Women

British politician Harriet Harman, deputy leader of Britain's Labour Party and minister for women and equality, wants Secretary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to join her in group of women leaders who will meet regularly to advance gender equality. In a speech to EU leaders, Harman said, "'There is, as yet, no international architecture which serves effectively to bring together women leaders who are working for progress along the same lines in each of our own countries. We need to look at how this could be done."

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Remember how Secretary Clinton got to preside over a session of the U.N. Security Council last week and led an effort to pass a resolution against wartime rape? Well this one sentence from Clinton has some people in Sri Lanka fuming:

We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.

Sri Lanka lodged gave a "note of protest" to the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, complaining about Clinton's suggestion that Sri Lankan security forces used rape as a weapon of war against Tamil LTTE rebels. "We vehemently reject and condemn the irresponsible statement made by US State Secretary Hillary Clinton," the country's defense spokesman was quoted as saying in the state newspaper.

Meanwhile, the prime minister said on a radio program that Clinton has apparently forgotten the Monica Lewinsky affair and should tend to her own backyard before alleging that women are being maltreated in other countries. There was also this rant in Sri Lanka's state-run newspaper.

The State Department's 2008 Human Rights Report had this to say about wartime sexual violence in Sri Lanka:

Civil society activists reported that the resumption of the conflict had led to an increase in gender-based violence perpetrated by the security forces. Statistics were unavailable because few, if any, charges were filed in such incidents. For example, human rights groups in northern districts alleged that the wives of men who had disappeared and who suffered economic deprivation as a result often fell prey to sexual exploitation by paramilitaries and members of the security forces."

A January 2002 Amnesty International report titled "Sri Lanka: Rape in Custody" said this:

In Sri Lanka, like in many other countries, incidents of rape in the context of armed conflict such as the above examples are reported on a regular basis. During 2001, Amnesty International has noted a marked rise in allegations of rape by police, army and navy personnel."

That's one of the tricky things about being a Western outsider to a developing country. No matter how true and legitimate one's criticisms of human rights violations may be, it rankles locals when it comes from someone perceived as a "neocolonialist" outsider. It's one thing when criticism comes from your fellow citizen; it's quite another thing when it comes from an outside "meddler." Hopefully Clinton will be able to use her star diplomacy skills to advance human rights while not coming across as a judgmental outsider -- which she, of course, isn't. Based on Sri Lanka's reaction, though, it can be a tough job.

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A roundup of Clinton-related news:

•Former first lady Laura Bush expressed admiration for Secretary Clinton during a talk in Dallas on Monday:

Our [political] campaigns are so long and so brutal that the people who finally win are almost self-selected because they have emotional and physical stamina to run for office. As I watched Hillary Clinton during her run, I had and have a lot of admiration for her. It's tough every day. It's not just physical or emotional, but just the chance of saying one thing that gets blown up by the media."

•Clinton spoke with CBS' Katie Couric yesterday.

•In a video message, Clinton says she wants you to help girls and women through www.Oprah.com/forallwomen.

•"Criminality of the greatest degree" is how Clinton has described the rapes and killings by government forces in Guinea.

•Clinton met yesterday in Washington with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Medmood Qureshi, above, to discuss U.S. aid to the Pakistani government and the Afghanistan situation. Clinton stressed that the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar bill, which provides nonmilitary aid to Pakistan for five years and was approved by U.S. Congress last week, will not infringe on Pakistan's sovereignty.

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A 64-year-old Foreign Service officer has sued Secretary Clinton for age discrimination. Last November, the woman was offered -- and accepted -- a two-year position at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers, Algeria, which would have begun this past summer. Instead, the offer was rescinded when it was discovered that the woman would turn 65 during the middle of her term. The mandatory retirement age for Foreign Service officers is 65.

The woman has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against Clinton, stating that the age limit is unconstitutional and based on old-fashioned stereotypes. What's particularly painful is that the woman didn't join the Foreign Service until age 54 because when she wanted to join earlier, there was a ban on married women!

Clinton, who's almost 62, will be turning 65 when she's still secretary of state, but the mandatory retirement age doesn't apply to political appointees. "Imagine if someone told Hillary Clinton she couldn't be secretary of state because she would turn 65 before her term is up," a lawyer representing the woman told the Washington Post.

If an adult is physically and mentally able to handle a position, age shouldn't matter. I would hope Clinton agrees. As more baby boomers enter their "senior years," my hunch is that these age barriers will come down.

Photo: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

Check out the signs in front of Secretary Clinton in the photo above: "President" and "United States."

Secretary Clinton got to preside over a session of the U.N. Security Council today because the United States holds the rotating presidency this month. She called for a vote on a resolution to end wartime sexual violence, and it passed unanimously.

Then in a speech, she declared:

Even though women and children are rarely responsible for initiating armed conflict, they are often war's most vulnerable and violated victims."

She also said: 

The dehumanizing nature of sexual violence doesn't just harm a single individual or a single family or even a single village or a single group; it shreds the fabric that weaves us together as human beings."

After Clinton ended the speech, a humorous moment (captured on this video) ensued. She said, "I resume now my function as president of the council. I kind of like being a president. So this may go on a little longer than anticipated."

The diplomats laughed, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "Thank you, Madam President."

In other Clinton-related news, American essayist and political activist Gore Vidal has revealed that he regrets shifting his support from Clinton to Barack Obama during last year's Democratic presidential primary. In an interview with The Times of London, he said he thinks Clinton would have been a better president and said:

Hillary knows more about the world and what to do with the generals. History has proven when the girls get involved, they're good at it. Elizabeth I knew Raleigh would be a good man to give a ship to."

Last week, Secretary Clinton was promoting a U.N. resolution to protect girls from sexual violence. Yesterday, she received a letter from the French and Polish foreign ministers requesting that the United States drop its extradition demand for Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was detained in Switzerland Saturday for sexually molesting a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977 (a crime to which he pleaded guilty back in the 1970s).

Clinton must protect the interests of girls (and children, more generally) and do all she can to bring this child molester to justice.

The legal process for extraditing Polanski is primarily in the hands of the state of California, where the crime occurred, and the U.S. Justice Department, said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley at yesterday's press briefing. The State Department's role will simply be to ensure that California's formal extradition request meets the terms of the United States' extradition treaty with Switzerland, Crowley added.

For more about why Polanski must be brought to justice, check out Eugene Robinson's op-ed in today's Washington Post.

Photo: SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images

This weekend, the Washington Post (published by the Washington Post Co., which also owns Foreign Policy) ran a huge A1 story, "A Team Player Who Stands Apart," about Secretary Clinton. It says that Clinton is torn in two directions, between being a leader on signature issues such as women's rights and being a team player who works harmoniously with other members of the Barack Obama administration.

Those of you who are tired of the "Hillary in the shadows" theme probably won't be too crazy about this piece. Here's a taste:

By all accounts, she is the consummate team player and is often the best-briefed, most prepared person in the room. President Obama's aides say he values her advice and appreciates her dedication, dampening speculation that he and his erstwhile rival would not work well together.

But after eight months in office, Clinton, 61, sometimes seems torn between her inclination to lead and her need to function effectively within the administration, creating a certain tension between her aspirations and her status.

She has been prone to making pronouncements and blunt comments that have put her ahead of, or out of sync with, the rest of the administration. She maintains a robust public persona -- her lengthy overseas trips are filled with town hall meetings and softball television interviews -- but she is largely invisible on the big issues that dominate the foreign policy agenda, including the war in Afghanistan, the attempt to engage Iran and efforts to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Interestingly, during her interview, Clinton hinted that she might not be secretary of state for eight years. The end of the article states:

Asked if she would be sitting in the same office for eight years, Clinton shuddered.

"Please! I will be so old," she said with a shake of her head.

The full transcript of Clinton's interview with the Post is here, along with audio clips.

•As for interviews, Clinton is on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer tonight. A preview clip is above.

•And, the full video and transcript of Clinton's Friday speech at Brookings is here.

I just returned from the Brookings Institution, where I heard Secretary Clinton deliver a speech previewing the United States' priorities during next week's U.N. General Assembly session.

Before diving into her speech though, Clinton remarked on President Obama's announcement yesterday of changes in the U.S. missile defense program. She said the new system stemmed from a "lengthy and in-depth assessment" of the threats posed by Iran and is based on the United States' "best understanding of Iran's capability."

The new system will "deploy sooner," be "more comprehensive," and have a "better capacity to protect." Clinton said it will "deploy technology that's actually proven" to work and "does what missile defense is actually supposed to do." She added that criticisms of the new system are "not connected to the facts."

Then Clinton delved into her official remarks. Nonproliferation of nuclear weapons will be the main topic that the United States will address next week. Clinton will lead the U.S. delegation to a conference on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first time that a U.S. secretary of state has attended such a conference.

Another key topic for the United States next week will be Iran. The issue isn't Iran's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, she said. Rather, she firmly stressed, the problem is that for years Iran has not lived up to its responsibilities to demonstrate that its program is "exclusively for peaceful purposes."

Clinton said that the United States' past refusal to engage Iran had yielded no progress and added, "We remain ready to engage." (Whether Iran is ready to engage on talking nukes, however, is an entirely different story.)

Some other tidbits:

•Clinton said the United States and Iraq have entered a new, "more mature partnership."

•Clinton will be chairing a session on women, peace, and security at the U.N. General Assembly session. She said, "If women are free from violence and afforded their rights," they can be "change agents."

•On corruption, Clinton said it was a "security problem," not just a "good government concern."

•Finally, at the end, Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott asked Clinton about U.S. health-care reform. Clinton said, "We're going to be successful," but went on to say it "won't be pretty."

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