'VITAL VOICES' KEYNOTE SPEECH BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
USIA
02 September 1998
TEXT: 'VITAL VOICES' KEYNOTE SPEECH BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
(Delivers closing address at Belfast conference Sept. 2) (3960)
Belfast, Northern Ireland -- U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
delivered the keynote address at the closing of the "Vital Voices:
Women in Democracy" conference in Belfast September 2.
"The last few months have shown what people here have always known:
The road to peace will never be easy. But the world has also seen how
no fires, bombs or terrorists will ever turn you back.," Mrs. Clinton
said.
"Tomorrow, my husband will come here to the Waterfront to address your
new Assembly, and to congratulate the citizens of Northern Ireland for
this hard-won peace that is yours....Wives. Mothers. Sisters.
Daughters. Few were household names. But, having seen their lives and
communities torn apart by violence, women came together as women have
always done -- around kitchen tables, at the market, in gatherings
like this. It was women whose whispers of 'enough' became a torrent of
voices that could no longer be ignored," Mrs. Clinton pointed out.
Tomorrow, September 3, President and Mrs. Clinton will travel to Omagh
to "pay tribute to those who were murdered by the enemies of peace."
Following are Mrs. Clinton's remarks as delivered:
(Begin text)
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS AT VITAL VOICES CONFERENCE
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
SEPTEMBER 2, 1998
Thank you. Thank you very much, Fiona, for that introduction and even
more for adding your vital voice to this conference. I'm sure if you
need a note to be excused from school, there's about a thousand of us
who would sign it. I want to thank Sue Tibbles and Rosemary Farringdon
and Inez McCormack, not only for what they have said here afternoon,
but for their commitment and dedication to the issues that bring all
of us here to Belfast.
Lord Mayor and Minister McFaul, Assembly Members, Mrs. Trimble,
Ambassador Lader, Consul General Fort, and from Dublin, Minister
Wallace and Ambassador Kennedy-Smith, and conference participants and
distinguished guests.
It is a great honor and a personal delight to be back in Belfast. I
feel embraced by, and greeted by the sounds of so many women's vital
voices. From the reports I have received while I was in Russia, and
the ones I just heard, this conference has already succeeded in
bringing people together and enabling them to share ideas, and to plot
together to make the hoped-for peace a reality. Like all successes,
this one, of course, is the product of many hands.
I want to thank everyone associated with the planning and
implementation. I particularly want to thank Theresa Loar, who has
moderated this afternoon's session, for her hard work. I want to thank
Secretary of State Mo Mowlam, who brought to this task vision,
dedication, and, according to my sources at Hillsborough Castle, her
skills as a party hostess and dancer par excellence.
I also want to thank the new First Minister of the Assembly David
Trimble and the Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon. Not only for
sponsoring and speaking at this conference on Monday, but for their
leadership in making sure that the seeds of peace, once planted, can
grow. I was pleased to learn that the first reception the Ministers
held together was at Stormont in honor of the women delegates from
this conference. And to Lord Mayor David Alderdice, the Belfast City
Council, and the entire city of Belfast, thank you for being such
wonderful hosts.
As I arrived here a few minutes ago, I thought about how the River
Lagan, which once carried people away from these shores, now brings
them back to find the rebirth of Belfast symbolized by this stunning
Waterfront. I have been privileged in a small way to witness this
rebirth starting with my husband's visit in November of 1995, and my
return here last October speaking at the University of Ulster and
speaking here to a conference of young people. I have seen in the
faces of men and women and boys and girls, a new openness, a new
commitment, a new awareness of the road that has been traveled and the
road that lies ahead.
I know also that the songs of U2 and other great musicians have filled
the Waterfront in recent months, celebrating the transition that is
occurring. But I also believe that, from workshops to speeches to
quiet conversations, nothing can compare to the powerful voices heard
here over the last few days. Voices from every corner of Northern
Ireland, as well as from Ireland, the United States, England, Scotland
and Wales. From every tradition. From every sector of society. Every
age. Women and men. All blending into a powerful chorus calling for
women to become full participants in a secure and democratic Northern
Ireland. A Northern Ireland that people have hoped for, lived for,
died for, and, yes, finally voted for. Tomorrow, my husband will come
here to the Waterfront to address your new Assembly, and to
congratulate the citizens of Northern Ireland for this hard-won peace
that is yours.
The last few months have shown what people here have always known: The
road to peace will never be easy. But the world has also seen how no
fires, bombs or terrorists will ever turn you back. When my husband
and I go to Omagh tomorrow, we will pay tribute to those who were
murdered by the enemies of peace. They were mostly women and children.
They were Catholic and Protestant, Unionist and Nationalist, young and
old. They were people simply living their lives, working at a drapery
store, hanging out with friends, buying school uniforms for their
children.
The terrorists targeted the people of Northern Ireland and in
response, it was the people, all the people, who bravely stood
side-by-side to say: Hatred and violence will no longer have a place
here. We have chosen ballots, not bombs. Democracy, not division. We
have resolved to live in peace, and we will never go back. We will
only move forward. And as you do, please know that America will stand
with you.
How appropriate it is that this conference takes place the first week
of school, not only because it's a time for new friends and new
beginnings. But also because, ultimately, our children are the reason
we are here. For 30 years, parents dropped their children off for
school -- tucked in their shirts, kissed them goodbye, and dreamed of
a time when they could play outside free from violence. Dreamed of a
time when their children's opportunities and destinies would never
again be limited by their place of worship or political party or by
whether they're a boy or girl. Today, there is real hope that this
dream, once expressed through poetry and protest, will finally be a
reality for children in Northern Ireland.
None of this would have been possible were it not for the courage and
strength of generations of women. Though they may have worshiped
separately on Sunday, seven days a week, they all said a silent prayer
for their husbands to return safely home. Seven days a week, they
lived in fear that the unspeakable would happen, and they would be
forced to bury their own child. And yet, seven days a week, they
carried on with hope and prayer that the future would be brighter,
free of troubles and heartbreak.
Wives. Mothers. Sisters. Daughters. Few were household names. But,
having seen their lives and communities torn apart by violence, women
came together as women have always done -- around kitchen tables, at
the market, in gatherings like this. It was women whose whispers of
"enough" became a torrent of voices that could no longer be ignored.
If we listen carefully, their voices still echo through this room and
lift ours up today.
If we listen, we can hear the voices of women who withstood jeers and
threats, prejudice and violence to make themselves heard in a
political world once reserved primarily for men. We can hear the
voices of women in Craigavon, who, instead of burrowing into their
sorrow, used the power of the pen to heal by writing and sharing their
poetry, short stories, essays and plays. In one poem, Madge Steele
writes about finding common ground:
Weave the threads of real friendship with the colors of life
Use the pattern of Peace and leave out the strife
Thread the friends that are young along with the old
And you'll find on your loom a fabric of Gold.
If we listen, we can hear the voices of those who helped weave this
fabric of Gold -- grassroots activists like the late Joyce McCarten,
who literally wove communities together through the Troubles. Three
years ago, I met Joyce at Ye Olde Lamplighter on Lower Ormeau Road.
Around a small wooden table, we sipped tea and talked about what had
brought these women together. How they realized that history and
religion were keeping them apart even when they all wanted the same
things: Good jobs and good schools for their children. Streets you
could walk down safely. Security and prosperity you could count on. A
future you could believe in.
Hardly a radical agenda. But, for this, Joyce was called a
"troublemaker." Well, she had another name for herself, and when she
met me she proudly announced that she called herself a "Family
Feminist." Because saving families was the goal of all she did. I have
met many family feminists around the world. In South Africa, Bosnia,
Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Nicaragua, Brazil, Pakistan and India.
Places that are riven by strife, by disagreement, by conflict caused
by racial, religious, ethnic, tribal differences. Yet in the midst of
even the worst of times, there are women like these who stand up and
say, "Stop for a minute please, think about what is really important
for us and our children."
I met such women at the Vital Voices conference in Austria. Inspired
by Ambassador Swanee Hunt, who is here with us today. I met them at
the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, where I remembered
clearly the banners that were created by women from every part of the
world. They spread those banners across the Great Wall. Woven into
them were the dreams of women -- who may have worn different clothes,
eaten different foods, followed different religions, and talked in
different languages -- but they spoke the same mother tongue: The
language of freedom and hope.
And they sent a clear message: Economic progress depends on women's
progress. Democratic progress depends on women's progress. Human
rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights. And
this conference is part of an ongoing glowing initiative that is
making those points over and over again, and in the process
transforming women's lives and societies.
What better time to recommit ourselves to these basic truths than in
this year of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. We're not talking about paying lip service to rights
written down on a piece of paper and filed away. Rather, we're talking
about how we treat each other at home and work, at church and school,
and in political assemblies: Are we valued? Do we have the food,
health care, education, shelter, the income we need to survive and
flourish? Do we have access to the opportunities to help us reach our
God-given potentials?
Now, many of the women here in Northern Ireland and throughout the
world with whom I have met, know nothing of this Universal Declaration
of Rights. But they know in their hearts and souls, that in spite of
all they are told by culture and tradition, they were endowed with
God-given rights, as surely as they were born into the human family.
And the reason we want those rights is not merely to make a statement,
or to be part of a political movement, but because we want to help
create a better world, a world in which we can walk safely and we can
live peacefully together with those who are like us and are unlike us,
because we want our dignity and the dignity of all human beings
respected.
In Beijing, I was particularly moved by the banner created by women of
this Island. On it was a picture of a red-haired woman standing on top
of the world. And since that day in 1995, it's amazing how far she's
climbed in Northern Ireland alone.
Who would have thought that the majority of women from both traditions
would step forward and vote "yes" on a Peace Agreement? Who would have
thought that when the first Assembly convenes, its seats will be
filled with 14 women? And who would have thought that the Agreement
would demand a society that is truly inclusive? Not just all religions
and political parties. But, all women and men alike.
As my good friend, Secretary of State Albright, likes to say,
advancing the cause of women is "not just the right thing to do. It is
the smart thing to do for any society." It was the smart thing for
women to clear the path for reconciliation that brought us to this
day. And it is the smart thing for women to play a central role in the
reconstruction that will usher in a Northern Ireland that fulfills the
promise of democracy, prosperity, and yes, peace, for all its
citizens. Because as you well know, the Peace Agreement was the
beginning, not the end.
What you have been doing here is thinking through in practical ways
what must be done to fulfill the promise of peace. You know better
than I, it will take far more than discussions, conferences and
reports. The hopes for peace will have to be translated into the hard
work of practical action and political compromise -- not only in the
Assembly, but in every corner of society. So the real challenge of
this conference starts as we leave. How will each of us work to
fulfill the promise of peace?
That, of course, will be up to the men and women of Northern Ireland
to decide. But, based on what we know about the conditions that
promote peace and prosperity, we, I think, can agree on basic goals:
All people must have access to the tools of opportunity, good
education, quality health care. Good jobs, loans and credit. The kinds
of opportunities that will give responsible people of whatever
backgrounds the chance to move forward into the 21st century with
confidence.
If we are to fulfill the promise of peace, we have to translate into
practical action what these goals mean. How do we, for example, have
an education system that serves the needs of young people moving in a
very different world, dominated by the global economy? How do we make
available the kinds of credits that small-business people need to
build a thriving economy from the ground up in the most depressed
areas of Northern Ireland? How do we work to make sure that loans and
microcredit financing are available, that the businesses, the
government, and particularly the banks here will meet the needs of
people anxious to demonstrate that they can build economic
opportunities for themselves?
If the promise of peace is to be fulfilled, then all people must be
safe from violence. And in particular, all women must be safe from
violence -- whether it happens in their homes or on the streets.
Domestic violence, which breeds the conditions of violence and
aggressiveness, setting one person against another, must be seen for
what it is: a crime, not a family matter.
If the promise of peace is to be fulfilled, then all women and men
must feel free to make their voices heard through the ballot box and
the soap box.
Now there are many goals, and you have discussed them all here at this
conference. Surely, these goals require a guarantee of equal
opportunity and democracy. And that is what you have chosen. But, as
our country has learned, democracy is hard work. It is a never-ending
struggle. You never get it right, there is no perfect democracy, and
its success ultimately depends not just on laws and institutions, but
on attitudes and values. On getting along with people with whom you
have profound differences. On the lessons we teach our children as
they are tucked into bed at night.
If you think just about women and girls, what are some of those
lessons we want women and girls here and throughout the world to be
learning? Do we teach our girls that we value them, not for what they
look like, but for what they think, feel, do and dream? Will our
businesses do more to help women get child care and other tools they
need to successfully balance work and family -- so that no women ever
have to make the choice between the job they need to put food on the
table and the time they must give to the children they love? When a
woman speaks up in the home, or the community, or the Assembly, will
we listen as carefully and respectfully as if she were a man? And, as
women, will we finally respect each other's choices? Will we admit
that there is no model for women today that is "one-size fits all?"
That we can choose full-time work or full-time motherhood and
homemaking -- or like most women, doing both at certain parts of our
lives. And will we support the choices that each of us makes?
As you struggle both with issues unique to Northern Ireland and with
ones experienced by women everywhere, I want you to know that the
American government, the American people, and the larger worldwide
community want to help you succeed.
What women have said over the last few days is they want the tools to
lift up their voices and the lives of their families. And in this room
are partners who want to help them do just that. We already heard from
two, the Body Shop and Ford Motor Company.
I want to applaud the more than $2 million in partnerships committed
to the outcomes of this conference. They come from all sectors of
society, and they are dedicated to diverse areas like political
leadership and media training, mentoring and, most importantly,
economic development. This is just the beginning.
We leave here today with a commitment from the U.S. Department of
Labor and the Northern Ireland Employment and Training Agency to
improve women's access to jobs, child care, and training. We leave
here with a commitment from the Institute of Directors [a group of
European executives] to help women in middle management get the
mentoring and training they need to succeed in European and world
markets.
We leave here with commitments from corporations ranging from Xerox to
MCI and from America Online to Marriott, which, for example, will
provide internships for young people in the tourism industry. And I
have to say, as I flew in from Moscow today and was coming down to
land over the landscape of Northern Ireland, I thought to myself, this
is one of the most beautiful places on God's earth. A place that many
people will want to come to visit to see for themselves. We leave here
with commitments from the President and Secretary of State of the
United States that our government will be vigorously engaged in
turning the conference's partnerships into results.
And we are encouraged to learn that our Northern Ireland partners are
establishing a follow-up mechanism to carry all of this forward.
As we leave here, let us pledge to each other that this is only the
beginning -- that, as the Peace Agreement is implemented, the voices
we raised will never fade away. Instead, they will spread into every
community, and as Inez reminded us, they will be joined by many others
who are not in this hall today.
Because, regardless of whether a man or women voted yes or no on the
Peace Agreement, in a democracy every single citizen has a role to
play in fulfilling the promise of peace. It will take businesses and
non-governmental organizations. Churches of every tradition inspiring
us to use our faith as a source of strength and unity. It will take
men of all ages, because this struggle can never and will never be won
without them. It will take all of you here, the women of Northern
Ireland, speaking out whenever injustices arise, to point out
opportunities to face up to challenges and to speak for those who are
still voiceless.
It will take young people like Fiona. Just a month ago, I had the
opportunity to meet Fiona and other young women and men who had come
to Washington with Project Children and the Children's Friendship
Project. Some of them are here today. One, Vicky Moore, interned in my
office and stood in the Forum elections for her constituency.
Another, Janette Rooney, stayed in our nation's capital for six weeks,
learning about leadership, community service, and how to build bridges
of understanding between diverse communities. But on the day before
Janette returned to her home in County Tyrone, the Omagh bomb went
off. Several of her fellow students turned on CNN and saw their own
friends being taken away to the hospital. One of Janette's best
friends was killed.
When the director of the Children's Friendship Project called Janette
at home a few days later to extend her condolences, Janette's mother
mentioned how her daughter had just received an invitation to this
Vital Voices conference. How, during this time of suffering and
unspeakable loss, this conference gave Janette something to look
forward to. And how proud her mother was that her daughter was part of
the solution, part of the new generation, part of the future of
Northern Ireland. For that is what you are helping to create.
Tomorrow, I will visit with the Lord Mayor and others, one of the
beautiful green spaces in Belfast. It is the kind of place where any
mother or father would want their children to be able to play freely.
There's a new partnership being formed between an American non-profit
named KaBOOM, and PlayBoard, a Northern Ireland organization devoted
to creating safe environments for children to play. They hope to
create such an environment somewhere in Belfast.
And what they build won't be some adult's vision of what sparks a
child's imagination. The children themselves will design this space.
They will be the architects of their own environment. In a way, that
is a metaphor for what's happening in Northern Ireland, isn't it? All
of you are now the architects of a new environment. You are ultimately
those who will determine whether the children of Northern Ireland can
play like children should, without respect to religion or politics,
without stereotyping or name-calling, without fear or violence.
That is for me the ultimate dream I see in my mind's eye, as I land
here in your airport, as I travel the streets, as I look into the
faces of the people standing on the curbs waving at my car. I believe
that will happen, and when it does, we will think back to this
conference and we will know that women's voices played a vital role in
fulfilling this promise of peace for all citizens of Northern Ireland
-- for men and women, for boys and girls.
May God bless you in this important work and the future you will build
together.
Thank you very much.
(End text)