[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8888-H8890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                IT IS TIME FOR ACTION ON WOMEN'S ISSUES

  (Mrs. MORELLA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, last week I, and three of my colleagues, 
attended the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women. As Conference 
Secretary-General Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania said, ``The problems 
(of women) are not different from country to country. They only differ 
in intensity.'' And she is exactly right.

       Women the world over are concerned about the prevalence of 
     violence in their lives, the quality of their children's 
     schooling, the challenges of pregnancy and childbirth, and 
     economic security for themselves and their families.
       This conference presents an important opportunity to 
     strengthen the world's families, to increase the numbers of 
     women in decisionmaking positions in government and business, 
     and to ensure access for girls and women to education and 
     health care.
       This conference is not about adding genders, redefining 
     families, denigrating motherhood, or tearing down capitalism. 
     And it is certainly not about ignoring China's dismal record 
     on human rights--if anything, the conference has focused the 
     world's attention on the terror the Chinese people, 
     particularly women, suffer day in and day out.

  Mrs. Clinton clearly spoke to this issue when she addressed the 
conference. She stressed that women's rights are human rights, that 
human rights are women's rights. I submit her entire speech for the 
Record.
  As the conference concludes this week, let us put the words of the 
Platform for Action into action, let's turn the rhetoric into words.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the following speech for the Record.

   First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Remarks for the United Nations 
            Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China

       Mrs. Mongalla, distinguished delegates and guests:
       I would like to thank the Secretary General of the United 
     Nations for inviting me to be part of the United Nations 
     Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a 
     celebration--a celebration of the contributions women make in 
     every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in their 
     communities, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, 
     workers, citizens and leaders.

[[Page H 8889]]

       It is also a coming together, much the way women come 
     together every day in every country.
       We come together in fields and in factories. In village 
     markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms.
       Whether it is while playing with our children in the park, 
     or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the 
     office water cooler, we come together and talk about our 
     aspirations and concerns. And time and again, our talk turns 
     to our children and our families.
       However different we may be, there is far more that unites 
     us than divides us. We share a common future. And we are here 
     to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity 
     and respect to women and girls all over the world--and in so 
     doing, bring new strength and stability to families as well.
       By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on 
     issues that matter most in the lives of women and their 
     families: access to education, health care, jobs, and credit, 
     the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and 
     participate fully in the political life of their countries.
       There are some who question the reason for this conference. 
     Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, 
     neighborhoods, and workplaces.
       There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and 
     girls matter to economic and political progress around the 
     globe. . . . Let them look at the women gathered here and at 
     Hairou. . . . the
      homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, policymakers, and 
     women who run their own businesses.
       It is conferences like this that compel governments and 
     peoples everywhere to listen, look and face the world's most 
     pressing problems.
       Wasn't it after the woman's conference in Nairobi ten years 
     ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis 
     of domestic violence?
       Earlier today, I participated in a World Health 
     Organization forum, where government officials, NGOs, and 
     individual citizens are working on ways to address the health 
     problems of women and girls.
       Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations 
     Development Fund for Women. There, the discussion will focus 
     on local--and highly successful--programs that give hard-
     working women access to credit so they can improve their own 
     lives and the lives of their families.
       What we are learning around the world is that, if women are 
     healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If woman 
     are free from violence, their families will flourish. If 
     women are free from violence, their families will flourish. 
     If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal 
     partners in society, their families will flourish.
       And when families flourish, communities and nations will 
     flourish.
       That is why every woman, every man, every child, every 
     family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in the 
     discussion that takes place here.
       Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on 
     issues relating to women, children and families. Over the 
     past two-and-a-half years, I have had the opportunity to 
     learn more about the challenges facing women in my own 
     country and around the world.
       I have met new mothers in Jojakarta, Indonesia, who come 
     together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, 
     family planning, and baby care.
       I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the 
     comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared 
     for in creative, cafe, and nurturing after-school centers.
       I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the 
     struggle to end apartheid and are now helping build a new 
     democracy.
       I have met with the leading women of the Western Hemisphere 
     who are working every day to promote literacy and better 
     health care for the children of their countries.
       I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out 
     small loans to buy milk cows, rickshaws, thread and other 
     materials to create a livelihood for themselves and their 
     families.
       I have met doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who 
     are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of 
     Chernobyl.
       The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to 
     women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words 
     go unheard.
       Women comprise more than half the world's population. Women 
     are 70 percent of the world's poor, and two-thirds of those 
     who are not taught to read and write.
       Women are the primary caretakers for most of the world's 
     children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not 
     valued--not by economists, not by historians, not by popular 
     culture, not by government leaders.
       At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world 
     are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing 
     clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly 
     lines, running companies, and running countries.
       Women also are dying from diseases that should have been 
     prevented or treated; they are watching their children 
     succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic 
     deprivation; they are being denied the right to go to school 
     by their own fathers and brothers; they are being forced into 
     prostitution, and they are being barred from the ballot box 
     and the bank lending office.
       Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the 
     responsibility to speak for those who could not.
       As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own 
     country--women who are raising children on the minimum wage, 
     women who can't afford health care or child care, women whose 
     lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their 
     own homes.
       I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good 
     schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves, 
     for older women, some of them widows, who have raised their 
     families and now find that their skills and life experiences 
     are not valued in the workplace . . . for women who are 
     working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food 
     chefs so that they
      can be at home during the day with their kids, and for women 
     everywhere who simply don't have time to do everything 
     they are called upon to do each day.
       Speaking to you today, I speak for them, just as each of us 
     speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance 
     to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a 
     say about the direction of their lives, simply because they 
     are woman.
       The truth is 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. 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.
       We also must recognize that women will never gain full 
     dignity until their human rights are respected and protected.
       Our goals for this conference, to strengthen families and 
     societies by empowering woman to take greater control over 
     their own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all 
     governments--here and around the world--accept their 
     responsibility to protect and promote internationally 
     recognized human rights.
       The international community has long acknowledged--and 
     recently affirmed at Vienna--that both woman and man 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.
       No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of 
     religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture.
       Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human 
     rights are violated. Even in the late 20th century, the rape 
     of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed 
     conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the 
     world's refugees. And when women are excluded from the 
     political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.
       I believe that, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time 
     to break our silence. It is time for us to say here in 
     Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer 
     acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human 
     rights.
       These abuses have continued because, for too long, the 
     history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, 
     there are those who are trying to silence our words.
       The voices of this conference and of the women at Hairou 
     must be heard loud and clear.
       It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied 
     food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, 
     simply because they are born girls.
       It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are 
     sold into the slavery of prostitution.
       It is a violation of human rights when women are doused 
     with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their 
     marriage dowries are deemed too small.
       It is a violation of human rights when individual women are 
     raped in their own communities and when thousands of women 
     are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.
       It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of 
     death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence 
     they are subjected to in their own homes.
       It is a violation of human rights whey young girls are 
     brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital 
     mutilation.
       It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the 
     right to plan their own families, and that includes being 
     forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their 
     will.
       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.
       Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to 
     speak freely. And the right to be heard.
       Woman 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.
       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.

[[Page H 8890]]

       In my country, we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary 
     of women's suffrage. It took 150 years after the signing of 
     our Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to 
     vote. It took 72 years of organized struggle on the part of 
     many courageous women and men.
       It was one of America's most divisive philosophical wars. 
     But it was also a bloodless war. Suffrage was achieved 
     without a shot fired.
       We have also been reminded, in V-J Day observance last 
     weekend, of the good that comes when men and women join 
     together to combat the forces of tyranny and build a better 
     world.
       We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half 
     century. We have avoided another world war.
       But we have not solved older, deeply-rooted problems that 
     continue to diminish the potential of half the world's 
     population.
       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.
       As long as discrimination and inequities remain so 
     commonplace around the world--as long as girls and woman 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.
       Let this conference be our--and the world's--call to 
     action.
       And let us head the call so that we can create a world in 
     which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every 
     boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family 
     has the hope of a strong and stable future.
       Thank you very much.
       God's blessings on you, your work and all who will benefit 
     from it.
     

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