She’s Back: Upbeat Hillary at Georgetown University

Former first lady, two-term senator from New York, secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton grinned broadly, as she welcomed the cheers and Hillary chants March 31 from an audience of mainly Georgetown University students who packed into Gaston Hall in the landmark Healy Building and overflow rooms during a morning rainstorm.

Clinton’s voice was full of passion as she energetically made opening remarks at the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women, Peace and Security ceremony sponsored by the university’s Women, Peace and Security Institute.

Clinton was there to honor three courageous women and one man who fought at the extreme risk to their own personal safety, to confront and eradicate sexual violence and abuse of women’s rights in Colombia.

“She has been a strong advocate for the role of women in peace processes as an important means to end hostilities and achieve sustainable peace,” said university president John DeGioia.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Clinton said. “It’s a human rights issue.  Women must become agents of change and progress. As their rights are recognized and their security rises, so do those of their country. In fact, studies have shown that the more women are included in the agenda and the policy making of national issues, the more likely those policies are to hold.”

Clinton awarded the 2017 awards to the Colombians this year to “celebrate the historic peace agreement that ended over 50 years of conflict in Colombia.”  The recipients were all significant negotiators in the peace conference and its conclusion in Havana, Cuba.

It was noted that in many peace processes, women are excluded and gender issues are relegated to the sidelines.  But Colombia was an exception.  Women in Colombia played a critical role in the peace process participating as negotiators, both for the government and for FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels.

Women also served as experts and members of their unique Gender Sub-Committee. They reviewed each version of the peace agreement to ensure that issues affecting women were adequately addressed. Women served as advocates, speaking to hundreds of women around the country and holding summits to make sure women’s voices were heard.

Award recipients included Humberto De la Calle, former Colombian vice president and the lead negotiator for the Colombian government in the peace talks, Maria Paulina Riveros, chair of the Gender Sub-Commission and Colombian Deputy Attorney General, Elena Ambrosi, director of the Office of the High Commissions for Peace, and Jineth Bedoya, a journalist and advocate for victims of sexual violence.  Remarks by the awardees, questions from the students and answers from recipients speaking Spanish were translated side-by-side.

March 31 was the last day of Women’s Month, but the timing was a bit ironic for Clinton. She has been rarely sighted since she lost the election in November 2016 until she came out Friday to present the awards to courageous women of Colombia.

Two days before, on Wednesday, first lady Melania Trump — also rarely seen since her husband won the election in November — presented the State Department’s Women of Courage awards to 13 women from across the world in the annual event begun in 2013 by Secretary of State Condi Rice.

The former secretary of state could not resist being a wee-bit partisan.  During her comments about the importance of women in peace negotiations, Clinton said: “That’s not to say that women are inherently peaceful, of course. That is a study that belongs to the “alt” [right],” she chuckled.  “Women do tend to shine a light on human rights and reach across sectarian divides — as they did in Ireland.”

Clinton warned the Trump administration against cutting back on important State Department initiatives and staffing that were created during the eight years of the Obama administration — and her own time as secretary of state. “Do not turn back,” she said.