Ambassador Perry's Speeches

Women's History Month Event (27 March 2008)

Honorable Ministers,
Distinguished panelists,
Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

Thank you for joining us today to discuss an issue that is very close to my heart and to the health of any nation.  Women in Sierra Leone, as in the entire world, make up more than half the population and, therefore, merit a strong voice in how their respective countries develop.

International Women's Month is a time to honor the women who have fought to advance the causes of justice and dignity.  This “month,” like others in American History and elsewhere, was created to highlight the role of women in the world, a role that has too often been ignored.  While we honor progress, though, we must take the time to shine a light on obstacles that remain, preventing women from reaching their full potential.  Women’s empowerment is not an issue for women alone but is one nation’s require for their own comprehensive and effective social empowerment.  No nation can succeed with half its population socially and economically subjugated.

Women are the driving force in many areas of politics, business, family life, and health.  Yet the roles and rights of women vary from country to country and from area to area within a country.  Women who may have very strong roles in making decisions for their families may be subjugated in politics.  Women who run businesses may lack the power to make decisions about their own health, or, even face obstacles in obtaining essential credit to brow their enterprises. 

At the core of these contradictions are the systems of rules that govern lives of women in many parts of the world – both the national legal system and systems of traditional justice.  It is our responsibility, as citizens and voters, to encourage our traditional and elected leaders to protect the rights of women in all systems of justice.  The recent passage of gender-related legislation is encouraging to some degree, although international communities have noticed there was deletion of the practice of female genital mutilation (FMG) which can adversely affect the health and happiness of women’s future.  The remainder of the legislation should help to ensure women’s equality and physical, legal, and economic security, but more progress is necessary.

Ensuring that women have the ability to speak their minds, vote their consciences, engage in commerce and trade, own land, and serve their country in government or military service is essential to creating a society where all people are equal.  Also, women must have access to resources, health facilities, and support networks so that they are never in a situation from which there is no way out.

The United States Government has a long-standing commitment to women’s empowerment.  The U.S. State Department’s Agency for International Development goals, headed by a woman-Director for International Assistance Henrietta Fore-and supported by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta manages to fund in Sierra Leone in Sierra numerous economic development and empowerment programs on women and youth.  We believe that by empowering women in Sierra Leone, we will enable them to speak out on the issues that are most important to women, ensuring that the voices of all women are heard. 

Access to health facilities is critical to women’s, children’s and families’ health.  It is essential to better the status of women in Sierra Leone.  Women need to have the ability to get help when they are injured, but also to maintain their health in general.  The United States has played a leading role in the worldwide efforts to combat AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis as a founding supporter of the Global Fund, as well as creator and funder of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  Our commitment to the health of society in general and of women in particular grows stronger each year. 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a Roundtable on Women in Justice earlier this month, at which Justice Salimatu Koroma represented the women of Sierra Leone.  In her remarks, Secretary Rice said:

“…women’s empowerment should be a policy priority for every country in the world. This is my personal hope as we mark International Women’s Month. But let me be even more ambitious still: I would like there to come a time in the not-too-distant future when there will be no need for any kind of International Women’s Month – when the women and girls of the world will be safe in the knowledge that the path of justice is open to them, and when violence against women is stigmatized and punished in every society.  But until… that time comes, we will continue to support women everywhere, who persevere in their quest to gain the equal rights and equal justice that they deserve.”
 
I look forward to hearing from our panelists today on how the different systems of justice in Sierra Leone interact and how the women of Sierra Leone can unite to ensure that their interests are protected, their rights preserved.  As women in the United States learned, power is demanded, is seized by women.  Without women like Susan B. Anthony, American women would not have the right to vote.  With the support of former slaves such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, the way forward to full civil rights for women would not have succeeded.  The later roles of Mary McCleod Bethune, the first person of African descent to serve in President Franklin Roosevelt’s “kitchen cabinet” and Margaret Sanger, who fought for women’s reproductive rights, enabled women in the United States today to find themselves as Chief Executive Officers of Companies, as legislators, lawyers and doctors.

We will do our utmost to work with the men and women of Sierra Leone as partners to ensure that every girl born here in the world’s poorest country will know that she has within herself the power to be free.

Thank you very much for this time and for your attendance during this important discussion.