13352: Karshan: First Lady Mildred Aristide addresses Spouses of Heads of States Conference

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From: MKarshan@aol.com

Remarks by Mildred T. Aristide, First Lady of the Republic of Haiti at the XI
Conference of Spouses of Heads of States and Governments of America - Mexico
City, Mexico, September 25-27, 2002

Our esteemed host, Her Excellency Mrs. Marta Sahagún Fox, the First Lady of
the United States of Mexico,

Mrs. Maria Isabel Baquerizo de Noboa, First Lady of Ecuador,

Mrs. Rosa Gomez de Mejía, First Lady of the Dominican Republic,

Fellow Spouses and Representatives of Heads of States and Governments of the
Americas,

And Special Guests,

This yearâ??s Conference of Spouses, as the ten preceding conferences, runs on
two continuums. First, on that of the evolving voice of spouses of heads of
state and government on important national issues. And because we are talking
here about a population that is more than 95% feminine, it is a feminine
voice rising to give voice, on a national and international stage, to issues
confronting our individual nations. Increasingly, spouses of heads of states
are carrying out educational and cultural activities to advance healthcare,
human rights and a culture of peace in our societies. That the struggle for
the feminine voice to be heard is far from over was made abundantly clear in
a recently reported study of the media in 71 countries. The study found that
only 17% of all the persons, interviewed, cited and reported on in the press
in those countries were women.

The second continuum on which these conferences run, is on the historic and
political evolution of our individual nations within the global political
context. What is happening today in our countries does not begin and end at
our borders. It is connected to what is happening in the world. The Spouses
Conference reflects this connection and so, as we look within, we must also
look beyond â?? beyond our borders and beyond our region of the Americas. Youth

and poverty, the themes of this yearâ??s conference are clearly global issues.
The impact of poverty on children may appear different in different
countries, but its roots are the same therefore the obstacles in creating an
environment favorable for all youths must transcend nationality, race and
ethnicity.

Today, the human calamity posed by the AIDS pandemic presents one of the
greatest risks to the youth of the world. According to the United Nations
AIDS Agency, we have not reached the peak of the AIDS crisis yet. Since the
first case of AIDS was detected in 1981, more than 20 million people have
died of this disease. AIDS already killed a record of 3 million people last
year, 580,000 children under 15. And 14 million children have been orphaned
by this disease. As devastating as that is, if more is not done now, experts
predict that AIDS will kill 70 million people over the next 20 years. Todayâ??s

cataclysmic food shortage in Southern Africa is a by-product of the AIDS
pandemic. It directly threatens over 14 million people. Indirectly, the food
shortage threatens us all in our ability to create an environment and world
safe for our youth.

The guide-post for creating this environment is there in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and confirmed by the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child which states that, â??childhood is entitled to
special care and assistance.â?? It is difficult to imagine an environment and
world favorable for our children if more is not done to combat the menace of
AIDS which threatens us all.

Parallel to this physical challenge, there is a moral crisis that must be
overcome in order to create this new world for our children. The 2002 United
Nations Human Development Report informs that although the last 20 years of
the 20th century has experienced an historic shift in the global spread of
democracy, there is less optimism about democracy today than in the euphoric
period just after the cold war. The UN Report finds that, even where
democracy is more firmly established, people are disappointed by the economic
and social results. Many fought for â?? and won â?? democracy in the hope of
greater social justice, broader political participation and peaceful
resolution of violent conflicts. Rightly or wrongly, they expected democracy
to bring more effective development.

The global disparities in wealth, access to education, potable water, and
healthcare, among citizens of democratic nations demonstrate that indeed
democracy in itself does not guarantee greater social justice. National
democracies must be accompanied by the political will to promote democratic
policies. To flourish and be effective, democratic countries must find
partners in the international community ready to set the democratic needs of
all citizens for education, potable water, healthcare as priorities in their
foreign relations policies.

The only way to counter the growing disillusionment in democracy reported by
the United Nations is to strengthen the capacity of nations to deliver the
tangible benefits of democracy. The seeds of a truly democratic future lie in
demonstrating to the youth today that democracy is the path to social
justice.

In accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, â??if

peace is our goal, it must be our way.â?? Today we would add, if democracy is
our goal, it must be our way, and that way must pass through the promotion
and protection of the full panoply of rights guaranteed to children in the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Youth and poverty lie at the heart of the most pressing issues facing my
country, Haiti. Because 40% of our population of 8 million people is below
15, this means that nearly 50% of Haitian society exposed to the hardships of
the countryâ??s crippling economic poverty is its children.

In Haiti too, AIDS is an enormous obstacle â?? with an infection rate of
between 4 and 6%, over 300,000 Haitians are living with AIDS, approximately
80,000 of them are children. Successful, but limited programs to prevent the
vertical transmission of the virus from mother to child have reduced the risk
of infection from 30 to 9%. However the continuity and efficacy of these life
sustaining programs is severely threatened by a cutoff in the supply of
artificial milk, the only viable alternative to breastfeeding for mothers who
are HIV positive.

A country with a long and difficult history with AIDS, today in Haiti we have
a National AIDS Commission which I chair that is multisectoral and builds
upon the public/private partnership that has evolved in the struggle against
AIDS. Haiti is the first country to receive a mission from the Global Fund
for AIDS, Tuberculoses and Malaria, in anticipation of funding before
December. Concrete action to treat those inflicted with these diseases,
prevent and educate against their spread will, not only promote health, it
will nurture hope. Hope and belief that the path of democracy that Haiti
chose 12 short years ago when it organized it first ever free and fair
elections, is the path to greater social justice for her children.

Since those elections in 1990, the Haitian people have elected three
consecutive governments founded upon principles of social justice; a
repressive army that was the greatest impediment to any justice at all, has
finally been disbanded. With these fundamental principles in place, Haiti is
on the road to what President Aristide calls moving from misery to poverty
with dignity. An environment best suited for safeguarding childhood and
giving it the special assistance required by the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child, obligates the government of Haiti to continue to progress with
a structural judicial reform, recognizing that a justice system ingrained
with over 100 years of corruption cannot be changed over night or by any one
solitary act; tackle head-on Haitiâ??s unacceptably high illiteracy rate;
achieve universal schooling for children; broaden the aggressive disarmament
campaign already underway; protect the legal and political rights of all;
reinforce the ban on all forms of abuse against children through the
abolition of child domestic service and the provision of social services to
all children in difficult situations. And certainly, expand the national
school lunch program which is the key project that Haiti has submitted to
this XIth Conference of Spouses of Heads of States and Governments of the
Americas.

These efforts must be supported. Here, I am tempted to quote a 12-year old
girl speaking on Radyo Timoun, a radio station for children operated by the
Aristide Foundation for Democracy who said: â??Democracy doesnâ??t mean a thing

if people canâ??t eat three times a day.â?? The Haitian government must have
access to credit to strengthen programs that will make real the benefits of
democracy if indeed it is to fulfill its legal obligation to protect the
rights of all children. On behalf of the Haitian people, I take this
opportunity to thank every member of the Organization of American States
which voted unanimously for OAS Resolution 822. Resolution 822 is intended to
trigger the resumption of international development loans wrongly withheld
from Haiti, for over 3 long years, a country that the world is so quick to
call the poorest in the western hemisphere. We are hopeful that projects to
increase access to potable water, decentralize and strengthen the healthcare
system, construct secondary roads and build schools -- projects already
approved by the Haitian Government and the Inter-American Development Bank,
will be reactivated quickly, because these projects are the backbone of any
environment favorable to the development of our youth. And as Mrs. Fox said,
the only resource that we do not have is time.

The tragedy of childhood poverty is not a Haitian tragedy. It is a human
tragedy unfolding throughout our region and throughout the world. Today we
are called to unite and offer our contribution to the eradication of poverty
where ever it exists.

Thank you.

Premiere Dame Mildred Aristide
Mexico, Mexique
26/09/2002

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