Hillary Clinton at the G-8 Deauville Partnership Meeting
Remarks at G-8 Deauville Partnership With Arab Countries in Transition Foreign Ministers Meeting
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
New York City
September 28, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Good morning. Let me start by thanking everyone for the contributions
that you have already made to this partnership, and for your support of
democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. In Deauville, during the
G-8 meeting, the countries represented there threw their support behind
the Arab people during the first phases of the transitions, knowing full
well how much work lay ahead.
This is a partnership conceived in optimism, but built to take on the
hard realities of long and difficult transitions. The recent riots and
protests throughout the region have brought the challenge of transition
into sharp relief. Extremists are clearly determined to hijack these
wars and revolutions to further their agendas and ideology, so our
partnership must empower those who would see their nations emerge as
true democracies.
Today, we want to send a clear message to all those in the region who
are working each day in governments, in civil society, in the private
sector, to build responsive institutions, to strengthen faltering
economies, to deliver freedom for all people, to respect human rights:
we stand with you and we will stand with you as long as it takes.
Because our partnership is taking practical steps to help more people
in the region feel the benefits of democracy in their daily lives. In
Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, people rose up against their dictators
because they were fed up with governments that served the interests of a
few at the expense of everyone else. But economic and social challenges
did not disappear with the dictators. Too many people still can’t find
jobs, and young and growing populations crave a sense of opportunity and
self-determination.
On the economic front, we are zeroing in on small and medium-sized
enterprises because they are the growth engines in any economy. They
create the bulk of new jobs and they spread wealth more broadly through
more communities. And when people have the opportunity to unleash their
talents and create something of their own, they are more invested in
their communities, their countries, and their new democracies.
So the OECD is helping emerging democracies find ways they can loosen
regulations and make it easier to start or expand a small business.
Several partners are setting up funds to help small businesses gain
access to loans and financing. People of the region need to see that
their governments can be fair and just. So we are stepping up our
efforts to return billions of dollars that were stolen or siphoned away
over decades of cronyism and corruption.
The United States has been proud to champion the Arab Forum on Asset
Recovery during our presidency of the G-8. The forum met earlier this
month in Doha to discuss specific steps we can take to recover
ill-gotten gains. Our State Department and Justice Department are
working together to appoint attorneys who will work exclusively with
transition countries. They will be a direct link to our recovery asset
experts in Washington and will work with our law enforcement agencies to
train their counterparts in the region.
We are also working to help transitioning countries develop both the
accountable, transparent institutions and the culture of democracy that
underlies the hope for change. We have established a transition fund to
support countries as they build court systems, ministries, and other
public institutions that are responsive to the needs of all their
people, putting them in the best positions to lead their own reforms and
see their own transition to democracy through.
Many of our partners are also making the difficult transition from
protest to politics, and they need our support as they take on the
different responsibilities of leadership. Many of the leaders in the
emerging transitioning democracy were themselves prisoners not so long
ago, or exiles, activists, dissidents. So as we look at how we can help
them make their own personal transition from protest to politics, we are
setting up programs to assist in doing that.
Last week, legislators and leaders from each of the transitioning
Deauville countries came to the United States to take the same training
that new members of our Congress go through, then they met with members
of Congress to get real life insights into what it means to stand up for
your beliefs and at the same time serve your constituents in a large
and diverse democracy.
I happened to know from personal experience how challenging
legislating can be, how much work and compromise it takes, how thick
your skin has to be, because after all, democracy invites the widest
range of opinions and interests in a society to participate. Laws that
abridge or punish the exercise of universal human rights, including the
right to free expression, free assembly, and free association, have no
place in democracies.
In the United States, as President Obama said in his address to the
General Assembly, we don’t ban offensive speech, whether it’s an insult
to a person’s deeply held religious beliefs or a denial of the
Holocaust, because we know that such laws can too easily be used as
tools of oppression.
Our democracy has grown steadily stronger over more than 235 years,
guided by a Constitution that enshrines our belief that the best answer
to hateful speech is more speech. None of us can insulate ourselves from
insult.
In the time since I began speaking just minutes ago, more than 300
hours of video has been uploaded to YouTube. Some of it, no doubt, is
vile. Some of it, no doubt, is offensive to my religion or yours. But we
must not give these views power they do not deserve. No words, no
matter how inflammatory or disgusting, are stronger than the faith we
have, and we should protect our cherished beliefs by standing up for
them in the marketplace and arena of free speech and ideas. And of
course, no words should ever be met with violence.
Building these habits of democracy is difficult work. But it is also
essential if people are to realize the full measure of human dignity.
And dignity may resonate in multiple ways across different peoples and
cultures, but it speaks to something universal in all of us. Everything
we do together in this partnership to promote economic stability and
equal opportunity advances freedom and dignity. We are standing up for
democracies that are unlocking people’s potential and standing against
extremists who exploit people’s frustrations. We are trying to help
societies leave behind old enmities and look ahead to new opportunities.
We are supporting civic groups who seek to strengthen their societies.
We are backing reformers who build accountable institutions, and combat
corruption that stifles innovation, initiative, hope, and dignity.
So I’m looking forward to our discussion today, taking stock of what
we have done to date, what more needs to be done, what has worked and
what, frankly, has not worked, as we work together to push an agenda of
democracy and dignity forward. So as we see our press representatives
leave the room, we’ll have to chance to then go directly into our
discussion. But again, thank you all for being here.
