UN: HILLARY CLINTON ADDRESSES ISSUE OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Описание: (10 Dec 1997) English/Nat
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, Hillary Rodham Clinton directed the United Nations' attention today to extending rights to women.
The U-S first lady says that women don't believe violence against them is simply cultural but rather criminal.
The US first lady was in New York to launch the 50th anniversary year of the U-N Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Adopted in the aftermath of the 1948 Holocaust, the UN declaration sets out basic civil, political and economic rights for people worldwide.
UPSOUND: (English)
"Today we mark the beginning of the 50th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
SUPERCAPTION: UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan
Hillary Clinton, speaking at a ceremony commemorating the signing, says the declaration has been influencing governments and courts but has not expanded the circle of human dignity far enough.
The US first lady directed the United Nations' attention to its "unfinished business" - extending rights to women.
She said the language of freedom and human rights have no meaning for a young woman forced into prostitution or those forced into involuntary servitude as sweatshop workers or domestic
servants.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"That these are God given rights that they are born with as surely as they were born into the human family. For if they are not innate how have people throughout history known to fight for them so valiantly."
SUPER CAPTION: Hillary Clinton, US First Lady
Mrs Clinton's speech focused on the failure to extend such rights to women, legal, political and economic discrimination, the high level of illiteracy among women and ritual circumcision.
She says domestic and sexual violence remain the most serious, under-reported and widespread human rights violations in the world and that violence can't be dismissed as "part of a country's norm".
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"If I were to tear up this declaration its values would abide. If I were to burn this document its meaning would remain. If I were to forbid someone from hearing its words they would still ring as loudly as ever in the hearts of men and women. "
SUPER CAPTION: Hillary Clinton, US First Lady
Forty-eight nations have voted for the declaration but eight countries abstained: six Soviet bloc countries, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.

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