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file child soldier
Christine L. Anderson
01/21/2000 03:57:07 PM
Record Type: Record
To:
See the distribution list at the bottom of this message
CC:
Subject: Statement by the President: Child Soldiers
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Los Angeles, California)
For Immediate Release
January 21, 2000
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Today, the United States joined a consensus in Geneva on the text
of a Protocol that addresses the problem of child soldiers. I am
very pleased with the final result, and I look forward to the
early adoption of the Protocol by the United Nations.
The forcible recruitment of very young children - some no more
than 9 or 10 years old - into an increasing number of civil wars
and other conflicts shocks the conscience and shames humanity. By
addressing forced recruitment and the conduct of armed rebel
groups, this agreement strikes at the heart of the problem of
child soldiers. Countries that become parties to the Protocol
would prohibit the use of soldiers under 18 by non-state forces,
and would cooperate in rehabilitating and reintegrating child
soldiers into society.
The Protocol also deals in a realistic and reasonable way with
the issue of minimum ages for conscription, voluntary
recruitment, and participation in hostilities by national armed
forces. The Protocol would establish an 18-year minimum age for
compulsory recruitment; require parties to raise their minimum
age for voluntary recruitment to an age above the current 15-year
international standard; and require parties to take all feasible
measures to ensure that armed forces personnel who are not yet 18
do not take a direct part in hostilities.
This Protocol is an important advance for human rights. At the
same time, it fully protects the military recruitment and
readiness requirements of the United States. I am committed to a
speedy process of review and signature and to working with the
Senate on this historic achievement to protect the world's
children.
###
Message Sent To:
free cluedrens NB
UN protocals
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
July 5, 2000
FACT SHEET
United Nations Protocols on Child Soldiers and
the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
President Clinton today signed two historic agreements advancing international efforts to
eliminate abuses committed against the world's children. The United States is among the first
signatories to these United Nations protocols, which prohibit the forcible recruitment of children
for use in armed conflict and protect children from slavery, prostitution and pornography.
The Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of
Children in Armed Conflict and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography were adopted by the UN General Assembly on May 25, following several years of
negotiations. The United States played an active role in negotiating both Protocols over the past
several years. The Administration intends to submit both Protocols to the United States Senate
for advice and consent later this month and will continue to work with the Senate to achieve
speedy ratification of these two Protocols.
Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in
Armed Conflict.
In many parts of the world, children as young as seven or eight years old tote guns and
ammunition and are deeply engaged in armed conflict, including:
Angola, where over 10,000 children have been forced to become soldiers;
Colombia, where the Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) uses children as soldiers;
Sierra Leone, where children comprise nearly half of the Revolutionary United Front
forces, and where
up to 7,000 children are involved in the conflict; and
Burma, where many thousands of children serve as combatants.
The Protocol raises international standards in the effort to end the forced recruitment of children
into armed conflict, gives governments additional tools to pressure violators and promotes
rehabilitation to help reintegrate child soldiers into civilian life. Specifically, this Protocol:
Bars compulsory recruitment below the age of 18;
Requires that States set the minimum age for voluntary recruitment above the current 15
year-old
standard and declare what minimum age they intend to adopt. States that recruit
under the age of 18 are required to describe the steps they will take to ensure protection of
under-18-year-old enlistees. (In this respect, the U.S. practice is to accept qualified volunteers
at age 17 provided they show parental consent and reliable proof of age. Related programs such
as ROTC and military schools will be unaffected.);
Mandates that parties "take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed
forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities";
Prohibits the recruitment or use of soldiers under 18 by non-governmental armed forces.
which are the principal culprits in the use of child soldiers, since many rebel or militia groups
abduct children to fight in civil wars; and
Promotes assistance and rehabilitation of children who have been victimized by armed
conflict by requiring state parties' cooperation in prevention and rehabilitation efforts,
including in partnership with non-governmental organizations. (The United States already
contributes more than $20 million per
year to programs for children affected by war.)
The Departments of State and Defense were deeply involved in the international negotiation
leading to the adoption of the Protocol, which would require the United States to take all feasible
measures to ensure that 17-year olds do not take a direct part in hostilities. The Secretary of
Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Service Chiefs carefully considered
whether the U.S. military could undertake- an obligation and concluded we could do so
while fully protecting our military recruitment and readiness requirements.
On June 8, the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution calling for ratification of this Protocol as quickly
as possible.
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
This Protocol is a significant advance in efforts to strengthen law enforcement action against
those responsible for sexual abuse of children, with strong provisions that:
Define the terms "sale of children," "child prostitution" and "child pornography" for the
first time in an
international agreement and require that these abuses be treated as
criminal acts;
Establish stronger, clearer grounds for jurisdiction and extradition to better ensure that
offenders can be
prosecuted regardless of where they are found; and
Include extensive provisions on international cooperation among nations, which will help
child victims receive protection and assistance.
This Protocol supplements other U.S. efforts in the international arena and builds on the adoption
last year of the International Labor Organization's Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention.
That Convention, which the United States has ratified, calls for immediate and effective
measures to stamp out exploitation of children for prostitution, pornography and other abuses.
Both Protocols are stand-alone international agreements open to all States without the need to be
part of the underlying international agreement, the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Signature and ratification of these two Protocols do not create any obligations in relation to the
underlying Convention or to any other international agreement to which the United States is not
a party.
###
The Clinton/Gore Administration: A Strong Record of Working To Eliminate
Abusive Child Labor Around The World
July 5, 2000
Today's signing by President Clinton of the United Nations Optional Protocols prohibiting the forcible recruitment
of children for use in armed conflict and protecting children from slavery, prostitution and pornography builds on
the Clinton/Gore Administration's record of working to eliminate the worst forms of child labor around the world.
PRESIDENT CLINTON HAS MADE AMERICA A LEADER IN WORKING TO PREVENT ABUSIVE
CHILD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD:
In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Clinton called upon the Congress and other nations to join
in the fight
against "the most intolerable labor practice of all - abusive child labor."
Building on these commitments, the President in his 1999 State of the Union address vowed: "[We] will
lead the international community to conclude a treaty to ban abusive child labor everywhere in the world."
In his 2000 State of the Union address, the President again called for the elimination of abusive child labor.
IN 1999, THE PRESIDENT SPOKE TO THE ILO IN GENEVA URGING THE ADOPTION OF
CONVENTION 182 TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR:
In June of 1999, President Clinton became the first U.S. President to travel to Geneva to address the ILO
Conference. He
urged members to adopt Convention 182 and pledged to seek its ratification.
On December 2, 1999, with bipartisan support from the Senate, President Clinton signed ILO Convention
Number 182 - "the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for Elimination of the Worst
Forms of Child Labor."
In signing Convention 182, President Clinton noted that tens of millions of children "are still forced to
work in conditions that shock the conscience and haunt the soul. If we want to slam the door shut on abusive child
labor," he stated, "we must open
the door wide to education and opportunity."
Recognizing the importance of education in eliminating child labor, the convention requires ratifying
nations to take steps to ensure access to basic education.
The convention applies to all children under the age of 18, and defines the worst forms of child labor to
include:
All forms of slavery and practices similar to slavery such as forced or compulsory labor, including forced
or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflicts.
The use of children in prostitution, pornography, drug production and drug trafficking.
The employment of children in work likely to harm their health, safety or moral well being.
UNDER THE CLINTON/GORE ADMINISTRATION, THE UNITED STATES HAS BECOME THE
WORLD'S LARGEST CONTRIBUTOR TO THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE
ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOR (IPEC):
In fiscal year 1999, President Clinton, with the encouragement and support of Senator Tom Harkin (D.
Iowa), increased U.S. contributions to IPEC tenfold to $30 million - making this country the world's largest
contributor. That funding level was
maintained for fiscal year 2000.
Since 1995, the U.S. has funded projects to prevent or remove some 120,500 children in Africa, Asia and
Latin America from dangerous or abusive work in many industries (including commercial agriculture, mining,
fishing, the production of soccer
balls, carpets, garments, fireworks, and footwear), as well as prostitution
and domestic service.
BUILDING ON THIS RECORD, THE CLINTON/GORE ADMINISTRATION HAS PROPOSED TO
MORE THAN DOUBLE RESOURCES TO COMBAT ABUSIVE CHILD LABOR IN THE 2001 BUDGET:
President Clinton has proposed $110 million in his FY 2001 budget - more than doubling last year's level
of $45 million -- to
help eliminate abusive child labor around the world. This $110 million commitment
includes:
A 50% increase in the U.S. contribution to the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child
Labor (IPEC) - to $45 million.
$55 million in new funding for targeted bilateral educational assistance to promote school rather than work
in countries
where exploitative child labor is prevalent.
Doubling - to $10 million - Customs Service resources to enforce the ban on the importation of goods made
with forced or indentured child labor, denying such products access to the lucrative U.S. marketplace.
THE PROBLEM OF ABUSIVE CHILD LABOR
The ILO estimates that there are at least 250 million working children between the ages of five
and 14 in developing countries -- about half of them work full-time and do not attend school.
Tens of millions of children work under very hazardous and abusive conditions. Around the
world, young children in their formative years are exposed to hazardous conditions, including toxic and
carcinogenic substances in manufacturing, dangerous conditions in mines and on sea fishing
platforms,
and backbreaking physical labor.
Some children labor in bondage, are sold into prostitution, or are indentured to manufacturers,
working
against debts for wages so low that they will never be repaid.
The majority (61 percent) of the working children are found in Asia, followed by Africa (32
percent),
and Latin America and the Caribbean (seven percent). While Asia, by far the most
populous region, has the highest number of child workers, Africa, the poorest region, has the highest
proportion of child workers, with 41 percent of its children engaged in some form of economic
activity.
Basic education improves the lives of children, their families, their countries, and the global
community. Despite the benefits of education, about 20 percent--or 145 million--of the world's children
six to 11
year-olds are out of school.
Groups under-served by education are often over-represented in child labor. Among these groups
are
girls, rural communities, specific linguistic and ethnic groups and the poor. For example, girls are
more
likely to work longer hours and be engaged in "invisible" domestic service. It is estimated that
two-thirds of the out-of-school population are girls.
###
07/05/00 WED 07:58 FAX
4371
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 4, 2000
SIGNATURE OF OPTIONAL PROTOCOLS TO THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS
OF THE CHILD ON (1) THE INVOLVEMENT OF CHILDREN IN ARMED
CONFLICT AND (2) THE SALE OF CHILDREN, CHILD PROSTITUTION AND
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
DATE: July 5, 2000
LOCATION: UN Headquarters, New York
TIME: 2:55 p.m. - 3:40 p.m.
FROM: SAMUEL BERGER
for
I.
PURPOSE
To sign two recently adopted UN Protocols relating to
children.
II. BACKGROUND
These Protocols on the Involvement of Children in Armed
Conflict and on the Sale of Children, Child Pornography and
Child Prostitution are significant achievements. The first
raises the legal age for compulsory and voluntary military
service, and for participation in armed conflict; the
second criminalizes the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography.
The UN General Assembly adopted both Protocols on May 25,
and the United States would be among the first governments
to sign them. Obtaining acceptable language on the first
Protocol, relating to children in armed conflict, was the
greater challenge for us. Some European governments and
advocacy groups were pushing to require that only those
18 years of age and older could be recruited or participate
in armed conflict, a position we could not support due to
the critical importance of 17 year-olds to our recruitment
goals and concerns about undercutting readiness. With the
support of the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, skillful negotiation, and help of some allies, we
reached agreement on a compromise which permits recruitment
below age 18, but requires that governments use "all
feasible measures" to prevent those under 18 from "taking a
CC: Vice President
Chief of Staff
07/05/00 WED 07:58 FAX
-
2
direct part in hostilities." DOD is now drawing up
proposed guidelines for implementation, and we will shortly
present this Protocol, along with its companion Protocol
described below, to Congress.
The second Protocol, relating to the sale of children,
child prostitution, and child pornography, was less
controversial for us. It would mandate that these
practices be criminalized, and would provide law
enforcement and cooperation tools to help guarantee that
offenders will not go unpunished.
III. PARTICIPANTS
Ambassador Holbrooke
UN Deputy Secretary General Louise Frechette
Dr. Palitha Kohona, Chief of the UN Treaty Section
Up to 80 people will be in the audience, including
representatives of leading human rights and non-
governmental organizations, Permanent Representatives to
the United Nations Security Council, senior members of the
Administration including Under Secretary of State Frank Loy
and Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy DeLeon, and
Congressmen Ben Gilman (R-NY) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY).
The President of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konare, will be at the
UN on Wednesday, and has also been invited to the Protocol
signing.
IV. PRESS PLAN
Pool Press
V.
SEQUENCE
The motorcade will arrive at the UN Secretariat, and you
will be greeted by Ambassador Holbrooke and UN Deputy
Secretary-General Frechette. You will be held in Room 207
for several minutes until everyone is seated in the
signing room, the West Foyer. After entering the West
Foyer, you will pause for a moment while the Chief of the
UN's Treaty Section, Dr. Palitha Kohona, announces the
signing of the Protocols. You will then be escorted to a
table holding the two Protocols, at which you will be
seated. You will sign the signature pages of each of the
Protocols underneath the written text, and then date the
documents underneath your signature.
07/05/00 WED 07:59 FAX
012 LS.)
3
While you sign the documents, Ambassador Holbrooke, UN
Deputy Secretary-General Frechette, and Dr. Kohona will
stand behind you from left to right; all others will be
seated in the audience facing you. After you sign the
documents, Ambassador Holbrooke and you will be seated in
the front row of the audience while Deputy Secretary-
General Frechette makes remarks of approximately three
minutes at a podium. Ambassador Holbrooke will then take
the podium and introduce you, and you will proceed to the
podium and deliver your statement. There will be no
questions by the press, and you will depart the
Secretariat.
B
07/05/00 WED 07:59 FAX
WIV14
Final 07/04/00 2:00pm
'00 JUL 4PM2:48
Heather Hurlburt
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
REMARKS ON SIGNING CHILD PROTECTION PROTOCOLS
THE UNITED NATIONS
NEW YORK, NY
July 5, 2000
Thank you, Ambassador Holbrooke. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechctte, thank
you for hosting me here today. I'm glad to have Congressman Gilman and Congressman Meeks
with us, as well as many senior UN officials, Permanent Representatives, and members of the
NGO community. I am glad to see that many of the State, Defense and Justice Department
negotiators who worked on these agreements are with us today. Thank you for your hard work.
I also want to acknowledge the leadership of the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, in ensuring that the United States could sign the child soldiers protocol in good faith
without compromising our military readiness or our national security in any way.
I am very proud to represent the people of the United States in signing these two
protocols. With the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor 1 signed last year, they form
a trio of vital protections for children. And they are signposts for our global future. To give life
to our dream of a global economy that lifts all people, we must stand together for our children -
and the world's children. Yet every day, tens of millions of children work in conditions that
shock the conscience. Every day, thousands of children are killed and brutalized in fighting
adults' wars. And every day, around the world and even in the United States, children are sold
into virtual slavery and trafficked for the worst forms of sexual abuse.
Think about what has been lost for the future because roughly two million children have
fought in wars over the last 20 years. In Sicrra Leone today, as many as half of the rebel forces
are children under 18. Some are as young as 5 or 6. In Colombia, guerrilla forces have taken
thousands of children from their villages to serve as soldiers. Two years ago, when we went to
Africa, my wife Hillary met with Ugandan children who had been abducted. She heard stories of
unspeakable horror, of children forced to kill each other, family members, even their own
parents. Since then, she has been an eloquent voice on behalf of children who have been abused,
exploited and forced into war. She is an important part of the reason we're here today. And she
reminded me this morning of what she said two years ago: that there is no worse sin than
sending a child to kill the people who gave him life.
The Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict sets a clear, high standard. No one
under 18 may ever be drafted by any army, in any country. Its signatories will do everything
(easible to keep even volunteers from taking a direct part in hostilities before they are 18. They
will make it a crime for any non-governmental force to use children under 18 in war. And they
will work together to meet the needs of children who have been forced into war, to save a
generation that has lost so much.
07/05/00 WED 07:59 FAX
U.S.) VID
2
What happens to the world's children in peacetime can be just as shocking. Can you
believe, in the 21ˢᵗ century, that the global traffic in human beings is the third-largest source of
income for organized crime? Hundreds of thousands of children are bought and sold, exploited
and prostituted every year. Yet many countries don't even have laws against this noxious trade.
The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography will do
a great deal to change that. It specifies that child pornography, prostitution and enslavement are
crimes everywhere. It provides better tools for law enforcement to extradite and prosecute those
who profit from this dirty business. We are already waging a firm fight against those who traffic
in children - and this protocol will make a big difference.
These are two agreements that every American should be proud of. It's true that words
on paper alone are not enough. But these two documents are a starting point for action: for
punishing offenders, dismantling trafficking networks. and caring for young victims. They
represent an international coalition, formed to fight a battle that one country could never win
alone. They represent a worldwide consensus on basic values - values that every American
shares. In short, they represent the United Nations at its best. And they remind us why, at a time
when crime, disease and hate can spread faster than ever before, we need a strong United Nations
more than ever before.
The U.S. Senate has already passed a Sense of the Senate resolution in support of the
protocol on children in armed conflict. I will send both protocols to the Senate this month, and I
hope they can be ratified this year. Both agreements are stand-alone documents. They create no
obligations to other agreements which the United States has not ratified. They speak to an
international sensc of justice - and to a profoundly American belief that children, our most
precious resource, deserve all our love and protection.
During one of the darkest, moments of the century just past, the German thcologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded us that "the test of the morality of a society is what it does for its
children." Today, more than cvcr, this is a test that the world cannot afford to fail. The United
States should always be at the forefront of that effort. I am proud of America's leadership in
negotiating these two protocols and that we are among the first nations to sign them. I pledge
my own best efforts to see that we are leaders in implementing them - and in doing so, granting
the world's children a future that is better than the past.
Thank you.
TALKING IT OVER
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/columns/HRC0324.html
TALKING IT OVER
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
March 24, 1998
KAMPALA, Uganda For most Ugandans, the night of Oct. 9, 1996, marked
the end of a day celebrating the country's Independence Day. For Angelina
Acheng, it was the beginning of a nightmare.
That evening, her 14-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was kidnapped from St.
Mary's School in Aboke, Uganda, by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a
terrorist group based in Southern Sudan that abuses civilians in Northern
Uganda. The kidnappers broke the windows of this girls' boarding school. They
tied up the girls, all of whom were younger than 16. They beat those who dared
to cry. And then they took away 139 of them 75 percent of the student body
-- and sent them into a life of unspeakable horror. Many, like Charlotte, have
not returned.
When I met with Angelina at the White House a few weeks before I came to
Uganda, she spoke movingly about her daughter and told me about the
organization she and other local parents had formed the Concerned Parents
Association. They work to save their children and all the other children held
captive by this group. Since 1994, with the shameful support of the Sudanese
government, the LRA has kidnapped as many as 10,000 children in Uganda.
These children are literally being snatched away from their homes. The boys
are used in battle as human shields. The girls are sent into slave labor, raped
and given away as "wives" to rebel commanders. They are often forced to kill
other children who don't obey or worse yet who try to escape.
The LRA invokes the name of the Lord, but there is no greater sin than making
children kill children or even the parents who brought them into this world.
Followers of the LRA call themselves soldiers, but they are cowards. Only
cowards would hide behind children in battle.
The plight of these children is part of a growing and alarming trend. It used to
go without saying that innocent women and children were not supposed to be
the targets of war; now, increasingly, they are not only targets but even
compelled to participate.
According to a 1996 U.N. Report, "Impact of Armed Conflict on Children,"
war affects millions of children all over the world. It steals their lives, violates
their innocence and destroys their families, leaving them to fend often
unsuccessfully for themselves. Unaccompanied children are far more likely
to be raped and assaulted. War forces vulnerable children as young as 8 to
become soldiers. It deforms their sense of right and wrong, turning 12-year-olds
into cold-blooded killers. It ends hope. More than 60 percent of Rwandan
children interviewed in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide said they did not
care whether they ever grew up.
One of Charlotte's classmates who managed to escape talked about what
happened when another girl tried to flee: "The girl was 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
1 of 2
7/3/2000 11:54 AM
TALKING IT OVER
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/columns/HRC0324.html
was not our will to kill her."
Another rescued student from St. Mary's School said, "I saw people's legs being
cut with either a panga or an ax. I saw a young baby of a few months held in
hand and beaten to death against a tree. Innocent people were being killed in a
way I never thought a human being could (act toward) another human being."
One girl simply wrote: "I'm pleading with you to find a way of stopping this
rebel activity so that we children of Northern Uganda could also share in the
peace that other children around the world are sharing in. We need peace."
I hope every citizen listens to these calls for peace and reaches out to Ugandans
like Angelina who are answering them. Already, groups like Human Rights
Watch and Amnesty International are shining a spotlight on this tragedy.
UNICEF is helping to investigate child abductions and get assistance to groups
working at the local level. And non-governmental organizations like World
Vision and Save the Children are operating trauma centers to care for children
who escape.
But we must join with the Ugandan people to do much more -- both to care for
the victims and address the root causes of this tragedy. During a speech at
Makerere University in Kampala this week, I was pleased to announce, on
behalf of the President, new steps that the U.S. government is taking to provide
assistance to local groups like the Concerned Parents Association to help them
find abducted children and give them the medical care they need to heal. The
United States will provide $2 million to help people plagued by rebel activity in
Northern Uganda get jobs rebuilding roads, dams, schools, health clinics and
ultimately their own lives and communities.
Finally, all nations should pressure Sudan to end its support for the LRA and its
cowardly abductions of children.
Children should never be used as weapons of war. If we speak with one voice
against these atrocities, then, next Independence Day in Uganda, parents like
Angelina will be able to celebrate freedom in the best possible way --
surrounded by their children.
COPYRIGHT 1998 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Talking it Over
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2 of 2
7/3/2000 11:55 AM
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Georgetown University, Eleanor Roosevelt Lectures
Washington, DC -December 4, 1998
Iam delighted to be here at this wonderful university. I want to thank my friend and your
president, Father O'Donovan, for his introduction, for his leadership, for his many contributions.
Not only here to this university but to the much broader American community as well.
I am delighted to be here with others, from whom you will hear as the program goes on.
Dr. Glen Johnson from Val-Kill and Dr. Dorothy Brown and Dr. Sue Martin, Ambassador Betty
King and Dr. McGrab and Dr. Milnik and your own Dr. Jo Ann Moran Cruz and Tracy
Roosevelt.
This is a very important first lecture and a very significant series that was undertaken by
the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill at Hyde Park in New York. I am very honored to be
taking part in this extraordinary lecture series and I'm very pleased to be a part of something that
preserves the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt. That gives new generations of all of us, men and
women, here in America and around the world, a real opportunity to know more about this
extraordinary woman.
What I wish to discuss this afternoon is how Eleanor Roosevelt's legacy as a person, as a
leader, as someone who in her own way makes human rights part of our everyday experience and
vocabulary, how she can help today to-continue to guide us in protecting the human rights of all
people and, in particular, of children. I believe that this is an important piece of unfinished
business in our century and one of the challenges of the new millennium. It is of course more
than fitting to have this first conversation about human rights at this great university and
community --one which has always responded to the call of service, God, and humanity. It is the
home, as Father O'Donovan just reminded us, of a student community that sends more than a
thousand young people a year into Washington, DC schools and neighborhoods bringing math,
and reading, and role modeling, and friendship, and a hug to some of our nation's most
vulnerable children. It is the home of a brilliant faculty that has devoted their lives to their
students, to scholarship, to service. Whether it's in the classroom or in some other activity,
Georgetown continues to make an important mark on what we are as a people, how we define
ourselves now and in the future. It is certainly the home of many distinguished alumni who have
used the Jesuit ethos of service in this world, from Mark Gearan who sends Peace Corps
volunteers to every corner of the Earth, to George Mitchell who helped bring peace to Northern
Ireland, from my husband, to my Chief of Staff Melanne Verveer who is with me here today.
Now, as you might imagine, being somewhat in awe of this great university which has
produced so many important people and that has made so many important contributions to our
country, I thought I needed to discuss this speech with Eleanor Roosevelt. (laughter and
applause) When I first told people some years ago that I sometimes hold imaginary conversations
1
with Mrs. Roosevelt, there were some --particularly, I must say, in the journalistic community
--who thought they finally had irrefutable evidence that I'd gone off the deep end. (laughter)
Well, I only can commend to you this imaginary conversation technique --whether it is with a
parent, a grandparent or a beloved former teacher or a famous person --it does help to get your
ideas straight because you say, "What would my grandmother say about this?" Or, "what would
Mrs. Jones, who desperately tried to prevent me from dangling participles, have to say about
this?" So talking to Mrs. Roosevelt, even in my imagination, has proven to be a very great
source of strength and inspiration. You can imagine some of the situations I find myself in when
I say, "Oh my good gracious, what would Mrs. Roosevelt say?" (laughter)
As anyone can tell you, particularly my daughter, I am technologically challenged. But, I
decided in preparation for this speech to try a more modern, more acceptable way of
communicating. So, first I tried to email her at [email protected], but I think the server
was down. I tried calling on her cell phone, but the circuits were busy. Then I tried paging her
but was told she had traveled to another part of Heaven to work with a group of angels on strike,
and that I would need a universal skypage to get through to her.
So there I was last night, I got home from New York late, worried about what I was going
to say, staring at some pages of print when I realized that her life has already given us the
guidance we need on today's topic so many times over. Not just some inspirational words that
we might hear in our minds, in our imaginary conversations such as, "The thing to remember is
to do the thing you think you cannot do." But also in her example, in the path that she created, in
the life that she lived. Wherever I go as First Lady, I am always reminded of one-thing: that
usually, Eleanor Roosevelt has been there before. I've been to farms in Iowa and factories in
Michigan, welfare offices in New York, where Mrs. Roosevelt paid a visit more than half a
century ago. When I went to Pakistan and India we discovered that Eleanor Roosevelt had been
there in 1952, and had written a book about her experiences.
So I was particularly honored when I received the Eleanor Roosevelt Center Gold Medal
at Val-Kill. A beautiful wooded retreat where she went to entertain friends and family to think
and to write. As I walked through her home I tried to imagine again how she worked tirelessly
there for what she believed in. And I was told a story that I've never forgotten. It was a day in
the 1950s and she had a speech to give in New York. She was so sick that her throat was literally
bleeding. Everyone wanted her to cancel, but she refused. She drove from Hyde Park to 125th
Street in Harlem. And when she got out of the car, a young girl with her face beaming handed
her a bouquet of flowers. Eleanor Roosevelt turned to the person with her and said, "You see, I
had to come. She was expecting me."
Well, they were always expecting her and she always came. She came to give support
and to give a voice to those without either. To the migrant workers who watched her march
through fields that had been newly plowed and were thick with muck, they would just
matter-of-factly greet her by saying, "Oh Mrs. Roosevelt, you've come to see us." As if it were
the most natural thing in the world. To the Japanese -Americans during World War II and to
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African Americans every day during her long life, she would help support people who faced
discrimination and challenges.
Another of my favorite stories is of an African American child, a first grader, whose
mother worked in a laundry mat. His father was a mechanic who couldn't get good work. They
lived in a tin shack without any foundation so every time it rained their house slid down the hill.
This child wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt telling her that his house was literally falling down a hill
So she went to Kentucky, set up a meeting with the heads of the realty association and the banks,
which led not only that child getting his house on much firmer footing, but also eventually to
integrated housing in Lexington, Kentucky. The next year in the mail, he sent his second grade
picture to Mrs. Roosevelt and she carried it with her to remind her of the boy she had never
personally met. On the back, he had written his name with such care, erasing it many times so
that it was just right, that it left an imprint on the front of the photo. He also included a letter,
"Dear Mrs. Roosevelt," it said "Thank you for my house. I know you did it."
Without fanfare, she went anywhere and everywhere she thought her presence would
make a difference. She wanted to see with her own eyes the everyday violations that rob
individuals of their dignity and all of us of our humanity. And then she rolled up her sleeves and
tried to do something about what she saw.
And that is the path she is asking us to walk today; to open our eyes and hearts, to use our
minds and hands, and fulfill the promises of her greatest achievements of all, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. It happened exactly 50 winters ago. As the Chair of the
commission drafting the Universal Declaration of Human rights, Eleanor Roosevelt worked
tirelessly from 1946 to 1948. Imagine how she must have felt on December 10, at 3:00 a.m.
when the nations of the world agreed to create this new common standard for human dignity.
We know how everyone else felt. The delegates stood and gave her a standing ovation.
Let me read a passage from that document: "The advent of a world in which human
beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief, freedom from fear and want have been
proclaimed as the highest aspirations of the common people." The declaration, as we know, did
not take place in a vacuum. As Father O'Donovan has already reminded us, it was a worldwide
response to evil, and I use that word deliberately. Those who study Hitler's rise to power and the
Holocaust know that the Nazis were able to pursue their crimes precisely because they were
successful at constricting the circle of those were defined as fully humans. The proceeded step
by step, through laws and propaganda --Jews, the mentally ill, the infirm, gypsies, homosexuals
-all of whom they identified as unworthy of life, as not human, as alien, other.
Throughout history, and even today, we have seen in many places and in many times this
cold dark region of the human soul, this schizophrenia of the soul that permits one group to
de-humanize another. And it was that all-too-human characteristic that the Declaration and
Eleanor Roosevelt wanted to help us resist. In the half century since the declaration, this
document has created an ideal that nations and individuals have reached towards, knowing that
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they will never quite achieve it, but knowing that we must never stop trying. Many countries
have used the Declaration for their own constitutions. Courts of law look to it. It has laid the
groundwork for the world's war crimes tribunals.
At the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, it was the
strength and challenge of this Declaration that enabled us to say for the world to hear that human
rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights. It was the power of the
Declaration that led in 1989 to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I am
very proud that my husband signed that. And now I hope with all my heart that the United States
will join with the Vatican and all the other nations of the world except Somalia and ratify the
Convention once and for all. (applause) And this is why. In spite of our progress on human
rights over the last half century, it is unconscionable that we still have not seen the circle of
human dignity expanded to include all the children of our world. There are still too many
excluded from the Declaration, too many whose suffering we fail to see, to hear, to feel, or to
stop.
Now, any look back in the course of human history shows that every nation, every
society, has its blind spots. Spots that somehow prevent us from understanding how the full
circle of rights should include all of our fellow human beings. In our country it has taken us
most of our 222 years --most of them bloody, few of them easy --to extend the benefits of
citizenship to African Americans, to those without property, and to women. Eleanor Roosevelt
was 35 years old before she was given the right to vote.
And we also know --especially in this new global economy -that no nation can move
ahead when its children are left behind. Eleanor Roosevelt understood that. She knew that
whether we treated children with respect would not only determine the quality of our lives, but
also who we were as a nation and what kind of life it would be for the next generation. You
could see it in the way she talked to children. I've seen so many pictures of her bending down
from her tall frame and leaning her entire body over to hear a child, looking right into the eyes of
that child, trying to understand that child's dream, trying to convey that she believed in that little
boy or girl, and she always tried to give those children a voice.
The Declaration makes that clear. It reads, "All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights." All human beings --it did not say all men, or all members of certain races,
regions or religions. It did not say all adults. It also did not make choices between children
because, in fact, it says specifically, All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall
enjoy the same social protection." Because human rights are not given to us by a parent or the
government. They do not miraculously appear when we turn 18. No piece of paper can give
them or take them away. We know that children should be treated with extra care --not less.
And every child should be viewed as endowed with all rights and dignity accorded to all human
beings.
Now of course that's not always been the view of children. For millennia we viewed
4
children as the property of their families, principally of their fathers. They were mostly used for
work --work outside and inside the house. Parents were given the right in every culture to
abandon, ignore or sell their children. But over the centuries, we grew to understand that
children were not just little adults, that they need the care, discipline and the love of a family.
And we began to understand too --as industrialization spread across the world --that in order for
children to be successful in the world that is being created, they needed education, they needed
protection, they needed to grow slowly but surely into adulthood. We have to only go back to
the 19th century to see how different times were. In Dickens' Hard Times, poor children grow
up in a town where the black soot from the factory virtually extinguishes the sun and the school
is taught by a teacher appropriately named Choke M. Child. So in this century, we have begun to
appreciate more that children are people, are individuals, and not property.
Now what does that mean to us? Well, clearly in our country, it has meant passing laws,
and enforcing them to prevent children from being abused in labor; being abused by those who
are closest to them --their family; being given certain protections, whether they are caught up in
the court system or the welfare system; being given the right of --which sounds, like an oxymoron
-compulsory education; being viewed in other words as people themselves who we must nurture
into full citizenship If you've ever worked with children, you can see in their eyes how so often
we fail at that very fundamental task of respecting them I've worked with abused and neglected
children for more than 25 years. I've looked into the eyes of many poor children, many
abandoned children, and I'm always amazed that there are some in our world who continue to
dismiss the suffering of children, who believe that somehow children are so resilient that they
will always bounce back, and it is not all of our responsibility to care for all of our children, and
that we interfere with the rights of parents when we do something as simple as try to prevent
children from being physically abused.
So we've changed attitudes, and we have seen great progress doing so here in our own
country and around the world. There are others who say that human rights are a Western
invention and that they come from a Judeo-Christian base and that they don't have universal
application. But we also know differently. We can go back and trace the roots of the beliefs that
were set forth in the Declaration. They were not invented 50 years ago. They are not the work
of a single culture, whether it is Confucius who articulated them in ancient China, or Sophocles
who wrote 2500 years ago about such rights and had Antigone declare there were ethical laws
higher than the laws of kings. But whether it is the Golden Rule --which appears in every
possible religion in one form or another --we know that at root we understand --whether we
admit it or not --that we as human beings are vowed to each other in a mutual realm of respect,
that we should nurture for our own sake, as well as for others.
Now what are these rights? Well, for children, the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child declares that every child is born with the right to be protected from abuse and abduction,
violence and work that threatens his or her development. It says that every child has the right to
worship freely and express opinions and aspirations, that every child has the right to health, to
education, to life. These are the promises that Eleanor Roosevelt and every other champion of
5
human rights held out for all people, but it has been up to us adults to make these promises real
in the lives of children.
In many African villages, I'm told that neighbors greet each other not by saying hello, but
by asking, "How are the children?" Well the answer is that today, 50 years after the Declaration,
children are doing better around the world. They are more likely to live to see their 5th birthday
and even their 75th. In health, nutrition, education, water supply and sanitation, three out of five
countries are pretty much on track to reach the child survival goals set by the 1990 World
Summit on Children. Over the last two decades, infant immunization rates rose from 5 percent
to 80 percent, saving more than 3 million lives a year.
Around the world, I have personally seen governments and non-governmental
organizations come together to put the lives of children first. Just a few months ago, Yemen
adopted a national strategy for girls' education, including eliminating school fees for girls. Last
year in the United States, we extended health insurance to millions of children, and enacted the
Adoption and Safe Families Act, which says that our first priority in the child welfare system is
the health and well-being of children. There are many examples I could give you of the progress
we have made:--certainly over 50 years, but even over 10 and the last 5 years. But still we have
to ask, "How are the children?" And the honest answer is, which children? Where do they live?
Who are their parents? How affluent are they? What kind of societies are they part of? Because,
despite the advances, in many places around the world children are not doing very well at all.
There are old foes like malnutrition and malaria and new foes like trafficking and child
prostitutes and laborers. There is still a long distance for us to travel.
Over the last few weeks I randomly had pulled headlines from around the world. From
Hong Kong, "Child Prostitutes Máke Tearful Plea;" in Bangladesh, "The Plight of Street
Children;" in Nairobi, "Poverty Blamed for Child Labor." Eleanor Roosevelt certainly would be
the first to point out that a child's rights go far beyond simply responding to the images that we
see on TV, or that reach us through the Internet or the newspaper. We have to ask ourselves,
each of us, "What is it I can do? What is it I can ask others to do? How can I move my
government, my church, my friends forward to do more for children?"
I think there are some very specific ways we can bear witness and things we can do to
support those children whose lives are not much better today than they were 50 years ago, or who
face new challenges --like being kidnaped, or being forced into combat --that we didn't even
dream of 50 years ago. We have to understand that we can't just be satisfied by giving children
help and nutrition for emergencies. We have to look at root causes. We have to support work by
our own government, by our development agencies like USAID, by international organizations
such as UNICEF. And it is particularly important that we do not forget the faces of the children
here in our country, at this time of prosperity and peace. Americans have so many blessings, but
there are even those among us who are being left out.
If we talk about human rights and freedoms we have to ask ourselves, "What does that
6
mean to the 7 million children who still die every year of malnutrition?" What does it mean to
the 585,000 women who still die of childbirth complications or the girls who are fed last and fed
least because they are not valued as much as their brothers?
What meaning can it have for a child who does not have access to school or for one who
is shut out at school? We know that education, especially for girls, is the single best investment
any country can make. It is what will give children a better future, keep them out of the labor
market before they're ready, and keep them off the streets. And yet, 140 million primary school
age children are not in school --60 percent of that 140 million are girls. And I have seen
first-hand the obstacles, the cultural and economic obstacles that stand in the way of sending girls
to school. In a small village outside of Lahore, Pakistan I visited with mothers who had sent
their daughters to local primary school, and now they had daughters who had graduated who
wanted to go on with their education, but there was no secondary school. I've met with families
in Bangladesh, who in return for food and money permitted their daughters to go to school. It
was a bribe, but it was a worthy bribe.
I've also visited places where child labor is the norm not the exception and, as Eleanor
Roosevelt said when she championed the Child Labor Amendment in our own country so many
years ago, "No civilization should be based on the labor of children.' But that is happening
every day --even in this country because children are being forced into labor, sold into labor, and
we are not doing enough about it. The types of labor children are subjected to in this new global
economy have perhaps changed, but not the impact on the child. It is not a problem of the past.
It should not be excused by saying that parents need money. And we should not close our eyes.
to the work of children that goes into beautiful carpets or comfortable running shoes because the
fact remains that one quarter of the children in the developing world, 120 million, work full time.
It's a very difficult problem because many of them are the sole support of their families often
with widowed or abandoned mothers, with younger siblings, or they're helping to supplement the
hard earned income of a father.
The new face of child labor also includes things that I don't think Eleanor Roosevelt even
thought to worry about. Girls are being sold as part of an international trade in human beings
from South Asia, to the Middle East, to Central America. It is estimated that there are 250,000
children in Haiti alone who are virtually enslaved as domestic servants. I heard about that on my
recent trip to Haiti. How they are often given away, sold, separated from their families, sexually
and physically abused, malnourished, and literally sometimes worked to death. There are girls
that I've met in Northern Thailand, when I visited their village I could tell by looking at their
parents' homes which ones had sold their daughters into prostitution. The homes were bigger,
nicer, they sometimes even had an antenna or satellite on top. But the next day I visited with
some of the daughters that had been sold into the brothels in Bangkok and other cities who, after
they became infected with HIV, were thrown out onto the streets and found their way home.
They were rejected by their families, and thanks to the good services of relief and religious
organizations they were taken in. And I met those girls --some of them as young as 12 --dying
from AIDS.
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Eleanor Roosevelt worked hard to rescue European refugee children during World War
II. But I don't know if she, or anyone, could have seen the horrific ways in which children are
now being brutalized by war. Until relatively recently in human history, war was being fought
out between soldiers. Some conscripts, some volunteers, but by in large adult men --counting
teenagers in their mid to late teens in some societies who were part of whatever the war effort
was. In the last twenty or so years, that has increasingly not been the case. Who will speak
today for the two million children that have been in conflicts in the last two decades, with six
million seriously injured or permanently disabled, the one million left without parents or the
twelve million left without homes? The primary victims of modern warfare are women, and
children, and civilians --people who are picked on as victims, who are kidnaped by perpetrators,
who are forced into being refugees. Who will speak for those children who are being used as
instruments of war? From the young girls systematically raped in Bosnia, to the quarter of a
million child soldiers around the world.
Who will speak for the three children I recently met in Uganda --Janet Issac and Betty?
Like many children in Northern Uganda, they have literally been stolen from their homes. The
boys are used in battle as human shields. The girls are sent into slave labor, usually raped, and
then given away as wives to rebel commanders. The children are often forced to kill other
children who don't obey or try to escape. The rebels call themselves soldiers but they are
cowards, for only cowards would hide behind children in battle.
I met the head of a boarding school, a nun, Sister Rachele. Her 139 female students had
been the subject of a raid by the rebels who had crossed the Sudanese border, had taken the
school, tied the girls up, beaten them, and then taken them all away into the dead of night. But
this tiny little woman of God was determined to get them back. She went after them, she was
armed usually only with her faith, but she was able to pull together some funds to ransom some
of the children out. She served as a safe haven for those who could find their way back. Many
have, but I was sad to talk with the mother of one of those students who has not been rescued.
Her mother doesn't know if she's alive or dead. She only knows that she was taken as part of a
war that she has no say in whatsoever.
We also know that we cannot fulfill the journey that the Declaration started us on when
100 million street children now live in the developing world alone. They are out of school,
without homes or families. They' re left to take care of themselves, they roam the streets in
tattered clothing, they sell gum, and they beg and they dig through the trash for food. I've seen
them in Bulgaria. Roma children --one of the most discriminated against groups in Europe --you
might call them gypsies. Roma children, sometimes by their own parents, are put out on the
street to beg. Or if there are too many children in the family some are just left there. Or if they
want to go to school instead of turning tricks they are left there.
I also saw them in Brazil where three street children a day are killed, usually by police
doing the bidding of merchants who are tired of having these children camped in front of their
stores. In both Bulgaria and Brazil, I saw how caring people can make a difference. I visited a
8
center run by a Bulgarian-American who has taken in children off the streets who are now going
to school and learning, and thinking about a better future. But it's a small number of those that
need to be helped. I visited a unique program in Brazil in Salvador de Bahia. A circus school
where children were taken in and taught skills to entertain people who would come and see them
perform. They would then have money so they could be housed, and given food, and educated
--children who once had no future, thinking they wouldn't have one. It's not only in warm
places like Brazil --I visited a center for street children in Mongolia where the children, because
of the rapid changes in social life, because of problems adjusting to the new global economy, are
either being pushed out or running away from homes that are in a great deal of stress and turmoil.
When we think about what is happening with these tens of millions of children around the
world, we certainly cannot forget that there are still children here in Washington, DC and
throughout America that need their rights protected as well. We should not, for example,
condemn violence against children in Kosovo and turn away from it on the streets of
Washington We cannot mourn the children of Mongolia and forget about homeless children
here, or raise our voices about children out of school in Guatemala and close our mouths when
young people here drop out We have to do better by our own children as well. We've been
making progress here and around the world.
I've been pleased that this administration, under the President, has put the protection of
children on the front burner. For example, this year, we are increasing by tenfold our U.S.
commitment to take children out of abusive workrooms and put them in classrooms all over the
world. Since September, the Voice of America has been broadcasting monthly public service
announcements asking parents if they ve talked about their children's health today, focusing on
child survival issues, talking hard talk in some places, like not feeding your girl children, or
being exposed to HIV and AIDS. We join with Ukraine to combat trafficking of girls in and out
of that country. And from Guatemala to Nepal, I've seen how small investments in educational
scholarships for girls, or safe birthing kits, or Vitamin A, can lift up and transform lives. So
there is much that we can point to that is heading in the right direction, but there is much more
we have to do.
Another story from Eleanor Roosevelt. She once talked about receiving a letter from an
African American boy who had taken a drink out of what was then considered the wrong water
fountain, and he was beaten up for it. He sent her the cup he had used to get the water and
explained what happened. She not only kept that cup, she carried it around with her as a
reminder of all the work yet to be done. I wish we each had some little talisman that we could
carry around with us, that would remind us everyday of the work still to be done. I hope we
remember the children who are victims and weapons of war when Congress revisits our United
Nations dues. It should be unacceptable to all Americans of any political persuasion that the
richest and most powerful country in the world is the number one debtor to the United Nations.
(applause)
I hope we remember the children toiling in glass and shoe factories as we work to fulfill
9
the promises and one day ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I
hope we continue to do all that we can to help promote democracy around the world to make sure
that all parents have a voice that will be heard from the ballot box, and even the soap box, so they
can speak out on behalf of the needs of their children. We know that we have to do more than
pass, and even implement new laws. We have to teach people that they do have rights, and how
to exercise them
I was particularly pleased by an American-funded project I saw recently in Senegal.
Where out in the villages they're learning about democracy, they're acting out skits. Someone
stands up and expresses an opinion and then another stands up and they discuss it and take a vote
on it. The rudiments of democracy. And in this skit are both men and women participating. As
a result of that democracy skit one small village, after talking about issues that effected them
--health, the education of their children --to put an end to female circumcision. That was a very
brave decision. They convinced people in the village that it should be done, and they put it to a
vote and they voted for it. And then, two men in their village went from their village to other
villages and started talking to the people in the other villages and explaining that they had read
the Koran and there was nothing in it that talked about this It was not good for their daughters,
it sometimes led to them hemorrhaging and bleeding to death, and sometimes caused grave
complications in childbirth. Slowly, village after village began to recognize that it was a
fundamental right of a young girl to grow up whole, to have her health protected. And then, the
next thing I knew I got a letter saying these villages had banded together and presented a petition
to the President and that a law would be passed. Now that law will not end this cultural custom,
but it will begin to change attitudes about it. More and more girls and women will say, "No, this
is not necessary."
There are certain rights to health that we need to protect. First, think of what we could
accomplish if we valued and respected every child, with particular emphasis on girl children,
because they are still the most at risk in so many societies around the globe. If we are to put
children's rights on the same level as adult's rights, then we have to think about what it is that we
want for our own children. Those of us in this beautiful Gaston Hall, who try to keep our
children healthy, who try to give them good educations that lead to a fine university education
like this one here at Georgetown. We try to protect them from abuse and neglect and
abandonment and desertion. We try not to put them to work in full time jobs before they are
ready. So we have to think about what we want for ourselves, and in many countries where some
of the worst violations of children's rights occur, those who are in power protect their own
children and then look at others' children as being beyond the circle of human dignity.
So we have to complete that circle, and that falls to every generation. It fell to our
parents who fought off depression and oppression. It fell to the generation that fought for civil
rights and for human rights. And it falls to each of us, particularly the students who are here
today. I like very much the article that Tracy Roosevelt recently wrote. She talked about the
legacy that her great grandmother left all of us and that any young person could follow by
standing up for the rights of others by standing against stereotyping of any person or group of
10
people.
Now we might not have Eleanor Roosevelt's stature --either in height or in life --but each
of us can contribute to a child's future. We can make sure that we are part of a society that
values health care for everyone, a good education for everyone, the strength of families to give
them the tools they need to raise their own children with future possibilities, to make sure we do
everything we can to live free from abuse and violence and war, and to make it possible for every
person and every child to speak freely and live up to their own God-given potential.
As we look forward to the next fifty years, we will face many challenges and
opportunities. It was almost 50 years ago that Eleanor Roosevelt spoke about this. She spoke
about democracy and human rights to a group of students, both high school and college students,
in New York. As we listen to her those words still ring true today. She said, "Imagine it's you
people gathered here in this room who are going to do a great deal of the thinking and the actual
doing because a good many of us are not going to see the end of this period. You are going to
live in a dangerous world for quite a while I guess, but it's going to be an interesting and
adventurous one. I wish you courage to face yourselves and when you know what you really
want to fight for, not in a war, but to fight for in order to gain a peace, then I wish for you
imagination and understanding. God bless you. May you win."
Those words are just as true for this generation of students as they were fifty years ago for
the ones that Eleanor Roosevelt spoke to. I go back to that first story, despite how sick she was,
she showed up and took that bouquet of flowers from that young girl. "You see" she said, "I had
to come, she was expecting me." Think about all of the children who are expecting us. Think
about, as we go forward into Advent and celebrate this Christmas season, about a particular child
who no one was expecting but grew up to give us a chance to think anew, to live again in ways
that connect us more deeply and profoundly to one another. Eleanor Roosevelt can serve as an
inspiration, and a reminder that although as President Kennedy said, "God's work on this Earth is
our own," we know that we can never complete it. But we know that we can live richer lives if
we try. To the children of America and the world, you see, we have to come, because they are
expecting us to make good on the promises that were made to them fifty years ago.
###
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Kampala, Uganda)
For Immediate Release
March 25, 1998
REMARKS OF 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 this 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, and the Deputy Speaker of the
Parliament, the Minster 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 these principles. And yet, I know 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 are 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 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 kidnaped 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, 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 chances 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 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 of 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.
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 those 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 a 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 or country. They are universal and
timeless.
Sophocles wrote about universal human rights 2500 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 their 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 Dinak 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 a 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 the 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 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 trade unionists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they
came for Catholics and I didn't speak out because I was a Catholic. 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 affiliated 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 for women in African and all over the globe.
Too many of them everyday do the work that needs to be done-- managing the home, feeding,
schooling, and caring for the 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 a part of the decisions that will 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 laws 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 those 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 the young
boys and girls ready to learn so 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 against: violence against women; the practice of
genital mutilation; women and children who are brutalized by conflict whenever 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 past year have voted in their villages to end this practice and they
are helping others to do the same.
We must also speak up for women and children caught up in war in and conflict around
the world. It used to be that women, children, and civilians were to be protected during a war.
Today, they are increasingly 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 kidnaped 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 t he 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 that 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 kidnaped 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 a 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 understand 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 your 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 bee part of Uganda's life.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
END
5:23 P.M. (L)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
July 5, 2000
PRESS BRIEFING BY
ERIC SCHWARTZ,
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
FOR MULTILATERAL AND HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
11:20 A.M. EDT
MR. CROWLEY: We basically have a foreign policy morning in
progress here. You've heard from the President. This afternoon
he goes up to New York to sign two protocols regarding children.
And then also, in a couple of minutes, the President meets with
family members and representatives from religious organizations
regarding the recent verdicts regarding the Baha'i Jews that were
convicted by Iranian courts. And after that, there will be
representatives at the stakeout, and we'll do a readout of that
meeting informally.
But first, just to briefly tee up the President's trip to
New York this afternoon, Eric Schwartz, who is the Senior
Director of the National Security Council for Multilateral and
Humanitarian Affairs, will give you a brief synopsis of these two
protocols.
We'll start off with Eric ON THE RECORD.
MR. SCHWARTZ: I'll just take a minute or two to describe
what the President is going to be doing this afternoon in New
York. He'll be signing two important protocols. These are
basically international agreements advancing international
efforts to eliminate abuses against children.
The United States will be among the first to sign these two
protocols, these two agreements. The first is on the involvement
of children in armed conflict, and the second is on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography.
The President intends to submit these protocols to the
Senate later this month for advice and consent, and the
administration will seek to work very closely with the Senate in
efforts to achieving ratification.
Let me say a very brief word about each one of these
agreements. The protocol on the involvement of children in armed
conflict in the United States, I think we will be about the
eighth government to have signed this protocol when the President
does it this afternoon. This is a terrible problem, from Angola
to Colombia. Children as young as seven or eight are engaged in
various forms of armed conflict in many parts of the world.
Now, this agreement has a few critical features. First, it
will mandate that governments take all feasible measures to
ensure that persons below the age of 18 do not take a direct part
in hostilities. It will also bar compulsory recruitment below
the age of 18 and mandate that all states set a minimum voluntary
recruitment age above the current standard, which is 15. It will
also require that states do everything possible to prevent
nongovernmental groups, insurgencies, from using and recruiting
children under 18.
Let me just say that, especially in terms of the
requirement, that we take all feasible measures to ensure that
those under 18 do not take an active part in hostilities. The
Departments of State and Defense were deeply involved in these
negotiations. The Department of Defense in particular carefully
considered whether we could undertake such an obligation, and
concluded that we could do so while fully protecting our
recruitment and our readiness requirements.
Let me say a quick word about the second agreement, the
second optional protocol on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography. This agreement is a
significant advance for several reasons. First, it actually
defines these terms internationally for states that are looking
to promulgate domestic law, and it requires that these abuses be
criminalized. States that are part of this protocol are required
to criminalize these abuses.
It also establishes clear and strong grounds for
jurisdiction and extradition. In fact, the protocol itself
provides a basis for extradition for these crimes, and there are
extensive provisions in the protocol for cooperation between
states in dealing with these really horrendous abuses.
So these are the two instruments that the President will
sign this afternoon in New York, and if anyone has any questions,
I'd be happy to take them.
Q
Do you have any idea of how many children are involved
in conflict and prostitution and pornography? And secondly, am I
right in thinking that these are protocols to an agreement or a
convention that the United States has not ratified, so we're
lending our name to something that we haven't approved the
overall agreement?
MR. SCHWARTZ: The short answer to your second question is
yes, but these protocols are free-standing, and by their terms
they indicate that countries that have not ratified the
underlying convention can certainly ratify -- sign and ratify the
protocol.
The U.S. signed the convention -- the underlying convention
on the rights of children in 1995 and we certainly support its
objectives of promoting children's rights throughout the world.
We haven't submitted the convention to the Senate for advice and
consent.
Frankly, many senators have expressed concerns that the
convention would infringe on U.S. sovereignty, on the rights of
parents and on state and local law, and given these particular
concerns, our own first priority as an administration has been to
work toward Senate advice and consent and ratification of those
human rights instruments where we have clearly a broader
consensus within both the Executive and Legislative Branches,
such as earlier in this administration the elimination on all
forms of racial discrimination.
Last year, we ratified an ILO convention on the worst forms
of child labor. So that has been our priority focus. But these
protocols stand on their own and we are fully authorized to sign
and ratify them, notwithstanding the underlying convention.
Q
And the number of children involved that you're --
MR. SCHWARTZ: It's difficult to say, but I don't think tens
of thousands would be too much of an overstatement.
Q
In both categories, or just - -
MR. SCHWARTZ: I can't speak about sale of children, child
pornography and prostitution. I just don't know.
Q
So your tens of thousands is involved in conflict --
armed
MR. SCHWARTZ: Yes, in recent years tens of thousands.
I would say at least.
Q
The first protocol deals with keeping children directly
out of conflict. Is there any measure to address children
playing other roles in the conflict? I mean, like cooking food
or bringing supplies? Children play a lot of roles in some of
these Third World conflicts.
MR. SCHWARTZ: This gets into sort of definitions. I really
would refer you to the Department of Defense, which is in the
process of putting together proposed guidelines. And the all-
feasible measures standard in the protocol recognizes the fact
that you could have a company or battalion in a certain situation
where they are not involved in hostilities, but they could find
themselves involved in hostilities. And the protocol obviously
allows for that fact.
Q
Presumably, these protocols achieve some or most of the
named intentions of the '95 convention on rights of children,
which has yet to be ratified. And if that's the case, is there
anything in the wording of these protocols that suggest they' 11
have any trouble with the Senate?
MR. SCHWARTZ: Well, first, let me say in direct response,
our ratification of these protocols do not imply obligations to
any other agreements which the United States has not ratified,
and that's a critical point, and I think it addresses your
question directly, because the United States was deeply involved
in the negotiations surrounding both these protocols, and there
were a great deal of discussions back and forth within the
Departments of Defense, State and Justice with respect to the
exploitation of children protocol, and we fully supported
adoption of both protocols on their terms.
The problem you suggested doesn't exist because our
accession to these two protocols, again, does not imply
undertaking obligations to an agreement that we haven't ratified.
Q Did they require any changes in U.S. law?
MR. SCHWARTZ: On the children in armed conflict, the answer
to that question is no, and I believe the answer to the second
one is no, but I would need to check on it and we'll get back to
you. I'm not 100 percent sure on the second, but let me get back
to you on the second.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
11:33 A.M. EDT
(62617)
62617
Invitation List for 7/5/00 POTUS Signing Event
Draft of 7/1, 6:00 p.m.
[Bracketed Names] indicate courtesy invitations, though unlikely
to attend.
Members of Congress (All cleared by Susan Jacobs and Miles)
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
[Sen. Jesse Helms]
SFRC
[Marshall
Helms staffer on
Billingsley]
child soldiers; on
vacation in NJ
[Richard Douglass]
Helms staffer on
Sale of Children
[Sen. Joseph Biden]
SFRC
Sen. Paul Wellstone
Sponsored Child
Soldiers Bill
[Sen. John Warner]
Armed Services Comm.
[Sen. Levin]
Armed Services Comm.
Sen. Brownback
Trafficking
Legislation
[Rep. Spence]
[Rep. Skelton]
Rep. John Lewis
Sponsored Child
Susan Jacobs thinks
Soldiers Bill
may attend
Joe Bryant
Lewis staffer
Susan Jacobs
suggested
[Rep. Gejdensen]
HIRC
[Rep. Ben Gilman]
HIRC, NY delegation
[Sen. Chuck Schumer]
NY delegation
[Sen. Daniel
NY delegation
Moynihan]
Rep. Nita Lowey
NY delegation;
cosponsor of Child
Soldiers bill
[Rep. Charlie
NY delegation
Rangel]
[Rep. Jerry Nadler]
NY delegation
White House (to be completed by OPL)
:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
POTUS
2
First Lady's Office (to be completed by Office of First Lady):
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
FLOTUS
Melanne Verveer
NSC:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
I
Sandy Berger
Eric Schwartz
Multilat
Y
Dan Feldman
Multilat
Anne Witkowsky
Defense
Brooke Anderson
Comm.
Jane Stromseth
Former Multilat;
negotiated child
soldiers
y
Sarah Schear
Jane's daughter
State Dept:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
[Sec. Albright]
[Theresa Loar]
Koh suggested
Amb. Frank Loy
Trafficking
Would like to attend
initiatives
Dan Smith
Loy staffer
No - on leave
Amb. Michael
Child Soldiers Head
Would like to attend
Southwick
of Delegation
David Welch
IO
Bill Wood?
IO
Asst. Sec. Harold
DRL
Would like to
Koh
attend;
203-865-8817 (h)
Koh Family: Mary-
Harold can only
Y
Christy Fisher,
attend if family
Emily Koh (14)
attends with him.
William Koh (10)
Rosa Ehrenreich
DRL; negotiated
Child Soldiers
[Asst. Sec. Julia
PRM
Harold suggested
Taft]
3
[Amb. Susan Jacobs]
State/H
Mike Dennis
L: Sale of Children
Would like to attend
Y
Head of Delegation
DOD:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
[U/S Walt Slocombe]
[Brian Sheridan]
Y
Jim Bodner
Principal Dep'y Sec.
Schear thought might
attend
Admiral Patricia
Responsible for
Y
Tracey
implementation
guidelines
Col. Halliday?
Tracey's staff;
testified on Hill
Y
Jim Schear
Would attend
Y
Eliana Davidson
OSD Legal;
Would attend
negotiated treaty
Deborah Rosenblum
OSD
Marc Cheek
Schear's staff
Hagenbach
JCS
Col. Kevin Vietti
JCS
Col. Chip Brooks
JCS Legal
Maj. Esther Swartz
JCS Legal
DOJ:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
[A/G Reno]
Will be in NY on 4th;
interest in
children's rights
[Asst AG James
Criminal Division
Robinson]
Regina Hart
Head of delegation
on Sale of Children
Protocol
Misc. Govt:
4
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
Sec. Summers
Will be at UNHQ for
ECOSOC lunch
w/Holbrooke
Gene Sperling
NEC - responsible
Schear suggested
for child labor and
originally child
soldiers
Sarah Rosen Wartell
NEC - responsible
Schear suggested
for child labor and
originally child
soldiers
Hugh Parmer
USAID
Southwick/Schwartz
suggested
Andrew Samet?
U/S of Labor - tied
2
to last year's ILO
182
Brady Brady anousan andress
6
USUN:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
Amb. Holbrooke
USUN
Jim Cunningham
Mike Gallagher
ECOSOC
Betty King
Mary Ellen Glynn
Peter Londono?
Rosemary variey
UN:
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
Y
Deputy SYG Frechette
(SYG unavailable)
Ruggie invited; will
attend
it
John Ruggie
Olara Otunnu (+
Special
Available to speak,
Y
others?)
Representative of
if we want him to
the SYG for Children
in Armed Conflict
Catherine Von
Chaired Child
In country?
?
Heidenstam
Soldier's Standing
Committee
5
Ralph Ekeus
Retiring Swedish
Stromseth suggested
Ambassador to U.S.;
due to his interest
interest in child
and Sweden's
soldiers
assistance
Ophelia Carleta
Special Rapporteur
CUBAN CITIZEN - IS
Santos (sp?)
for Sale of Children
SHE IN NY?
NGO Suggestions by State/DOD (Koh/Southwick/Ehrenreich/Schear) :
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
Jo Becker
Human Rights Watch;
Southwick contacted
played key NGO role
6/30; said she would
in child soldiers
attend and act as
NSE
"validator"
Lois Whitman
Human Rights Watch
Harold suggested
Ken Roth
Human Rights Watch
Rosa suggested
Executive Director
212-290-4706
Mike Posner
Executive Director,
NSC
Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights
(and played
substantial role in
child labor)
NSC
Norman Dorsen
Board Member, LCHR,
212-998-6233
NYU Law Prof.
Tom Bernstein
Board President,
212-336-6855
LCHR
Bob Bernstein
212-280 972-8400
Kurt
Amnesty Int'l
Harold suggested
Adatei Akwey
Amnesty Int'l
Rosa suggested
Gail Furman
Committee for
Harold suggested
Refugee Women and
Children
Mary Diaz
Committee for
Rosa suggested
Refugee Women and
212-551-3086
Children, Exec. Dir.
212.551-3000
Prof. Marty
NYU Law Prof.
Guggenheim
Prof. Lou Henkin &
Columbia Law Prof.
Alice Henkin
Aspen Institute
Prof. Lori Damrosch
Columbia Law Prof.
Jim Silk
Director, Schell
Rosa suggested
Center of Human
Rights, Yale Law
6
Prof. Paul Kahn
Schell Center of
Rosa suggested
Human Rights, Yale
Law
an
Carol Bellamy
Director, UNICEF
Contact Name?
American Friends
Service Center
Larry Korb
CFR; former Ass't
SecDef for Manpower
under Bush;
Republican; advocate
of child soldiers
protocol
DO
Ruth Wedgwood
CFR; Yale Law prof. ;
interest in child
soldiers
Gen. Shalikashvili
8D
Played behind scenes
Schear suggested
role; friendly
w/Julia Taft
Steve Rickert
Formerly of Amnesty
Marian Wright
CDF; children's
Edelman
rights advocate
Tom Franck
NYU Law Prof
in
Ren Levy, President
Int'l Rescue
212-551-3000
Committee
w
Wendy Luers
Foundation for a
212-223-6530
Civil Society
Joan Ganz Cooney?
(NOUBROOKG-CIST)
NGO Suggestions Culled from 5/29/97 UN Invite (note: contacts
are 3 years old, so follow-up could prove difficult):
Invitee
Organization/Reason
Contact/Inviter/
for Invite
Response
Barry Steinhardt
ACLU
212-354-5290
Trudy Mason
American Jewish
212-879-4500
Congress
Andrew Clapham, UN
Amnesty Int'l
212-867-8878
Rep
Murray Koppelman
American Ort
212-353-5800
Deborah Jacobs
Association of Bar
212-382-6600
of City of New York
Marjorie Sorensen
Association for
212-988-3225
World Education
7
Mr. Techeste
Baha'i International
212-803-2500
Alderon, UN Rep
Community (and also)
NGO Community on
Human Rights
Sandra Sennett Tully
CARE; UN Program
212-362-2763
Liaison
James Sullivan,
Catholic Relief
212-742-8778
Director
Services
Elena Chaves
Caritas
212-759-2248
Internationals
Michael McCoy,
Center for Citizen
212-431-3938
Director
Advocacy
Dr. Kevin M. Cahill
Center for
212-434-2994
International Health
and Cooperation
Rodney Page,
Church World Service
212-870-2175
Executive Director
Dr. Peggy McEvoy
Doctors of the World
212-226-9890
Nancy Marvel
Episcopal Church of
212-922-5129
the USA, Presiding
Bishop's Fund for
World Relief
John Palmer
Hellen Keller Int'l
212-943-0890
Livia Farkas
Int'l Catholic
212-777-5400
Migration Commission
Peter Kung, Head of
Int'l Comm. of the
212-599-6021
Delegation
Red Cross
Satnam Chana
Int'l Federation of
212-501-7435
Human Rights USA
Eigil Pedersen
Int'l Federation of
212-338-0161
Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies
Liaison Office at
the UN
Robert Grant
Int'l Humanist &
914-633-7900
Ethical Union
Robert Kaplan, UN
Int'l League for
212-684-1221
Rep.
Human Rights
Contact name?
Int'l Peace Academy
212-687-4300
Joelle Tanguy
Medecins Sans
212-679-6800
Frontieres USA
Dr. Harry Lerner
Medical Action for
212-983-3353
Global Security
Paul Wilson,
National Council of
212-870-2511
Director, Inter.
Churches
Affairs
8
Vera Rivera
Nat'l Council of
212-697-1278
Women of the U.S.
Betty Obal
Peace Action Int'l
212-750-5795
Stephen and Berit
Quaker UN Office
212-682-2745
Collett
Y
Charles MacCormach,
Save the Children
212-682-6881
President
Jonathan Cohen
United Nations
212-907-1300
Association - USA
Charles J. Lyons,
U.S. Comm. For
212-686-5522
President and CEO
UNICEF
Rody Reyes-Russi
U.S. Committee for
212-922-2657
UNICEF
Ann Florgat
Women's Int'l League
212-924-8708
for Peace and
Freedom
Gail Lerner
World Council of
212-867-5890
Churches
Daniel F. Feldman
07/02/2000 04:16:55 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
Laura Efurd/WHO/EOP@EOP, Christine A. Stanek/WHO/EOP@EOP, Ruby Shamir/WHO/EOP@EOP,
Heather L. Davis/WHO/EOP@EOP
CC:
Eric P. Schwartz/NSC/EOP@EOP, Brooke D. Anderson/NSC/EOP@EOP, Robert A.
Bradtke/NSC/EOP@EOP, Leah F. Pisar/NSC/EOP@EOP
Subject: Amb. Hobrooke's Input into the Guest List
Laura/Christine -- Additions to the list from Holbrooke. Looks like we may not need to worry about filling
space after all -- this has more than 50 names on it. Of those, almost half are affiliated with the UN, which
Holbrooke's office has offered to call if you'd like. The Security Council is considering a resolution at the
same time as our event on Wed. afternoon, so we may not need to worry about the 14 UNSC PermReps
showing up. Let's talk later tonight or first thing Mon. morning about the logistics of paring down our
collective list, making the calls Mon. morning, and as Rick asked me this morning, being able to get a list
to UN Protocol by 3:00 Mon. that's 80% final as to attendees at the event. Thanks. Dan
Forwarded by Daniel F. Feldman/NSC/EOP on 07/02/2000 01:47 PM
"Syptak, Stephanie USUN" <[email protected]>
07/02/2000 12:08:17 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
Daniel F. Feldman/NSC/EOP
CC:
Subject: Amb. Hobrooke's Input into the Guest List
Good morning, Dan.
Amb. Holbrooke would like the following people invited to Wednesday's event.
I have broken the list into three categories. Amb. Holbrooke will
personally invite all the people in Category 1 as they are all close friends
of his. We will leave Category 2 and 3 people to your office so as to
minimize the confusion. I will be sure to let you know ASAP of any RSVP's
that we might receive from the folks in Category 1.
Category 1 -
1. Mrs. Robin Chandler Duke
2. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Beattie
c
3. Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Mai
4. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Peterson
5. Ms. Adrienne Germaine - Exec. Director, International Women's Health
Coalition
6. Ms. Joan Dunlop - Rockefeller Brothers Fund. also part of International
Woman's Health Coalition
7. Dr. and Mrs. Isadore Rosenfeld
8. Ms. Ellen Schessler
9. Ms. Joy de Menil
10. Dr. Mitchell and Sarah Rosenthal - Phoenix House Group
11. Amb. William Luers - UNA/USA (please note that he is the husband of
Wendy Luers who is already on your list) 212-288-0034
Category 2 -
12. Sen. and Mrs. Tim Wirth) 202 887-9040
13. Congressman Joe Crowley
14. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
15. Congressman Ben Gilman
16. Congressman Donald Payne
17. Sen. Robert Torricelli
D
18. Sen. and Mrs. Charles Schumer
a
19. Gov. and Mrs. Pataki
20. Congressman Gregory Meeks
21. Congressman Jose Serrano
22. Congressman Charles Rangel
Category 3
2m
23. Mr. and Mrs. Mark Malloch Brown - Administrator, UNDP (Phone: (212)
906-5791)
24. Ms. Katherine Bertini - Director, World Food Program (Phone : (212)
963-8439)
25. Representatives to the UN Security Council -
Amb. Jeremy Greenstock (UK) (Phone: (212) 745-9334)
Amb. Jean David Levitte (France) (Phone: (212) 702-4949)
Amb. Wang Yingfan (China) (Phone: (212) 655-6191)
Amb. Sergey Lavrov (Russia) (Phone: (212) 861-4327)
Amb. Arnaldo Listre (Argentina) (Phone: (212) 688-6300)
Amb. Robert Fowler (Canada) (Phone: (212) 848-1150)
PLOBARCY
Amb. Agam Hasmy (Malaysia) (Phone: (212) 986-6310)
Amb. Martin Andjaba (Namibia) (Phone: (212) 685-1952)
Amb. Peter Van Walsum (Netherlands) (Phone: (212) 697-5547 Ext. 1612)
Amb. Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh) (Phone: (212) 867-3434)
Amb. Patricia Durrant (Jamaica) (Phone: (212) 935-7509)
Amb. Moctar Oaune (Mali) (Phone: (212) 737-4150)
Amb. Said Ben Mustapha (Tunisia) (Phone: (212) 751-7503)
Amb. Volodymyr Y.Yel'chenko (Ukraine) (Phone: (212) 759-7003)
26. Amb. Kamalesh Sharma (India) (Phone: (212) 490-9670)
27. Amb. M. Abdallah Baali (Algeria) (Phone: (212) 750-1960)
28. Amb. Ahmed Aboul- Gheit (Egypt) (Phone: (212) 503-0338)
29. Amb. Dumisana Kumalo (South Africa) (Phone: (212) 692-2465)
30. Amb. Penny Wensley (Asutralia) (Phone: (212) 351-6611)
31. Amb. Shamshad Ahmad (Pakistan) (Phone: (212) 879-8600)
Please note that Amb. Holbrooke had also included Wendy Luers, Reynold Levy,
Carol Bellamy, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, and Sen. and Mrs. Moynihan on his
list. They are already on your list.
Please also note that I will take care of inviting the USUN employees that
are on your list. Let us know if you need assistance with any other phone
numbers.
Thanks.
Stephanie
Daniel F. Feldman
07/02/2000 05:43:32 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
Laura Efurd/WHO/EOP@EOP, Christine A. Stanek/WHO/EOP@EOP
CC:
Subject: Re: Amb. Hobrooke's Input into the Guest List
laura/christine --
some final additions to the list. think that the "save the children" contact makes good sense (and they're
in ct, so could easily get there). let's put the others on our NGO "B" list. dan
Forwarded by Daniel F. Feldman/NSC/EOP on 07/02/2000 03:44 PM
Peter Smith
07/02/2000 05:33:10 PM
Record Type: Record
To:
Daniel F. Feldman/NSC/EOP@EOP
CC:
Subject: Re: Amb. Hobrooke's Input into the Guest List
here are some additional NGOs with offices in/near NYC, that might be good matches for the signing
event:
If you want to read more about the orgs, see the Interaction member profiles book on Wendy's chair.
Save the Children/US
Y
Dr Charles MacCormack, President
Westport CT 203-221-4000
UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)
Bishop Elias Galvan, Chairperson
NY NY 212-870-3816
USA for UNHCR
Jeffrey Meer
Washington DC 202-296-1115
The Africa-America Institute
Mora McLean, President
NY NY 212-949-5666
Childreach
Samuel Worthington, CEO
Warwick RI 401-738-5600
Concern Worldwide
David Begg, Chief Executive
NY NY 212-557-8000
Mercy Corps Intl
Nancy Lindborg, Exec VP
Washington DC (I can get you her number in the AM)
Oxfam America
Raymond Offenheiser, President
Boston 617-482-1211
Physicians for Human Rights
Leonard Rubenstein, Exec Director
Boston 617-695-0041
pdrs
Daniel F. Feldman
07/02/2000 05:43:32 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
Laura Efurd/WHO/EOP@EOP, Christine A. Stanek/WHO/EOP@EOP
CC:
Subject: Re: Amb. Hobrooke's Input into the Guest List
laura/christine --
some final additions to the list. think that the "save the children" contact makes good sense (and they're
in ct, so could easily get there). let's put the others on our NGO "B" list. dan
Forwarded by Daniel F. Feldman/NSC/EOP on 07/02/2000 03:44 PM
Peter Smith
07/02/2000 05:33:10 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
Daniel F. Feldman/NSC/EOP@EOP
CC:
Subject: Re: Amb. Hobrooke's Input into the Guest List
here are some additional NGOs with offices in/near NYC, that might be good matches for the signing
event:
If you want to read more about the orgs, see the Interaction member profiles book on Wendy's chair
Save the Children/US
Dr Charles MacCormack, President
Westport CT 203-221-4000
UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)
Bishop Elias Galvan, Chairperson
NY NY 212-870-3816
USA for UNHCR
Jeffrey Meer
Washington DC 202-296-1115
The Africa-America Institute
Mora McLean, President
NY NY 212-949-5666
Childreach
Samuel Worthington, CEO
Warwick RI 401-738-5600
Concern Worldwide
David Begg, Chief Executive
NY NY 212-557-8000
Mercy Corps Intl
Nancy Lindborg, Exec VP
Washington DC (I can get you her number in the AM)
Oxfam America
Raymond Offenheiser, President
Boston 617-482-1211
Physicians for Human Rights
Leonard Rubenstein, Exec Director
Boston 617-695-0041
pdrs