable horrors. Thankfully, many have been
rescued or escaped, or their freedom has been purchased. But many others, like Angelina's daughter, have not
returned.
Like terrorists and dictators throughout history, the LRA claims to be doing the Lord's
work. But there is no greater sin than forcing children to murder each other, family members, and even the
parents who brought them into existence. There is no greater sin than raping young girls and sending them into
slave labor. And there is no greater sin than using children as human shields in battle.
The LRA call themselves soldiers, but they are cowards, for only cowards would hide
behind children in battle. (Applause.) Through a group called Concerned Parents Association, Sister Rachelle,
Angelina and other parents are working to save their children and all children.
One of Charlotte's classmates who escaped talked about what happened when another girl
tried to escape. Listen to her words: The girl who is brought in front of us and the rebels told us to stomp her to
death. We killed the poor innocent girl. If we did not kill the girl, we were going to be shot by guns. We
prayed for that girl in our hearts, silently, and asked God to pardon us and forgive us because it was not our will
to kill her.
Another girl who was rescued wrote: I'm pleading with you to find a way of stopping this
rebel activity, so they we children of northern Uganda could also share in the peace that other children around the
world are sharing in. We need peace.
I'm hoping that every government around the world and every citizen joins your
government and people in Uganda in your fight for peace and in your efforts to save these children. Already
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are shining a spotlight on this tragedy. UNICEF is helping to get
assistance to groups working at the local level. And non-governmental organizations like World Vision and Gulu
Save the Children Organization are caring for children who escape.
There are three of those children here with us that I just had a chance to meet before I
came out to see you. Their names are Isaac and Janet and Betty. They were kidnapped by the LRA in the north.
They managed to escape, eventually finding refuge. As I looked into their faces and their eyes, I saw the faces
and eyes of children the world over. And I thought to myself as I looked at these young men and women of
Uganda that we owe them and the thousands more like them everything we can do to make sure that they, too,
have a chance, like the children I saw yesterday, to grow up in peace, to be educated, and to look forward to their
own families and futures.
There are no easy answers, but I want Janet and Betty and Isaac to know, and I hope that
someday Angelina will be able to tell her daughter, Charlotte, as well, that America cares about your children,
and we want to work with you to try to stop this tragedy and to care for the children who are its victims.
(Applause.)
That's why I am very pleased to announce new steps our government is taking through the
United States Agency for International Development. First, we will provide $500,000 directly to local groups like
the Concerned Parents Association and GUSCO, to help them find abducted children and give them the medical
care they need to heal. (Applause.)
Second, we will provide $2 million over the next three years for a new Northern Uganda
Initiative that will help the people living there plagued by rebel activity get jobs rebuilding roads, dams, schools,
health clinics and their own communities. (Applause.) I am very pleased that other donors, including the World
Bank, have agreed to support these efforts.
Third, we will provide $10 million to local African NGOs who are working to improve
food security and to prevent, ease and respond to conflict in the region. (Applause.)
And, finally, my husband and our government will increase their efforts to pressure Sudan
to end its support for the LRA and their cowardly abductions of children. (Applause.) We will work with you to
end this terror, and we will work with you to continue your rebuilding of your country.
But I want to add just one more thought, because when we talk about democracy and
human rights we know how important laws and institutions are. We know that strong and free markets are also
important because they unleash so much creative entrepreneurial energy from people like the women I saw in Jinja
yesterday. But, ultimately, the struggle to protect human rights depends upon the millions of decisions and actions
that are taken every day by ordinary people like us.
It is what Alexis de Tocqueville called, the habits of the heart. It is what we tell our
children. Do we continue to tell them to hate those who our grandparents hated, or do we try to help them give
up that hatred? It is what we tell each other in our neighborhoods, our villages, our workplaces when we hear
someone making disparaging comments about someone of another ethnicity or tribal or racial or religious
background. Do we say: Why do you say that about a person's group? Do you know the person? Can you make
a judgment about that person as an individual? If you cannot, don't engage in stereotypes. There have been too
many stereotypes between us. (Applause.)
In so many ways every day each of us can stand up for human rights. We don't have to be
as brave as Sister Rachele rescuing girls. We don't have to be as brave as these three young children who have
endured so much, but have come back to build their own lives. We can in so many ways stand up for human
rights every day.
That is why I'm pleased that the Human Rights and Peace Center is developing a
curriculum to be used throughout the campus, so that the lessons taught and learned here will stay with everyone
forever. Because, ultimately, all the work that the President or Mrs. Museveni, or the Vice President or the Vice
Chancellor, any of those who are currently leaders in Uganda can do will not be successful unless the students at
this University and the children in the schools today understand how important it is to stand up for democracy and
freedom and human rights.
No one understands better the importance of human rights than Ugandans. You understand
the nightmares that come when they are abused. No one is in a better position to honor the past generations by
passing these lessons on to the next generations. I hope that you will accept this challenge, not only now as you
are doing, but for many years in the future. Many of us will look to Uganda as an example; as a country that is
putting the past behind it in ways that the rest of us not only can admire, but follow. You have a historic
opportunity to build a future that is not only one that you are proud to pass on to your children, but one that stands
as a beacon not only for Africa, but for the world.
Many of us know what you suffered. Today we stand in admiration of what you are doing
now to build a better future. And we will look to you as we move toward this new century and new millennium
to show us how people develop new habits of the heart, to make it clear that every person is worthy of dignity and
respect, and that peace and freedom, democracy and human rights will always be part of Uganda's life.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
END
5:23 P.M. (L)
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