Women's rights are human rights: Hillary

By Santi WE Soekanto

BEIJING (JP): Thousands of women activists and official delegations to the ongoing Fourth World Conference on Women gave United States First Lady Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she asserted yesterday that "women's rights are human rights."

Speaking to a packed plenary hall of the Beijing International Convention Center, Clinton, who made a late entrance, was clearly successful in her effort to tug at the participants' heartstrings. Warm applause met almost every paragraph of her six-page speech, the text of which was distributed to journalists, who had to queue for more than one hour for a ticket to attend her address.

"If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights," she said to loud cheering from the audience.

Supporting the catchword of the meeting that "every woman is a working woman", Clinton said that "most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity."

"We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives," she said. "That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential."

"Women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected," she said.

"The International community has acknowledged...that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear," she said.

"No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture," she added.

In the session, which was chaired by conference secretary general Gertrude Mongella, Clinton received as warm a welcome as that received by Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Monday. In her speech, Bhutto told the conference that people often mistook social taboos for religious teachings when it comes to women's issues.

In another part of her speech, Clinton recounted the various opportunities she had received during the past two-and-a-half years to learn about challenges facing women around the world.

"I have met new mothers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care," she said.

She said that women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries "if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure."

Observers believed she was alluding to the host country when she said that a number of women from non-government organizations "who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend, or have been prohibited from fully taking part."

"Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly," she said. "It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments."

In the final part of her speech, Clinton said that "as long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less and last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence...the potential of humanity...to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized."

"Let this conference be our, and the world's, call for action," she concluded.

Earlier in the day, several special events were held simultaneously with the main plenary meetings of the conference. An extensive discussion on women and health securities was held, with a number of speakers, including Hillary Clinton and Dr. Nafsiah Mboi of Indonesia.

Nafsiah, a legislator and leading activist of a nationwide anti-AIDS campaign, told the meeting that in addition to campaigning for women's rights to health and reproduction, there should be similar action for men.

"Both men and women should have health security," she said, also calling for campaigns to teach and "empower" young people to be responsible in their sexual behavior.

In addition to plenary sessions, which will feature First Lady Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt and United States Ambassador Madeline Albright, a number of special events are scheduled for today.

One of the events is the "celebration of girls," held by the United Nations Children's Fund. In this session, preceded by the Chinese girls' choir, adult women will relate their experiences on growing up as girls, while girls and young women will respond.

Guest speakers at the event include Queen Fabiola of Belgium, Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan and Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh.