Hillary Clinton on women empowerment

More on the UN: on March 12 2010 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech at the U.N. in New York  about the pivotal role of women in securing global peace and security.

(Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday the United Nations needs more women in top positions as it strives to raise the profile of women’s issues and fights gender-based violence.

She identified equality for the world’s women and girls as the central challenge that will determine the peace and progress of the 21st century.

Among others she mentioned Wangari Maathai (see my post) and she spoke of the importance of empowering girls (see my post on Betty Makoni).

See the whole transcript of the speech.

Here are some passages of Hillary Clinton’s UN speech on March 12:

So as we meet here in New York, women worldwide are working hard to do their part to improve the status of women and girls. And in so doing, they are also improving the status of families, communities, and countries. They are running domestic violence shelters and fighting human trafficking. They are rescuing girls from brothels in Cambodia and campaigning for public office in Kuwait. They are healing women injured in childbirth in Ethiopia, providing legal aid to women in China, and running schools for refugees from Burma. They are rebuilding homes and re-stitching communities in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. And they are literally leaving their marks on the world. For example, thanks to the environmental movement started by Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, 45 million trees are now standing tall across Kenya, most of them planted by women. (Applause.)

And even young girls have been empowered to stand up for their rights in ways that were once unthinkable. In Yemen, a 10-year-old girl forced to marry a much older man made headlines around the world by marching into court and demanding that she be granted a divorce, which she received. And her courage helped to shine a spotlight on the continuing practice of child marriage in that country and elsewhere.

Now, these are just a few of the stories, and everyone here could stand up and tell even more. These are the stories of what women around the world do every day to confront injustice, to solve crises, propel economies, improve living conditions, and promote peace. Women have shown time and again that they will seize opportunities to improve their own and their families’ lives. And even when it seems that no opportunity exists, they still find a way.

[…]

Now, I know there are those – hard to believe – but there are those who still dispute the importance of women to local, national, and global progress. But the evidence is irrefutable. When women are free to develop their talents, all people benefit: women and men, girls and boys. When women are free to vote and run for public office, governments are more effective and responsive to their people. When women are free to earn a living and start small businesses, the data is clear: they become key drivers of economic growth across regions and sectors. When women are given the opportunity of education and access to health care, their families and communities prosper. And when women have equal rights, nations are more stable, peaceful, and secure.

[...]

So whether we live in New York or New Delhi, Lagos or La Paz, women and girls share many of the same struggles and aspirations. The principle of women’s equality is a simple, self-evident truth, but the work of turning that principle into practice is rarely simple. It takes years and even generations of patient, persistent work, not only to change a country’s laws, but to change its people’s minds, to weave throughout culture and tradition in public discourse and private views the unassailable fact of women’s worth and women’s rights.

See the video of the March 12 speech.

“As the United Nations strives to better support the world’s women, it would benefit from having more women in more of its leadership positions,” Clinton said during her speech. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who took over from Kofi Annan in January 2007, has made an effort to increase the number of women in high-level positions at the organization. Among high-ranking women are Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania, named Deputy Secretary-General shortly after Ban arrived, and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, whom Ban appointed to head the U.N. Development Program last year.
On April 28 Secretary Clinton announced the Secretary’s International Fund for Women and Girls and the Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. Read more on this.
Interview With NBC’S Andrea Mitchell.
The video of the interview
The trascript of the same interview with additional videos. 

Interview With CNN’s Jill Dougherty.
The transcription of the remarks Hillary Clinton delivered, while First Lady, to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Plenary Session in Beijing, China: 5 September 1995.

Video of Hillary Clinton at the UN Security Council, October 2009.

Video of the Press conference following the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1888, in 2009.