>> Ladies and gentlemen, the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton.
[applause]
>> Good evening.
[cheering]
Good evening everyone.
[cheering]
I have been backstage watching the proceedings
on a screen back there and feeling energized by the enthusiasm here tonight on behalf of
the Global Fund and its work more than 25 years. I am so pleased that I can be here
joining with all of you to make sure that the work of the Fund continues and touches
even more lives, transforming them and through that transforming societies and countries.
I want to thank Abby for her introduction but even more for the film that we saw that
she produced which was so uplifting and also to my longtime friend and colleague and some
of the battles of the past Dina Dublon and all of the supporters of the Global Fund.
I also want to particularly recognize Jennifer Buffett and Jacki Zehner who are being honored
tonight with the Global Philanthropy Award. And I always love listening to Christiane
and we are so pleased that your voice and your influence is being heard around the world,
the message you delivered tonight is one I have heard you deliver, seen you deliver and
I thank you for being such a strong voice on behalf of women and girls.
And I want to thank Dr. Kanyoro who has taken on the leadership of the Fund and championed
not only the organization but the underlying work that has meant so much to all of us.
I’ve been obsessed the last few days as I am sure a number of you have been about
the terrible violence and loss life, injury in Boston. And like so many American and those
watching around the world we saw ordinary citizens alongside first responders rushing
into danger to help. It was a tragic terrible day but seemed to really exemplify what Patriots
Day really means. And because we do better when we work together. Women and men, all
of us across every line that is used to divide us. And it is important that as our hearts
go out and support for the people who were affected in Boston that we remember what makes
this country so unique. The sense of volunteerism, whether it is responding to a disaster like
we saw on the streets of Boston the other day, where strangers were helping strangers
or whether it is this Global Fund that started with four women having a conversation. I think
it is one of our greatest strengths. And what the Global Fund has done and what brings me
along with all of you tonight is to celebrate and support the partnerships that have been
forged with grassroots women’s organizations across the globe, 175 countries, urban and
rural areas, conflict zones, geographically and political isolated places where literally
the support you are providing tonight can mean the difference between life and death,
between the potential that every person, woman and man alike, deserves to have fulfilled
and disappointment and dashed dreams. You’ve already heard that the grants that are going
to NGO’s and civil society groups are now more than 100 million in total.
And I personally appreciate greatly all the work the Global Fund has done with the Clinton
Global Initiative. Because part of the strength of the Global Fund is creating such partnerships.
You saw brief snippets of the lives that were being affected in Abby’s movie, but really
stop and think for a moment about the women entrepreneurs you are supporting. They are
starting businesses. They are winning financial independence. Think about the girls going
to school for the first time, or think about the girls who are the first in their family
or in their village to beyond primary school. Think about the survivors of domestic violence
who are rebuilding their lives with counseling, job training legal services. Think about the
domestic workers who are enjoying new rights and opportunities. Think about the women who
are running for local and even national office and winning.
You are engaged in what I believe is the great unfinished business of the 21st century: advancing
the rights and the opportunities of girls and women; so that they can be full participants
in their communities, their economies, their societies their nations and yes, our world.
Now I like the Global Fund because from the very beginning it has understood that women
can be agents of change, drivers of progress, makers of peace—all they need is a fighting
chance. That we have to stop seeing women as victims and start seeing them as the people
who own their own lives and can help the rest of us understand the future that can be created.
You know as secretary of state I saw what I knew in vivid example after example as I
traveled around the world it is no coincidence that so many of the countries that threaten
regional and global peace are places where women and girls are denied dignity and opportunity.
Think of the young women from Northern Mali all the way to Afghanistan whose schools were
destroyed. That young brave Pakistani woman Malala, who has galvanized the world on behalf
of the right of girls to get an education. Think of the girls across Africa, the Middle
East and South Asia who are condemned to child marriage. The picture of the six year old
little girl in the refugee camp: the Afghan refugee camp across the border in Pakistan,
who was being put forward as collateral for her father’s loan. We are following that
story, but it was an American woman, an American woman lawyer who worked to pay the debt to
prevent that little girl from being forced to marry a man in the family of the creditor.
Think about the refugees in the conflicts from Eastern Congo to Syria; primarily women
and their children who endure rape as a weapon of war. Now it is no coincidence that where
we find conflict where we find the worst of humanity, we find women and girls who are
abused and mistreated, viewed as almost another species, not quite human.
But we’re also seeing in countries where democracy and the rule of law are struggling
to take route, women and girls are still having problems participating as full and equal citizens.
The story is not done in the countries of the Arab awakening, but in Egypt, where women
stood on the front lines of the revolution, they are now being denied seats at the table.
And they face a rising tide of sexual violence. It is also no coincidence that in countries
making the leap from poverty to prosperity that there are lots of questions about whether
or not women will be empowered. One of the great unanswered questions for the next decade
or two is whether or not countries like China and India can sustain their growth and emerge
as true global economic powers. Much of that depends on how they treat their women and
girls. So these are not coincidences, research all
over the world shows what we know - is that when women participate in their economy everyone
benefits, when they participate in peace making and peacekeeping we are all safer and more
stable. And you have to look no further than tonight’s recipients of the Charlotte Bunch
Human Rights Defender Awards to know this is true. Three women from very different places
who have worked in their own ways toward the same goal: advancing the rights and opportunities
for women. Stasa Zajovic helped to bring the Women in Black movement to the Balkans in
the 1990’s; today she continues her work for peace and justice. Mozn Hassan, one of
the many brave activists calling for equality and dignity for all Egyptians—women and
men—is working to build a genuine democracy, respect for universal human rights, protection
for all citizens. And no one knows that struggle better than Monica Roa who has championed
judicial reform in Columbia and pushed the courts to honor and protect women’s rights
and women’s health. These three women are exemplars of what can be achieved when courage
and compassion meet. And they are part of a powerful, new current of grassroots activism.
Someone who has been leading the charge and making the case is Charlotte Bunch. She has
always on the front line of this struggle. As an activist and an organizer, a writer
and a teacher, a champion for our common humanity. I got to know her in the run-up to the fourth
world conference on women in Beijing back in 1995. I saw her as an extraordinary leader
and advocate; immersed in the workings of international law and understanding the almost
incomprehensible UN process. Because she knew that to weave the rights of women and girls
into the fabric of the international community, the world needed to come together. The historic
outcomes of Beijing would not have been possible without her tireless work and her brilliant
vision. She didn’t stop there though, she founded the Center for Women’s Global Leadership
at Rutgers, which provided an intellectual and organizing foundation for work around
the world, especially in the fight against sexual and gender based violence. She also
led the Gender Equality Architecture Reform effort that laid the groundwork for UN Women,
a major step forward in the international system. She has been a tireless advocate for
the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women – and let me
say again it way past time for the United States to demonstrate our global leadership
by finally ratifying the convention. A year after Beijing I was very proud to stand
and see my husband honor Charlotte as a leader with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human
Rights in 1996. And when I was Secretary of State she was one of a small group of women
leaders I brought together to help steer a new course for American diplomacy and to ensure
that the needs of women and girls were integrated into all aspects of our foreign policy.
So I am grateful for Charlotte’s leadership; I am really impressed by all of her contributions
and I am also challenged by her absolute demand that we keep doing more and more. That no
matter what we’ve done, we can’t be satisfied. So I think we should all work to be worthy
of Charlotte’s example. To keep fighting for rights and opportunities, to keep pushing
for participation, to keep telling the world that human rights are women’s rights and
women’s rights are human rights once and for all. Now join me in learning more about
Charlotte Bunch and her extraordinary work. Global Fund for Women 25th Anniversary Gala
Transcript: Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton Keynote Speech
17 April 2013
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