Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
U.S. Representative to the United Nations
New York, New York
February 27, 2024
AS DELIVERED
Many of you know my own story. I lived and worked all over the world, including in Hamisa's own Kenya before winding up in Liberia for a job that would basically change my life. I travelled to Haiti. I've been to the Syrian border with Türkiye. And I've been in the DRC. Many countries. I was in Liberia to help the nation rebuild from the ashes of a horrific civil war. Which meant I had the honor of seeing, first-hand, the power of women to sow peace. This was the driving ethos of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
I watched as she empowered not just educated women, but poor women, market women, women in rural areas - people too often cut out of the decision-making processes that most affect them. I watched as she worked to promote the health, dignity, and economic prosperity of market women, the very backbone of the Liberian economy. I watched as she met with young girls not much older than my own granddaughter, elementary schoolers who, when asked what they wanted to be when they grow up, said, "I want to be the president of Liberia." They didn't know any better. They had only known a woman as president. And they didn't think it was unusual for them to aspire to that lofty office.
Nearly two decades since President Sirleaf first took office, she would be the first to tell you that Liberia is far from perfect. But she would also be the first to tell you that so much of the progress that has been made, so much of the peace that characterizes this nation, which recently had its second democratic transition of power, was accomplished by and for women. And that so much of the progress that will be made, will be accomplished by and for women. It's why she created a center to empower women leaders, in Liberia and across Africa.
And of course, this work is not just needed in Liberia. Across the globe, women both bear the brunt of conflict and are the key to ending it.
You see it in Ukraine and Sudan, where women and girls have been the victims of horrific conflict-related sexual violence.
In Gaza, where women and girls are caught in the crossfires of a crisis set into motion by Hamas on October 7. In Israel, where women were brutally raped and mutilated during the terrorist attack that day.
And, of course, in the countries in which our finalists serve.
In Haiti, where women and children are particularly vulnerable to gang rape, to kidnappings, and random killings that have come to characterize Port-au-Prince. Keeping women from doing simple things like shopping, going to church, because they fear not being able to return home.
In Kenya, where women, youth, and people with disabilities have been left out of the economy, and face heightened violence.
In Syria, where over a decade of brutal conflict has shattered the country with more than a hundred thousand people arbitrarily detained or missing and left a generation of women and girls more vulnerable to gender-based violence.
And I really want to take a moment here to recognize Abir. Abir asked to speak to me for a moment before I came into this room. Of course, I expected that she was going to talk to me about Syria, because she knows that I have been engaged there. But no. Dealing with what she has to deal with in Syria, she wanted to raise Gaza with me. And what is happening in Gaza. And pleaded with me to do everything possible to help the women and children of Gaza. That is what women do. They sometimes put aside their own pain, so that they can highlight and amplify the pain of others. [Applause.]
And in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where relentless violence has engulfed the eastern part of the nation. Entire communities massacred or uprooted. Children taken as child soldiers, and women trafficked into sexual slavery.
I share this not because I want to put a damper on our celebration, because this is really a celebration for these four women, but rather to underscore that the work being done by these four finalists is difficult. It is dangerous. But it is necessary. And it is nothing short of heroic.
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And so, the message I want to leave with you four - you four extraordinary women, but also to this entire room tonight, is this: As you continue to listen, to lead, to show courage beyond belief, know that we support you at every single step. Because ultimately, when we empower women changemakers across the globe, we create a more peaceful and prosperous world for all. It has been proven, time and time again, that women's full, equal, and meaningful participation in the peace process, whether as mediators or peacemakers, health workers or educators, increases the chance of a just and lasting peace.
So, once again, thank all of you. Thank you for our four incredible finalists for continuing to elevate women's voices, heal broken communities, and show us all what it really means to serve. And thank you to the U.S. Institute of Peace for continuing to uplift and celebrate this work. Thank you. [Applause.]
