SECRETARY CLINTON:
Good afternoon. It is wonderful to be here for this social forum, and I
want to thank President Santos for that excellent speech that covered
so many of the important issues that are facing the Americas. And I also
wish to thank Maria Angela for the excellent work and the great
collegiality as a foreign minister, and all of my colleagues as foreign
ministers, and a special warm welcome to President Morales. He and I
were born on the same day, and I am delighted that he is here to give
the closing address.
I think we just heard a comprehensive review of many of the issues
that are confronting us in this hemisphere. What I am excited about is
the progress we are making and the vision that we have that will drive
that progress further. I remember when the first Summit of the Americas
was held. My husband hosted it in Miami. It was 18 years ago. It was
like a hundred years ago, because the entire political, cultural,
economic landscape of the Americas has changed in those short 18 years.
Just look around you. This forum is a great tribute to that change.
When I think of the challenges that we face – how to strengthen
democracy and the rule of law, reduce crime and inequality, advance the
lives of indigenous people, of women and girls – it is clear that
government alone never could and never would do that without the strong
support and partnership of civil society.
I’ve often said that a democratic society is like a three-legged
stool. One leg must be responsible, accountable government. The second
leg must be a private sector that creates jobs and opportunities for
people. And the third leg must be a robust civil society that speaks up
on behalf of those who may not be able to speak for themselves – those
living in poverty, those working without the protections of good
conditions for their labor, those who are lacking social status or
education. If one of those legs – government, economy, civil society –
is too short or is cut off, the stool collapses.
So the activists and the advocates that you have heard from have the
most important voices at this summit. And when discrimination, poverty,
inequality stifle those voices, then we need civil society more than
ever.
Now, I will certainly say that sometimes these conversations are not
easy. Certainly change does not happen as quickly as many of us wish.
But you can see the slow, steady movement here in this hemisphere: more
people living under governments they have elected, more people breaking
the bonds of extreme poverty, more people seeing their children be
educated and attain positions in society that they could only have
dreamed of.
So the United States considers our partnerships with civil society
critical. And we are actually running a dialogue with civil society
around the world. We’ve also launched the Open Government Partnership,
and on Tuesday I will join President Rousseff in Brasilia to host the
next meeting of this Partnership, which includes Colombia and 14 other
countries in our hemisphere. We want all governments here – but around
the world – to improve citizen security, to end impunity, to strengthen
human rights, and expand economic opportunity.
We are particularly focused on discrimination and intolerance. Now,
these are issues my own country has certainly addressed. And when I came
in, I heard someone talking about the Afro Latino. Well, we now have an
Afro American president. And we’ve seen what that symbolizes, but we
also know our work is not yet done. (Applause.)
So we are partnering with countries like Colombia and Brazil to try
to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination and promote equality. And
in preparation for the sixth Summit of the Americas, we have been
delighted to support placing these issues of social inclusion, of
affected people of African descent, indigenous people, women and youth
at the forefront of our preparations. And I am also very pleased that as
I walked in, the first presentation I heard was about protecting the
rights of the LGBT citizens here in the hemisphere. Thank you for
raising that. Thank you for putting it on the agenda. (Applause.)
Here in Colombia, we are proud to be partnering with the government
and investing $61 million in helping Colombia’s Afro descendents and
indigenous communities. (Applause.)
Our future depends on translating these ideas, these speeches, into
concrete actions. So we will do our best – those of us in government
here at the summit – to make sure the commitments we make in Cartagena
are moved into actions. But we need you in civil society. (Applause.) We
need you to remind us, to prod us, sometimes to embarrass us, about
keeping those commitments.
I am privileged on behalf of my country now to travel the entire
world all the time, and I can tell you that people everywhere – in North
Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia, in Sub-Saharan Africa – they want
to talk to me about Latin America. They ask me, “How did Latin America
do it? How did they make all this progress in such a short period of
time?”
Now, for many of you, it may feel like it hasn’t moved as much as you
would wish. But if you take a step back and look at what has been
accomplished in the last 18, 20 years – consolidating democracy,
improving economic opportunity, putting issues of discrimination and
exclusion at the center of social discourse and government action –
there is a lot that we can say we have accomplished.
But we cannot be satisfied, and we must continue to work toward that
day when every single child born in this hemisphere, no matter who his
or her parents may be, no matter where he or she may be born, that every
single boy and girl has the opportunity and the right to live up to his
or her God-given potential. That must be our goal, and we will work
with you to achieve it.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
