Under Secretary of State David Hale delivers remarks at the Warsaw Process Human Rights Working Group, at the Department of State.
Transcript
Of democracy, human rights, and labor, here at the State Department. I wanna thank all of you this morning, for taking time out of your busy schedules to participate in this important event. You’ll hear a bit more from me over lunch, so I’ll get right to the point this morning. I’d like to introduce our distinguished guests, they will offer some opening remarks this morning, to help frame the issues, and to discuss the objectives of the conference. Under Secretary David Hale, who is right to my left here, has been serving as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs since August 2018. Under Secretary Hale previously served as the United States ambassador, in Pakistan, Lebanon, and Jordan, he also served as Deputy Special Envoy, and Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, earlier, he served multiple tours in Jordan, and Lebanon, as well as in Tunisia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. Mission to the U.N. In Washington, Under Secretary Hale, was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel, Egypt and The Levant, and director for Israel-Palestinian Affairs. He’s also held several staff posts, including executive assistant, to the Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. Under Secretary Hale joined the Foreign Service in 1984, and holds the rank of career Ambassador. Under Secretary Hale.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Well, thank you Assistant Secretary Destro, and good morning to everyone. On behalf of President Trump, and Secretary Pompeo, it is indeed a pleasure to welcome all of you to the Human Rights Working Group. As you know, this is the second Working Group meeting under the Warsaw Process, with the Cybersecurity Working Group, having just convened earlier this week in Seoul and we look forward to future meetings in Manama, Warsaw, Bucharest, and Brasilia on issues related to maritime and aviation security, energy security, missile proliferation, and humanitarian issues. This endeavor has become a global partnership as it should be, because the challenges to peace and security in the Middle East transcend the region’s borders. And thank you to each of your governments for investing the effort and resources to co-host working groups and for sending representatives to participate in these discussions. And of course, I wanna recognize my colleague, Under Secretary Przydacz, from Poland who will speak shortly. The government of Poland has been instrumental in establishing this initiative and moving it forward, and we’re grateful for our partnership on a broad range of issues, including those that affect the Middle East. America is especially proud to host the Working Group on Human Rights here today in Washington. As President Trump said in Warsaw, “We value the dignity “of every human life, protect the rights of every person, “and share the hope of every soul, to live in freedom, “and that is who we are. “Those are the priceless ties that bind us together, “as nations, as allies, and as a civilization,” unquote. And Secretary Pompeo, affirmed our commitment to these values in a speech last month, he stressed that our respect for unalienable rights, hasn’t just shaped us as a nation, it shaped how we think about America’s place in the world as well, and it sets our foreign policy. Now Women, Peace and Security, is the theme of this meeting, because of our conviction and validated by empirical data, “That societies where women participate fully in civic, “and economic life, are more prosperous and peaceful.” Simply put, women deserve a seat at the table, where decisions are being made about their lives and futures. Women and girls have been particularly affected by the conflict and instability in the Middle East. We’ve seen the targeting of women journalists and politicians in Iraq, the assassination of female human rights defenders in Libya, and the kidnapping and brutal torture of countless minority women and girls by ISIS in Iraq, and Syria, not to mention the horrific sexual violence committed by the Assad regime. In Yemen, we’ve witnessed a 60% increase in gender-based violence, since the conflict intensified there in 2015. Conflicts in these four countries alone are estimated to have affected more than 47 million people, and resulted in a forced displacement of more than 17 million. More than 2/3 of these victims are women and children. We must not simply view women as victims, they must be considered as part of the solution. Women have emerged as pragmatic leaders across the region, despite overwhelming barriers, they’ve assumed grave personal risk, to negotiate prisoner exchanges in Syria, they have facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid in Yemen, they protest gender-based violence in Libya, you will hear more from some of these remarkable women later this morning. We must collectively engage and harness the talents of female leaders in government, the civil society, and religious communities and incorporate their perspectives into discussions on peace and security. America is committed to leading by example, to advance women’s inclusion in security efforts. President Trump signed the Women, Peace, and Security Act into law in 2017, and tomorrow, you’ll hear from senior advisor Ivanka Trump, about why women, peace, and security, is a priority for the President, and a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. And with a release of our strategy on women, peace, and security this past June, the State Department, the Defense Department, and USAID, and others are engaged in regional, have been engaging, in regional partnerships, and civil societies to accomplish our objectives. in Jordan, female police officers, have joined our police training partnership, Secretary Pompeo, named police colonel Khalida al-Atwal, Chief of the Jordanian Public Security Directorate’s, Women’s Department, as one of our annual International Women of Courage Awardees, and her efforts to improve protection for women at risk of violence, and to prepare female police officers for U.N. peacekeeping missions demonstrated remarkable leadership, and made a difference in her community and beyond. And there’s an American project in Iraq, that seeks to overcome barriers to refugee returnees and relieve intra and inter-communal tensions, by training women to resolve conflict, through leadership and social cohesion. To address the effects of sexual violence and conflict, our programs in Iraq, and Syria provide support for survivors of torture, and sexual, and gender-based violence, particularly survivors of ISIS, a critical step toward mending communities and healing those afflicted. We know that many of your governments seek to address similar themes through policies, and national action plans. We encourage that, and we encourage countries that have not yet developed those plans to use this Working Group to initiate the process. And we are calling on all those who do have national action plans, to allocate the resources that will be needed to accomplish the goals. Working together, we can increase women’s participation and amplify their voices in key institutions related to peacekeeping, conflict resolution, and post-conflict recovery and reconciliation. And all of you will have the opportunity to elaborate on your efforts to further the women, peace, and security agenda today and tomorrow, with the goal of preparing for a Ministerial in Washington next year. And the more we can all do, to promote women as full and equal participants, in building a more peaceful, and secure future for the region, the more durable that future will be, thank you all for joining us.
Thank you Under Secretary Hale, thank you for those comments. And now I’d like to welcome from the Republic of Poland, Under Secretary of State for Eastern Policy, Economic Diplomacy and Development Cooperation, Mister Marcin Przydacz. Under Secretary Przydacz is a graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he’s also studied international relations and philosophy, he’s a scholarship holder of Sapienza University in Rome, and the University of Messina, and the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in the National University in Kiev. He also graduated from the Italian, and European Law School at the University of Warsaw. Under Secretary Przydacz, previously worked with the Jagiellonian club as an international relations analyst, as well as with the foundation, Republic Foundation Center for Analysis. From 2012 to ’15, he was a lecturer at the Pontifical University of John Paul II, in Krakow, and from 2013 to ’15, he was president of the board of the Politics and Diplomacy Foundation, a think tank. Between 2015 and 2019, Under Secretary Przydacz served as the Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office at the Chancellery of the Polish president. Under Secretary Przydacz, we are happy that you’re here, and we welcome you to the podium.
Thank you very much, Under Secretary Hale, Professor Destro, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I should start by saying that I’m proud and honored to be here, but let me start by a short announcement. Today is a great, great day in a history of Polish culture, which has got an information that the Polish author, woman Olga Tokarczuk, was awarded by the Nobel Committee, with the Nobel Prize, is of course a great information, and great joy in Poland. And it goes in line with our discussion about the peace and security because I mean, I’ll just recommend you to read her fascinating books, so yeah, great moment. But it’s, again, a pleasure and an honor to be here, and to welcome you together with Under Secretary Hale, and Professor Destro, at this fantastic event, and the Warsaw Process Working Group meeting on human rights dedicated to women, peace, and security. This is the second, as it was already mentioned, meeting of the Working Groups which are addressing different aspects of regional security in the region. The establishment of the Warsaw Process, was announced by Poland and the United States at the conference held in the capital of Poland in February this year, gathering more than 60 countries across the globe including High Representatives from Arab countries, and Israel, as well as the E.U. and NATO. It was the first international meeting of this size on Middle East, since the Madrid, and Sharma El-Sheik conferences in 1991, and 1996. This proved that there is a wide consensus in the international society as to the need to address new important problems related to broader aspects of security in the Middle East. The issues we are discussing are horizontal manner, with a focus on problems, which are common to the whole region, it was clearly proven that this is only through dialogue that further escalation and tensions can be avoided, and that practical methods of peaceful coexistence can be found. As a follow-up to the Warsaw Conference, we want to focus on expert-level discussions regarding concrete, sometimes detailed and complex challenges, for the security in the Middle East, cybersecurity, human Rights, maritime and aviation security, energy security, countering proliferation of ballistic missiles, humanitarian issues, and refugees and countering terrorism, and its illicit financing. During the meeting in the Republic of Korea, our colleagues, actually the day before yesterday, discussed how to promote stability, and prevent conflicts in cyberspace, by developing and implementing regional confidence-building measures in cyberspace. Upcoming meeting in Bahrain will focus on actions to foster maritime and aviation security in the region with particular emphasis on preventing illegal arms trafficking in the region. A basis for the discussion will be the existing mechanism, in this respect, namely, the Proliferation Security Initiative. In Warsaw, energy security experts will discuss how to strengthen the security of critical energy infrastructure, ensure transparency in trading of petroleum products and diversify energy sources through the use of new technologies, including renewable energy sources, etc. In Romania, we will discuss threats, stability, and peace in the Middle East, connected with the development and proliferation of missiles, both by states, and non-states actors. Moreover, early next year, Working Groups on humanitarian issues and refugees, as well as countering terrorism, and its illicit financing, will be held. Outcomes of the expert discussion will be brought to a political level and operationalized during the Ministerial Conference, next year here in Washington DC. We believe that we are initiating today a long-term horizontal process that will encourage real and tangible improvements, of the security situation in the region. Ladies and gentlemen, human rights are a crucial component of the Warsaw Process, fundamental human rights, liberties and freedoms have to be equally important and relevant for each and every country in the world. Respect for human rights as a precondition to peace, and creates condition for sustainable development as well as social, health, and educational system which better address people’s needs. That is why creating a framework, encouraging governments and civil societies in the region of the Middle East, and not only for further intensive engagement in fostering human rights, is such an important element of this process. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution Number 1325, which remains a cornerstone of the international framework, on advancing women participation in peace-building. It is still important to remind policy makers, experts, and even academics across the globe, that women should be an imminent part of both the political process leading up to peace, and the negotiation on the lasting accord itself. Women have an enormous positive impact on daily basis, in building just, better often harmonious societies. Women have every right to take a significant part in shaping the future of their countries. This is even more relevant in conflict, and post-conflict situations. If we truly want to achieve a genuine long-lasting peace, if the peace process and reconciliation are to be sustainable and inclusive, women must have an equal opportunity to take meaningful part of all stages of such political efforts. The same applies for shaping and participate in the post-crisis environment. In general, the more women are involved in the peace process and transforming the country and post-conflicts realities, the more tangible and positive efforts can be observed. In this context, it is encouraging that women’s empowerment in fragile, and conflict-affected situation is on the rise, both with regard to financial contributions, as well as building this objective as a priority of progress. Despite this positive trend, the international community should continue its effort to promote a significant participation of women in conflict prevention, resolution, disarmament, and recovery. With regard to peacekeeping and security, capacity-building missions, boosting the number of female army and police officers, female civilian experts, is invaluable in communication with local communities and stakeholders. It ensures better understanding of numerous sensitivities, and encourages a greater involvement of women locally in rebuilding the community, the region or the country on a path away from the conflict. Poland believes that strengthening the position of women as policymakers and participants of peace-building and peacekeeping processes, is important in the Middle East, just as it is anywhere else. The positive impacts women involvement has on improving the situation of countries in the conflict or in post-conflict phase, proves that the world needs more women engagement in, and at the helm of peace processes in policy making, in academia, in public life, and in business. I do hope that our work here will contribute to this ambitious and much needed goal. Thank you very much for your attention, and I wish you a fruitful deliberations today. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your comments, Under Secretary Przydacz. Both your remarks and those of Under Secretary Hale provide a good jumping-off point from which to begin the event’s substantive discussions.