“Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly.”
Clinton has been a crusader for women’s rights. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
American politician, Hillary Clinton has long been an ardent supporter of women’s rights. She served as the 67th United States secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and made numerous advances for the benefit of women. She spoke at the Fourth Women’s Conference in Beijing, China in 1995. Young Hillary made articulate points about the need to treat women’s rights as human rights and to not deviate from the alarming numbers of violence against women across the world.
Hillary said, ”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 continued, ”Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely. And the right to be heard. 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.It is indefensible that many women in non-governmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend — or have been prohibited from fully taking part.”
She clarified what she means by freedom to the audience members, “Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.”
“Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives”, she added.
She concluded by saying these pertinent words, “As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world — as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes -the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.”