Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice-presidential candidate on a major national ticket, said last night in a speech that there is a strong link between democracy and human rights.
"Building strong and democratic nations is critical," she told an audience of more than 300 people assembled in Webster Hall.
In her speech, titled "Human Rights: a Guarantee for Peace or a Source of Conflict?" Ferraro said democratic nations are much more likely to support the rights of their citizens.
Ferraro's speech kicked off the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences' Susan B. Anthony Lecture Series, "A Celebration of Women's Political Involvement."
As the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Ferraro has worked on investigating human rights violations world-wide and has helped pass resolutions demanding that offending nations eliminate their violations.
She said her job is a "physically and emotionally exhausting effort. It takes time. It takes resources. It takes something that we in America don't have a whole lot of --patience."
Ferraro said it has taken centuries of work for women's rights to gain attention on the world stage. She said a 1993 U.N. resolution on women's rights grew out debate over issues such as the rape of Bosnian women.
Change is often delayed because many nations resist the efforts of the UNHRC, Ferraro said.
Ferraro also stressed the importance of the UNHRC."We can deal with virtually every issue," she said.
"The U.S. is not going to become the policeman/policewoman of the world," she said. "We can't afford to do that."
Ferraro said it is important for individuals to voice their support for human rights to Congress and to businesses that deal with countries that stifle human rights.
Ferraro explained that input from concerned citizens, especially American citizens, causes foreign leaders to panic.
"We've got to speak up for all those that can't speak up for themselves," she said. "Everyone needs us."
In countries such as China, safety standards for workers are atrocious, Ferraro said. Instead of having safety monitors as in U.S. factories, "in China, the only monitors were guards with guns," she said.
Ferraro said President Bill Clinton should not have granted China most-favored-nation trade status last year.
She said China should have been granted this status because of its lack of a minimum wage, prohibition of unions, unsafe work conditions and prison slave labor.
Ferraro said Clinton eventually granted China most-favored-nation status to keep economic issues separate from human rights issues. Ferraro said Clinton is still highly supportive of human rights, but he advocates change through such venues as the Human Rights Commission.
Ferraro said she believes countries that are currently gaining economic strength through oppressive means will suffer in the long run. "No country can jam the frequency of freedom forever," she said.
Ferraro also discussed the politics involved in U.N. resolutions. She said her experience as a three-term representative from New York's Ninth Congressional District in Queens provided her with the experience she needs to bargain with other ambassadors.
She said China is one of the toughest countries with which she has to deal.
"China has been very problematical for us for years," Ferraro said. She said tactics used by China, such as the no-action motion which essentially tables a resolution, makes it extremely difficult to negotiate with them.
Ferraro said an U.N. investigator came to the U.S. recently in order to investigate racism, which shows the U.S. is not immune to investigations of human rights violations.
She said a report issued by the U.N. "wanted us to do things that under our constitution, we couldn't do." For example, she said the United Nations asked the U.S. to eliminate the Ku Klux Klan's right to demonstrate.
Ferraro said the U.S. acted as a role model in its relation with the investigation and ensuing changes, allowing the investigators to proceed freely. Although the resolution failed to pass, changes were still promised by the U.S.
Ferraro said after returning home from the six-week Human Rights conference in Geneva, Switzerland, she always gains new respect for the U.S.
"We just don't appreciate how much this country means," she said.
Ferraro spent the majority of her speech discussing her work with the United Nations, but she did include jokes about her loss with presidential candidate Walter Mondale in 1984 to incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush. Mondale and Ferraro lost by the largest electoral landslide in U.S. history.
"We won one state," she said. "I think that the smartest voters in the country live in the state of Minnesota."
