[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 19, 2000]
[Pages 1872-1874]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Debut of ``Speak Truth to Power: Voices From Beyond the 
Darkness''
September 19, 2000

    Thank you very much. President Arias, first 
let me thank you for your presence here tonight and your remarkable 
leadership.
    And Kerry, I want to join this great 
throng in telling you how grateful we are that you have undertaken this 
project with such passion and commitment. I know that in spite of the 
fact that half the seats tonight are filled by your family--[laughter]--
there are a lot of people here who feel just as strongly about you as 
Andrew and Ethel 
and your mother-in-law, Matilda, and Senator 
Kennedy and the others who are here. You 
are an astonishing person, and we thank you for amplifying the voices of 
the human rights defenders who have honored us by their presence here 
tonight.
    These men and women have carried on against unimaginable obstacles, 
knowing the truth once spoken can never be completely erased, that hope, 
once sparked, can never be fully extinguished. They have seen injustice 
aided by apathy. In spite of all the nice things you said about me 
tonight, a full half dozen of them were prodding me along tonight before 
I came out here to do even better, and I like that a lot. They have 
carried on knowing that even a single act of courage can be contagious, 
and their courage and that of so many others around the world, has 
indeed proved contagious.
    More people live in freedom today than at any time in human history, 
and in 1999 more people around the world won the right to vote and 
choose their leaders than was in even the case in 1989, the year the 
Berlin Wall fell. From Bosnia to Croatia to Kosovo, we are no longer 
struggling to stop crimes against humanity but, instead, working 
steadily to bring perpetrators to justice and to create the conditions 
of humane living. From South Africa to Chile, people are confronting the 
injustices of the past so that their children will not have to relive 
them. And all over the world, people finally are recognizing, as Hillary 
said in Beijing, that women's rights are human rights.
    Yet for all the brave work that is captured in this magnificent book 
and that will be honored tonight, freedom's struggle is far from over. 
And I think it is appropriate tonight that we all ask ourselves at this 
magic moment of prosperity and peace for our country, what are our 
responsibilities to advance the struggle? How can we use this global age 
to serve human rights, not to undermine them?

[[Page 1873]]

    Globalization is not just about economics. It has given us a global 
human rights movement, as well. Whether activists are fighting for press 
freedom in Ivory Coast or the rights of children in America, they can 
talk to each other, learn from each other, and know they are not alone. 
Indeed, maybe the most important lesson of this evening is to say to all 
of them, whom we honor, you are not alone.
    Global economic integration can, if done right, make it harder for 
governments to control people's lives in the wrong way. Information 
technology can be one of the most liberating forces humanity has ever 
known.
    Twenty years ago it was a great victory if we could smuggle a 
handful of mimeograph machines to dissidents in Poland or Russia. When I 
went to the Soviet Union 30 years ago, young people would come up to me 
on the street and try to figure out if there was some way I could 
smuggle a book back in to them. Now, hardly a government on Earth, in 
spite of all their best efforts, can stop their much more 
technologically wise young people from using the Internet to get 
knowledge from halfway around the world.
    But for freedom to prevail, we need to do more than open markets, 
hook up the world to CNN, and hope dictators are driven out by dot-coms. 
Real change still depends upon real people, on brave men and women 
willing to fight for good causes when the chance of success is low and 
the danger of persecution is great--men and women like those we honor 
tonight. Globalization on the whole, I think, will prove to be a very 
good thing, but it is not a human rights policy. To advance freedom and 
justice, we have to support and defend their champions.
    Today, the defenders of human rights need our support in Serbia, 
where the democratic opposition is stronger than ever, heading into 
critical elections this weekend. Mr. Milosevic has stepped up his repression. Surely, he is capable 
of stealing the election. But if he does, we must make sure, all of us, 
not just the Americans and certainly not just the American Government, 
that he loses what legitimacy he has left in the world, and the forces 
of change will grow even stronger. We must keep going until the people 
of Serbia can live normal lives and their country can come back home to 
Europe.
    The defenders of human rights need our support in Burma, as well. 
Their only weapons are words, reason, and the brave example of Aung San 
Suu Kyi. But these are fearful weapons to 
the ruling regime. So last week they confined her again, hoping the 
world would not hear or speak out. But voices were raised, and her 
struggle continues.
    Those who rule Burma should know, from this place tonight, with all 
these people we honor, all of us will watch carefully what happens, and 
you can only regain your place in the world when you regain the trust of 
your people and respect their chosen leaders.
    In these and so many other places, those who fight for human rights 
deserve our support and our absolute conviction that their efforts will 
not be in vain. All human rights defenders are told in the beginning 
they are naive; they are not making a difference; they are wasting their 
time. Some have even been cruelly told they are advancing some sort of 
Western cultural notions of freedom that have no place in their country. 
They are all laughed at, until one day their causes triumph and everyone 
calls them heroes.
    The same has been said of almost every human rights policy our 
Nation has pursued in the past. Kerry talked about East Timor. A few 
years ago, how many people would have predicted it could become 
independent? A dozen years ago, how many people believed the Baltic 
States would be free? But all those people who came out for Captive 
Nations Week, year-in and year-out, and were literally ridiculed in the 
sixties and seventies, would be right, and all the hard-headed realists 
would be wrong.
    The men and women we honor never gave in to repression, fatigue, to 
cynicism, or to realism which justifies the unacceptable. And neither 
should America.
    Hina Jilani, who has worked for women and 
human rights in Pakistan and is with us tonight, said, ``I never have a 
sense of futility because what we do is worth doing.'' If you believe 
that every person matters, that every person has a story and a voice 
that deserves to be heard, then you must believe that what all human 
rights defenders do everywhere is worth doing.
    Let us never develop a sense of futility, for the people we honor 
tonight have proved the wisdom of Martin Luther King's timeless adage, 
that the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.
    Thank you very much.

[[Page 1874]]

Note: The President spoke at 8:28 p.m. in the Eisenhower Theater at the 
John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. In his remarks, he referred 
to former President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, founder, Arias Foundation 
for Peace and Human Progress; Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, author on whose work 
the play was based, her mother-in-law, Matilda Cuomo, husband, Secretary 
of Housing and Urban Development Andrew M. Cuomo, and mother, Ethel 
Kennedy; President Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of 
Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); and Aung San Suu Kyi, 1999 Nobel 
Peace Prize recipient.