Louis B. Sohn Human Rights Award Acceptance Speech

Friends, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you so much Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney for your kind words of introduction. You, yourself, have always been a champion of women’s rights and I thank you so much for your unwavering support as a Congresswoman to the work of UNFPA

I would also like to thank Karen Mulhauser, the President of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, and the Executive Director, Paula Boland. Thank you so much for your work to promote greater understanding and support for the work of the United Nations. I am humbled by this honour.

I would also like to give special thanks a person who continues tirelessly to work on promoting the rights of women and supporting UNFPA through successful communication- thank you Kathy Bonk of Communications Consortium Media Center.

I am proud to share the honour of this day with Wade Henderson, CEO of the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights. Wade- I want you to know that I opened my eyes in the U.S. in the 1960s to the civil rights movement and I sang “we shall overcome”.

I thank the organizers for your cultural sensitivity and honouring me with the invocation by Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplain at Georgetown University.

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Appreciation of All Who Contributed to This Award

I accept this Louis B. Sohn Award with a deep sense of gratitude, humility and responsibility. I am deeply honoured to be selected as the first United Nations official to receive this prestigious honour.

On a personal basis, I accept this award on behalf of my mother who saw in me the dream that she was not able to achieve. And I receive it on behalf of all the men in my life, who made my standing here in front of you possible. My father, who along with my mother, was the light of my life, sacrificed a great deal to ensure that I received the best education I could at a time when girls’ education was not available in Saudi Arabia. I receive this award on behalf of my three brothers who, though they left our world early, nurtured and supported me throughout my education and my professional career.

And I receive this award also in the name of my husband, Dr. Mahmoud A. Saleh, who insisted I accept the position as my deserved right in my long career in the United Nations, regardless of the hardships of having to live in two different continents and cities for many years.

On this occasion, I recall the memory of the late King Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz who had the vision to give me a scholarship for my university education in the United States, at a time when no girl in my country was given such scholarships. And I express gratitude to King Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, who as Crown Prince saw the opportunity to nominate me as UNFPA Executive Director at a time when no woman of my country was ever officially nominated for an international post before.

My thanks would not be complete without my appreciation for the previous UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who saw the wisdom in selecting me as the first Saudi Arabian woman to lead a very sensitive and progressive agenda that is value loaded for all cultures on the globe. He supported my plan to introduce a focus on gender, culture and human rights in UNFPA which has already made a difference in building alliances and in promoting human rights in ways that are pertinent and meaningful to communities.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank warmly Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his unwavering support to UNFPA and its mandate, and to me personally. I thank him for his leadership to support the rights of all people. He never wavered from speaking loudly and clearly promoting maternal health and ending violence against women as a way to ensure human rights. He was touched by his meeting with our UN HIV-positive colleagues and vowed to protect their rights to work in an environment free of discrimination with full equality.

I salute today all men who are supportive of their mothers, daughters, sisters and wives. Their support is critical to women. But it is also critical to their own well- being and sense of dignity and worth. We often articulate our anger at the violence and injustice committed by men against women because such actions are violations of human rights. And we often forget that there are millions of other men who believe that their lives are fuller and worthwhile when they ensure that dignity, justice and equality prevail among men and women in their homes, in their communities and thus in their nations.

And now I come to the heart of the award. I accept it on behalf of my colleagues at UNFPA who work every day, with deep commitment, to advance the health and rights of women, men and young people. Like their colleagues of the United Nations at large, they work under difficult circumstances and hardships, from living conditions to losing their lives. But they continue without hesitation because they know that their work is critical to the promotion of the rights of all people to a life of dignity, equality and justice.

From Africa to Asia and the Pacific, from Latin America and the Caribbean—to Arab States and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, we are guided in our work by a simple yet powerful principle— that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and these rights form the foundation for freedom, justice and peace in this world.

Eleanor Roosevelt and human rights at home

Today I would like to pay tribute to a great American woman whose vision and leadership helped forge the first international bill of human rights—a woman whose legendary common sense approach, optimism and boundless energy continue to inspire me today, Eleanor Roosevelt. (I understand that she also established the United Nations Association of the United States.) She used her compassion, sense of humour and sharp intellect as she chaired the United Nations Human Rights Committee. It was on this day 61 years ago, that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to serve as a common standard of achievement for all peoples of all nations.

After the Declaration was adopted, Eleanor Roosevelt championed the articulation of these fundamental rights and freedoms in legally binding human rights treaties for the world at large and also in small places, close to home—so close and so small, she said, that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.

She spoke of human rights belonging in the world of the individual person, in the neighborhood, school and college, factory, farm, office or place of work. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, she said, they have little meaning anywhere else.
These remarks ring true to me and I am sure they resonate with the daily experiences of millions of people.

I would not be standing here today accepting this award if I had not enjoyed equal justice, equal opportunity and equal dignity in my own home, when I was a little girl in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And I look forward to returning to my homeland to work voluntarily for the same goals.

At that time, in September 1951, there were no schools for girls in my home country. But my parents believed in the words and teachings of the Koran as a way of life. They believed in the divine command to read, and the power of knowledge as essential to faith and to one’s daily life. Islamic principles tell us that all that is related to worship is permanent and does not change but all that is related to one’s conduct in daily life can be adjusted to meet the reality on the ground. And to deal with this changing reality, a Muslim must have faith, knowledge and wisdom in order to lead a life of dignity, justice, equality and peace.

My father and mother believed that all their children, boys and girls, should receive an education because that is the only valuable wealth that outlasts all others. Guided by this belief, my father took me on a plane to Cairo, Egypt when I was seven years old to attend a boarding school. And it was not just any school, but a Presbyterian missionary school. As a devout Muslim, my father believed his utmost goal was educating me and he felt comfortable with having me receive my education from women who were “People of the Book” as Christians are called in the Koran.

I still remember the day that my father left me at my new school in Cairo. He was holding my hand and I could feel him trembling. He later told me that every nerve and cell in his body was shaking, urging him to take me back home with him. But he knew that if he did, I would not receive one of life’s greatest gifts, the gift of education, especially for girls, that has enriched my life in so many ways.

My education, at a boarding school for girls in Cairo, opened new windows of opportunity for me. I met girls from different countries of the region and of different religions. I discovered that there were Egyptians who were Muslims and Copts and we all lived together in the boarding school as a family away from home. We discovered that the cultural values of our families were similar and that they were translated into the same privileges and restrictions for going out during weekends. We all shared our food, our clothes, our pocket money, our stories and secrets and suffered together collective punishment when we were naughty. I learned about the culture of my American teachers and how they ensured we abided by our own culture. And I discovered that knowledge is a human right that transcends all differences and that brings diverse people together in equality. All this echoed the message of the Koran which indicates that we were created as different peoples and tribes so that we would get to know each other.

Year of Special Commemorations

Today 61 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we continue to struggle to bring human rights close to home for millions of people. This year marks two auspicious and historic occasions worth mentioning that have shined further light on the universal quest for human rights and human dignity for all.

This year we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women—the international bill of rights for the world’s women. And we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development that guides the work of UNFPA. And this year the General Assembly of the United Nations approved the establishment of a new gender entity within the context of the UN reform for coherence and harmonization.

It was at this International Conference on Population and Development 15 years ago in Cairo that delegates from 179 nations, representing all cultures and faiths, proclaimed for the first time that everyone has the right to reproductive health. They also agreed that due to the responsibilities that women carry in the society and their reproductive functions, they had the right to reproductive health through the different phases of their life, free of violence and coercion. They asserted that this right is a foundation for the empowerment of women. They adopted in 1994 a clear goal of universal access to reproductive health by 2015, which the leaders of the world reiterated in their declaration in 2005 and which then became a target under Millennium Development Goal 5 on Improving Maternal Health.

The Right to Reproductive Health as a Human Right

Over the years, we have come a long way together. A total of four UN global conferences for women have helped galvanize a global women’s movement. The health, rights and participation of women are now proclaimed in various resolutions of the United Nations Security Council dealing with peace and security. As we work for the rights of women in conflicts and wars, we must remember that women give birth, bleed, miscarry, get infected with HIV, and also die regardless of war, flood, tsunami or drought. We must speak loudly against categorizing women’s special needs as development versus humanitarian. Women’s bodies do not recognize such differences; they function the same all the time.

There is growing understanding that women’s rights are central to social and economic progress and to international peace and security. And there is greater commitment than ever before to engage women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding because women are the weavers of the fabric of families and communities.

I am happy that Jane Saks joins us today. She has brought the exhibition of Congo Women to the United States Agency for International Development. This is a powerful exhibition, to increase awareness and action to end violence against women, and I encourage everyone to see it.

I must say that I am comforted that the U.S. has rejoined the community of nations that supports UNFPA and the agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development.

It is wonderful to count the United States, once again, as a strong supporter of reproductive health and rights for women worldwide.

It is a great pleasure to be here with you in the U.S. House of Representatives. I applaud the creation of the new women’s agency within the U.S. State Department and I am hopeful that the United States will soon ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. We are gratified that Wade Henderson and his organization, Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, have accepted the leadership in working for the ratification of CEDAW by the Congress. Thank you Wade and we look forward to your success.

Today 15 years after the Cairo Conference, reproductive rights are increasingly recognized as universal human rights.

Don’t we all recognize as universal the suffering of a husband and family when a woman dies needlessly from complications of pregnancy and childbirth?

Don’t we feel compassion for a young girl who gets pregnant because she lacked health information and services, and drops out of school?

Don’t we share the pain of people who get infected with HIV and suffer stigma and discrimination?

Don’t we understand the plight of a refugee or displaced person who has been raped but is too afraid, or too ashamed, to ask for help?

Today more and more people believe that everyone has the right to sexual and reproductive health. There is growing awareness that everyone has the right to freely and responsibly determine the number, timing and spacing of their children, and to make decisions about reproduction free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

The right to sexual and reproductive health is fundamental to women’s empowerment and gender equality; for if women cannot make such a basic decision, they would not be able to make decisions about any other aspect of their lives. This right is also essential to the prevention of HIV and the improvement of maternal health and stopping one woman from dying each minute, as occurs today, during pregnancy and childbirth. When a mother dies, the infant often dies but also the family unravels and all suffer the loss. It is high price to pay by families and communities and it is a small investment to make to ensure maternal health.

We know that there are 215 million women who would like to plan their families but have no means to do so and we know that many countries will not achieve MDG 5 on maternal health including the target of universal access to reproductive health by 2015. It is imperative that we all work together and ensure that the needed investment in reproductive health programmes, including family planning, is made and that our commitment is not impacted by the financial crisis or the funds needed for climate change. We agreed that women’s lives are worth saving and therefore we must protect the programmes that save their lives.

This year, for the first time, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution decrying the large inequities in maternal mortality and declaring that maternal health is a human right. Together with partners, UNFPA will continue to work to ensure universal access to reproductive health guided by the belief that no woman should die while giving life. Though we say that MDG 5 to improve maternal health is the mother of all the Millennium Development Goals, the indicators on maternal death and disability have not changed in the past two decades. So let us on this Human Rights Day commit ourselves to achieving the right of women to reproductive health including family planning.

Progress is Possible and Needs Nurturing

Today UNICEF, WHO, The World Bank and UNFPA are working together at the global, regional and country levels to end high maternal death rates in 60 countries. We feel that the goal is achievable if political will, leadership and investment are realized.

As Executive Director of UNFPA, I have traveled to many corners of the world. As I have seen the challenges faced by women and families, I also have also seen hope and progress.

Today more girls are going to school, taking important steps towards equality.
Today after a devastating genocide, Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in parliament, and education and health standards are rising.
Today Africa can boast its first woman Head of State, the fearless leader and human rights champion, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leading her country to rise from years of conflict and devastation.
Today progress is being made to end harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and cutting, and the devastating childbirth disability of fistula.
Throughout my tenure as UNFPA Executive Director, I have championed a culturally sensitive approach to promote the health and rights of women and young people. I have done so to bring human rights closer to individual’s lives and realities, as Eleanor Roosevelt said, to bring human rights closer to home.
I believe that human rights cannot be imposed from the outside, to be lasting they must come from within. People must achieve their own human rights. Our role as development agents is to provide moral and material support.
From within my heart, I thank you again for the Louis B. Sohn Award for Human Rights.
Thank you.