Activists expect Clinton to propel women's rights

SPREADING OPTIMISM Clinton's speech at a 1995 UN conference on the status of women became an inspiration to activists around the world.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama's expected nomination today of Hillary Clinton as the next secretary of state has energized human rights and women's rights activists, who expect the former first lady to bring a dramatic new focus to the plight of women around the globe.

The appointment of the New York senator - a bitter rival of Obama's during the lengthy Democratic primary battle - is to be announced in Chicago today along with the rest of his national security team.

Obama plans to announce that Defense Secretary Robert Gates will keep his post and retired Marine General James L. Jones will serve as national security adviser. He will name Susan E. Rice as US ambassador to the United Nations. Also expected at the morning announcement are Eric Holder Jr., his nominee to be attorney general, and Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, his choice to be secretary of homeland security.

Obama's choice of Clinton was finalized after her husband, former president Bill Clinton, agreed to release the names of donors to his presidential library and foundation. Her selection plays into Obama's fascination with the "team of rivals" approach to governing, drawing former and potential political opponents into his inner circle.

But Clinton's ascension to be the nation's top diplomat also gives new hope to supporters of international women's rights, who see Clinton as one of the world's leading figures in the fight to improve education, safety, and economic opportunity for women and girls.

"This is a new opportunity. We're very optimistic," said Daphne Jayasinghe, Amnesty International's acting advocacy director for Europe/Central Asia and violence against women. The human rights group is pushing for ratification of a UN document calling for an end to gender discrimination, as well as programs to counter violence against women and girls.

The election of Joseph Biden as vice president makes Clinton's agenda for women even more promising, said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. Biden's strong Senate record on combating violence against women domestically and abroad has brought him accolades from women's advocates. "It is very exciting," Gandy said. "The two of them will be a dynamic team in terms of increasing the treatment around the world of women as human beings."

As first lady, Clinton delivered a dramatic speech on women's rights at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, criticizing the host country and other nations for abuses of girls and women. "It is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights," she said then.

The speech "in many ways became an inspiration to both the governmental representatives and the nongovernmental representatives to go back to their countries and to really advance the [goals] of Beijing," said Melanne Verveer, who was Clinton's chief of staff in the White House.

"Hillary during all of those years literally criss-crossed the globe, standing with women to advance their progress, and said to their leaders that no country can advance if half their country is left behind," added Verveer, who now chairs Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international group aimed at developing female leaders.

Obama's transition team did not respond to a request for comment, but human rights activists said they were optimistic that the new administration would bring new attention to the concerns of women abroad.

Biden "isn't seen as somebody you associate with women's rights," Jayasinghe noted, because the former Delaware senator has been identified with general foreign policy matters, but she said the vice president-elect is well known in human rights circles for his work on women's issues in the Senate.

Biden was the main sponsor of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which allowed victims to sue abusers in civil court, and increased funding for investigation and prosecution of violent acts against women.

He is also the chief sponsor of an international version of the act, which would authorize $1 billion over five years for programs to combat violence against women in foreign nations. Women's rights groups are hopeful the measure will have a stronger chance under an Obama administration and with a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Women's rights advocates are confident that Obama will lift the so-called "Global Gag Rule," a US law that prohibits American government funds from going to organizations that perform or "actively promote" abortion as a family planning option. The law was imposed under former President Reagan, lifted by former President Clinton, and reinstated by President Bush.

Further, the human rights groups are hoping for a more assertive approach by the new administration to stop mass rapes of women in war, and a more vocal stance against such practices as genital mutilation and forced marriages for girls.

Advocates have long asserted that human rights are a low priority for US presidents and secretaries of state, who often are distracted by more immediate national security issues.

Women's rights, they say, are usually even less of a priority, and diplomatic officials may be hindered by what human rights advocates say is a misguided oversensitivity to cultural differences. The plight of women in the Middle East, for example, generally takes a back seat to problems such as stemming nuclear proliferation.

But Clinton could bring a new perspective to the job of secretary of state, her supporters say, adding her internationally known voice to the fight for women's rights.

The former first lady was a strong advocate for development programs for women - such as loan assistance to help women in third-world nations start small businesses, giving them both a higher household income as well as a stronger role in the local economy, her supporters note. Such development programs can be crucial forces in empowering women, they said.

The sheer star power Clinton offers is in itself a boost for women, said Representative James McGovern, a Worcester Democrat and early supporter of Clinton's presidential run. McGovern, who was recently in rural Ecuador, said local women clamored to know whether Clinton indeed was in line to head the State Department.

"Women in these poor villages were beaming at the thought that Hillary might be the next secretary of state," McGovern said. "Women in indigenous communities where we visited, where there is no electricity, were excited about this possibility."