Why did it take this long for Secretary Clinton to put women’s rights at the top of her foreign policy agenda? Today the Boston Globe and the Washington Post ran similar stories about Clinton’s recent trip to Africa saying Clinton is making women’s rights around the world a top priority for her agenda.
It is surprising it took this long. When Clinton addressed the UN women’s conference in Beijing in September of 1995, she strongly denounced abuses of women’s rights. She was considered a champion of international women’s rights because of that speech. Since then, she has been quite outspoken about the issues but little action has followed the words.
As America’s top diplomat today Clinton is uniquely equipped to put her words into action. In her recent Africa trip she listened to painful stories of rape victims in eastern Congo, reports the Washington Post. Will she and the White House make it their priority to help these women ravaged by unspeakable sexual violence? We’ll see. It is great that these issues are being brought up again. Let’s hope they can stay in the news even when seemingly bigger issues are dominating the political agenda.
