From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgThu Sep 7 10:28:28 1995 Date: Tue, 05 Sep 1995 14:57:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: Re: WCW: AIUSA: Letter to Hillary Clinton [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## author : hnaylor@igc.apc.org ## date : 04.09.95 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Amnesty International USA 322 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10001 September 1, 1995 The First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Office of the First Lady The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mrs. Clinton: No one who attends the Fourth UN World Conference on Women will have a louder or more influential voice than you will. As First Lady of the United States, you will be listened to closely by both governments and the worldwide NGO community. This means that should you fail to address several critical issues, your silence will speak volumes, as well. We beg you not to remain silent on the state of women's human rights everywhere in the world. If you are to be a forceful advocate for the rights of women, you must be prepared to name the governments which violate women's rights or which fail to take action to prevent the full range of abuses against women. We understand that your primary task is to address women's rights issues and not China's overall human rights record. But you cannot afford to be silent on the issue of violations against Chinese and Tibetan women. The government of China could interpret your silence as condoning the brutal treatment of women such as its forced abortion and sterilization program. Furthermore, during the preparation for the conference, the Chinese government conducted "Public Order" sweeps, which included sixteen executions and numerous detentions. One such case of detention is Ding Zilin, a university professor and her husband Jiang Peikun. They were accused of "economic irregularities". We have adopted them as Prisoners of Conscience, and are demanding their immediate and unconditional release. Please add your voice to this appeal. When people are executed or imprisoned so that a UN conference can take place, it should not be the responsibility of Amnesty International and other human rights groups alone to protest. You must not remain mute when victims of human rights violations have paid such a price. If this conference is to be a success, it is imperative that governments leave Beijing having committed to take real and measurable action to improve the human rights of women. Specifically, we need your voice to demand that governments conclude the conference with: - a commitment to reaffirm and build on their previous commitments to the universality and indivisibility of the human rights of women. - a commitment to take action on state violence against women. - a commitment to tackle human rights violations of women in armed conflict. - a commitment to fulfill their international obligations to end human rights violations occurring in the private sphere and in communities. - a commitment to protect women activists. Speak, Mrs. Clinton, speak! We wish you success in these endeavors. Sincerely, William F. Schulz Executive Director