[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING PATRICIA DERIAN, CHAMPION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 9, 2016

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember 
Patricia Derian, former State Department human rights chief, who, as 
the Washington Post reported, ``helped save thousands of lives by 
giving humanitarian concerns greater weight in U.S. foreign policy.'' 
Patt, who grew up in Virginia and first gained a national reputation as 
a fighter for civil rights in Mississippi, died on May 20 at the home 
she and her husband, Hodding Carter III, shared in Chapel Hill, NC.
  Patt graduated from the University of Virginia nursing school in 1952 
and moved with her then-husband to Jackson, Mississippi. There she 
volunteered for Head Start, fought to integrate public schools, and 
participated in the 1968 challenge to the state's all-white Democratic 
National Convention delegation. She also served as president of the 
Southern Regional Council and on the executive committee of the 
American Civil Liberties Union.
  In 1976, Patt took a leadership role in Jimmy Carter's presidential 
campaign. President Carter appointed her State Department coordinator 
for human rights and humanitarian affairs, a position Congress upgraded 
to Assistant Secretary. ``If you want a magnolia to decorate foreign 
policy,'' she told future Secretary of State Warren Christopher, ``I'm 
the wrong person. I expect to get things done.''
  Patt Derian proved as good as her word, ruffling numerous feathers 
along the way. She persuaded the President to exert influence over 
international lending institutions by opposing loans to Argentina, 
Ethiopia, Laos, Uruguay, and other human rights violators. She helped 
engineer the release of thousands of political prisoners in Indonesia, 
Bangladesh and Pakistan. Her reports to Congress shed light on 
previously ignored subjects such as labor practices, women's rights, 
and female genital mutilation. Jacobo Timerman, an Argentine journalist 
imprisoned and tortured over many years, credited Ms. Derian with 
helping engineer his release and saving ``thousands and thousands of 
lives all over the world.''
  In 1978, Patt married Hodding Carter, a well-known Mississippi 
journalist who was then Assistant Secretary of State for Public 
Affairs. They relocated to Chapel Hill in 2005, where my wife Lisa and 
I came to treasure their friendship and their continued political and 
civic leadership, locally and nationally. Hodding was Patt's loving 
caretaker in her years of declining health and continues in multiple 
teaching and other leadership roles at the University of North 
Carolina.
  Because of Patt Derian's ``determination and effective advocacy,'' 
President Carter said upon her death, ``countless human rights and 
democracy activists survived that period, going on to plant the seeds 
of freedom in Latin America, Asia, and beyond.'' She was a great 
humanitarian who was not afraid to challenge the constraints generally 
placed on diplomacy and foreign policy. As a result, we now have a 
broader, morally-grounded view of our country's interests and of what 
we stand for in the world. That is a legacy of major importance: may we 
rededicate ourselves to it as we remember Patt Derian with gratitude 
and affection.

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