0:00:00.481,0:00:02.015 As a matter of fact, 0:00:02.015,0:00:05.287 I was trying to think about my career[br]since I left the White House, 0:00:05.287,0:00:09.583 and the best example I have is a cartoon[br]in The New Yorker a couple of years ago. 0:00:09.583,0:00:11.742 This little boy is looking up[br]at his father, 0:00:11.742,0:00:15.787 and he says, "Daddy, when I grow up,[br]I want to be a former president." 0:00:15.787,0:00:17.477 (Laughter) 0:00:17.477,0:00:21.193 Well, I have had a great blessing[br]as a former president, 0:00:21.193,0:00:23.620 because I have had an access 0:00:23.620,0:00:26.277 that very few other people[br]in the world have ever had 0:00:26.277,0:00:29.923 to get to know so many people[br]around this whole universe. 0:00:29.923,0:00:33.545 Not only am I familiar[br]with the 50 states in the United States, 0:00:33.545,0:00:38.421 but also my wife and I have visited[br]more than 145 countries in the world, 0:00:38.421,0:00:42.670 and the Carter Center has had full-time[br]programs in 80 nations on Earth. 0:00:42.670,0:00:44.866 And a lot of times,[br]when we go into a country, 0:00:44.866,0:00:47.076 we not only the meet[br]the king or the president, 0:00:47.076,0:00:51.424 but we also meet the villagers who live[br]in the most remote areas of Africa. 0:00:51.424,0:00:54.930 So our overall commitment[br]at the Carter Center 0:00:54.930,0:00:56.927 is to promote human rights, 0:00:56.927,0:01:01.639 and knowing the world as I do,[br]I can tell you without any equivocation 0:01:01.639,0:01:05.530 that the number one abuse[br]of human rights on Earth 0:01:05.530,0:01:11.369 is, strangely, not addressed quite often,[br]is the abuse of women and girls. 0:01:11.369,0:01:14.657 (Applause) 0:01:14.657,0:01:19.890 There are a couple of reasons for this[br]that I'll mention to begin with. 0:01:19.890,0:01:25.360 First of all is the misinterpretation[br]of religious scriptures, holy scriptures, 0:01:25.360,0:01:28.983 in the Bible, Old Testament,[br]New Testament, Quran and so forth, 0:01:28.983,0:01:36.246 and these have been misinterpreted by men[br]who are now in the ascendant positions 0:01:36.246,0:01:38.875 in the synagogues and the churches[br]and in the mosques. 0:01:38.875,0:01:42.706 And they interpret these rules[br]to make sure that women 0:01:42.706,0:01:46.960 are ordinarily relegated[br]to a secondary position 0:01:46.960,0:01:49.848 compared to men in the eyes of God. 0:01:50.558,0:01:54.780 This is a very serious problem.[br]It's ordinarily not addressed. 0:01:54.780,0:01:56.891 A number of years ago, in the year 2000, 0:01:56.891,0:02:00.454 I had been a Baptist,[br]a Southern Baptist for 70 years -- 0:02:00.454,0:02:02.936 I tell you, I still teach[br]Sunday school every Sunday; 0:02:02.936,0:02:04.807 I'll be teaching this Sunday as well -- 0:02:04.807,0:02:09.222 but the Southern Baptist Convention[br]in the year 2000 decided 0:02:09.222,0:02:11.823 that women should play[br]a secondary position, 0:02:11.823,0:02:13.889 a subservient position to men. 0:02:13.889,0:02:16.606 So they issued an edict, in effect, 0:02:16.606,0:02:22.510 that prevents women from being priests,[br]pastors, deacons in the church, 0:02:22.510,0:02:24.802 or chaplains in the military, 0:02:24.802,0:02:27.960 and if a woman teaches a classroom 0:02:27.960,0:02:30.142 in a Southern Baptist seminary, 0:02:30.142,0:02:33.555 they cannot teach if a boy is in the room, 0:02:33.555,0:02:35.576 because you can find verses in the Bible, 0:02:35.576,0:02:38.600 there's over 30,000 verses in the Bible, 0:02:38.600,0:02:41.410 that say that a woman shouldn't[br]teach a man, and so forth. 0:02:41.410,0:02:44.445 But the basic thing is the scriptures[br]are misinterpreted 0:02:44.445,0:02:46.906 to keep men in an ascendant position. 0:02:46.906,0:02:48.996 That is an all-pervasive problem, 0:02:48.996,0:02:53.872 because men can exert that power 0:02:53.872,0:02:59.886 and if an abusive husband or an employer,[br]for instance, wants to cheat women, 0:02:59.886,0:03:03.670 they can say that if women[br]are not equal in the eyes of God, 0:03:03.670,0:03:05.862 why should I treat them as equals myself? 0:03:05.862,0:03:10.320 Why should I pay them equal pay[br]for doing the same kind of work? 0:03:10.320,0:03:12.247 The other very serious blight 0:03:12.247,0:03:16.264 that causes this problem[br]is the excessive resort to violence, 0:03:16.264,0:03:20.858 and that is increasing[br]tremendously around the world. 0:03:20.858,0:03:23.787 In the United States of America,[br]for instance, we have had 0:03:23.787,0:03:27.967 an enormous increase[br]in abuse of poor people, 0:03:27.967,0:03:33.261 mostly black people and minorities,[br]by putting them in prison. 0:03:33.261,0:03:35.815 When I was in office[br]as governor of Georgia, 0:03:35.815,0:03:39.181 one out of every 1,000 Americans[br]were in prison. 0:03:39.181,0:03:44.290 Nowadays, 7.3 people[br]per 1,000 are in prison. 0:03:44.290,0:03:46.310 That's a sevenfold increase. 0:03:46.310,0:03:47.958 And since I left the White House, 0:03:47.958,0:03:51.279 there's been an 800 percent increase[br]in the number of women 0:03:51.279,0:03:53.856 who are black who are in prison. 0:03:53.856,0:03:56.380 We also have[br][one of the only countries] on Earth 0:03:56.380,0:04:00.334 that still has the death penalty[br]that is a developed country. 0:04:00.334,0:04:03.701 And we rank right alongside[br]the countries that are most abusive 0:04:03.701,0:04:07.205 in all elements of human rights[br]in encouraging the death penalty. 0:04:07.555,0:04:10.411 We're in California now,[br]and I figured out the other day 0:04:10.411,0:04:13.406 that California has spent[br]four billion dollars 0:04:13.406,0:04:17.818 in convicting 13 people[br]for the death penalty. 0:04:17.818,0:04:22.653 If you add that up, that's 307 million[br]dollars it costs California 0:04:22.653,0:04:25.601 to send a person to be executed. 0:04:25.991,0:04:29.474 Nebraska this week just passed a law[br]abolishing the death penalty, 0:04:29.474,0:04:33.940 because it costs so much. (Applause) 0:04:34.861,0:04:39.087 So the resort to violence and abuse[br]of poor people and helpless people 0:04:39.087,0:04:43.185 is another cause of the increase[br]in abuse of women. 0:04:43.475,0:04:47.979 Let me just go down a very few[br]abuses of women that concern me most, 0:04:47.979,0:04:51.880 and I'll be fairly brief, because I have[br]a limited amount of time, as you know. 0:04:51.880,0:04:56.130 One is genital mutilation. 0:04:56.360,0:05:00.474 Genital mutilation is horrible[br]and not known by American women, 0:05:00.474,0:05:04.219 but in some countries, many countries, 0:05:04.219,0:05:08.525 when a child is born that's a girl,[br]very soon in her life, 0:05:08.525,0:05:15.235 her genitals are completely cut away[br]by a so-called cutter 0:05:15.235,0:05:19.227 who has a razor blade and,[br]in a non-sterilized way, 0:05:19.227,0:05:23.170 they remove the exterior parts[br]of a woman's genitalia. 0:05:23.170,0:05:27.591 And sometimes, in more extreme cases[br]but not very rare cases, 0:05:27.591,0:05:31.405 they sew the orifice up so the girl[br]can just urinate or menstruate. 0:05:31.405,0:05:34.784 And then later, when she gets married,[br]the same cutter goes in 0:05:34.784,0:05:37.400 and opens the orifice up[br]so she can have sex. 0:05:37.400,0:05:41.415 This is not a rare thing, although[br]it's against the law in most countries. 0:05:41.415,0:05:43.347 In Egypt, for instance, 0:05:43.347,0:05:47.000 91 percent of all the females[br]that live in Egypt today 0:05:47.000,0:05:49.560 have been sexually mutilated in that way. 0:05:49.560,0:05:52.950 In some countries,[br]it's more than 98 percent 0:05:52.950,0:05:57.246 of the women are cut that way[br]before they reach maturity. 0:05:57.246,0:05:59.846 This is a horrible affliction 0:05:59.846,0:06:03.515 on all women that live in those countries. 0:06:03.515,0:06:07.299 Another very serious thing[br]is honor killings, 0:06:07.299,0:06:10.625 where a family with misinterpretation,[br]again, of a holy scripture -- 0:06:10.625,0:06:13.313 there's nothing in the Quran[br]that mandates this -- 0:06:13.313,0:06:17.500 will execute a girl in their family 0:06:17.500,0:06:19.377 if she is raped 0:06:19.377,0:06:23.112 or if she marries a man[br]that her father does not approve, 0:06:23.112,0:06:26.223 or sometimes even if she[br]wears inappropriate clothing. 0:06:26.223,0:06:29.251 And this is done by members[br]of her own family, 0:06:29.251,0:06:31.456 so the family becomes murderers 0:06:31.456,0:06:35.808 when the girl brings[br]so-called disgrace to the family. 0:06:35.808,0:06:39.155 An analysis was done in Egypt[br]not so long ago by the United Nations 0:06:39.155,0:06:43.197 and it showed that 75 percent[br]of these murders of a girl 0:06:43.197,0:06:48.580 are perpetrated by the father,[br]the uncle or the brother, 0:06:48.580,0:06:52.032 but 25 percent of the murders[br]are conducted by women. 0:06:52.032,0:06:53.994 Another problem that we have in the world 0:06:53.994,0:06:56.732 that relates to women[br]particularly is slavery, 0:06:56.732,0:06:59.147 or human trafficking it's called nowadays. 0:06:59.147,0:07:03.565 There were about 12.5 million people[br]sold from Africa into slavery 0:07:03.565,0:07:07.784 in the New World back in[br]the 19th century and the 18th century. 0:07:07.784,0:07:11.639 There are 30 million people[br]now living in slavery. 0:07:11.639,0:07:17.281 The United States Department of State[br]now has a mandate from Congress 0:07:17.281,0:07:19.603 to give a report every year, 0:07:19.603,0:07:24.246 and the State Department reports[br]that 800,000 people are sold 0:07:24.246,0:07:27.893 across international borders[br]every year into slavery, 0:07:27.893,0:07:30.841 and that 80 percent[br]of those sold are women, 0:07:30.841,0:07:32.977 into sexual slavery. 0:07:32.977,0:07:35.531 In the United States right this moment, 0:07:35.531,0:07:39.385 60,000 people are living[br]in human bondage, or slavery. 0:07:39.385,0:07:42.171 Atlanta, Georgia, where[br]the Carter Center is located 0:07:42.171,0:07:44.772 and where I teach at Emory University, 0:07:44.772,0:07:50.079 they have between 200 and 300 women,[br]people sold into slavery every month. 0:07:50.672,0:07:53.781 It's the number one place[br]in the nation because of that. 0:07:53.781,0:07:55.987 Atlanta has the busiest[br]airport in the world, 0:07:55.987,0:08:01.234 and they also have a lot of passengers[br]that come from the Southern Hemisphere. 0:08:01.234,0:08:03.858 If a brothel owner 0:08:03.858,0:08:06.877 wants to buy a girl[br]that has brown or black skin, 0:08:06.877,0:08:09.523 they can do it for 1,000 dollars. 0:08:09.523,0:08:13.610 A white-skinned girl brings[br]several times more than that, 0:08:13.610,0:08:17.000 and the average brothel owner in Atlanta[br]and in the United States now 0:08:17.000,0:08:21.504 can earn about $35,000 per slave. 0:08:21.504,0:08:26.613 The sex trade in Atlanta, Georgia, exceeds[br]the total drug trade in Atlanta, Georgia. 0:08:26.613,0:08:31.458 So this is another very serious problem,[br]and the basic problem is prostitution, 0:08:31.465,0:08:35.459 because there's not[br]a whorehouse in America 0:08:35.459,0:08:37.688 that's not known by the local officials, 0:08:37.688,0:08:41.659 the local policemen, or the chief[br]of police or the mayor and so forth. 0:08:41.659,0:08:44.386 And this leads to one[br]of the worst problems, 0:08:44.386,0:08:48.635 and that is that women are bought[br]increasingly and put into sexual slavery 0:08:48.635,0:08:50.586 in all countries in the world. 0:08:50.586,0:08:53.140 Sweden has got a good approach to it. 0:08:53.140,0:08:56.762 About 15 to 20 years ago, Sweden[br]decided to change the law, 0:08:56.762,0:08:59.316 and women are no longer prosecuted 0:08:59.316,0:09:02.100 if they are in sexual slavery, 0:09:02.100,0:09:07.675 but the brothel owners and the pimps[br]and the male customers are prosecuted, 0:09:07.675,0:09:12.463 and -- (Applause) --[br]prostitution has gone down. 0:09:12.463,0:09:15.477 In the United States, we take[br]just the opposite position. 0:09:15.477,0:09:21.664 For every male arrested[br]for illegal sex trade, 0:09:21.664,0:09:27.120 25 women are arrested[br]in the United States of America. 0:09:27.120,0:09:31.230 Canada, Ireland, I've already said Sweden, 0:09:31.230,0:09:35.150 France, and other countries are moving now[br]towards this so-called Swedish model. 0:09:35.150,0:09:37.309 That's another thing that can be done. 0:09:37.309,0:09:40.680 We have two great institutions[br]in this country that all of us admire: 0:09:40.680,0:09:44.511 our military and our great[br]university system. 0:09:44.511,0:09:48.830 In the military, they are now analyzing[br]how many sexual assaults take place. 0:09:48.830,0:09:53.219 The last report I got,[br]there were 26,000 sexual assaults 0:09:53.219,0:09:55.564 that took place in the military -- 0:09:55.564,0:09:57.200 26,000. 0:09:57.210,0:10:02.420 Only 3,000, not much more than 1 percent,[br]are actually prosecuted, 0:10:02.420,0:10:06.590 and the reason is that the commanding[br]officer of any organization -- 0:10:06.590,0:10:10.842 a ship like my submarine,[br]or a battalion in the Army 0:10:10.842,0:10:12.978 or a company in the Marines -- 0:10:12.978,0:10:17.103 the commanding officer[br]has the right under law to decide 0:10:17.103,0:10:19.688 whether to prosecute a rapist or not, 0:10:19.688,0:10:22.869 and of course, the last thing they want[br]is for anybody to know 0:10:22.869,0:10:26.306 that under their command,[br]sexual assaults are taking place, 0:10:26.306,0:10:28.210 so they do not do it. 0:10:28.210,0:10:30.752 That law needs to be changed. 0:10:31.472,0:10:34.664 About one out of four girls[br]who enter American universities 0:10:34.664,0:10:37.451 will be sexually assaulted[br]before she graduates, 0:10:37.451,0:10:39.737 and this is now getting[br]a lot of publicity, 0:10:39.737,0:10:41.943 partially because of my book,[br]but other things, 0:10:41.943,0:10:46.131 and so 89 universities in America[br]are now condemned 0:10:46.131,0:10:48.816 by the Department of Education[br]under Title IX 0:10:48.816,0:10:53.529 because the officials of the universities[br]are not taking care of the women 0:10:53.529,0:10:55.480 to protect them from sexual assault. 0:10:55.480,0:10:59.148 The Department of Justice says[br]that more than half of the rapes 0:10:59.148,0:11:02.631 on a college campus[br]take place by serial rapists, 0:11:02.631,0:11:05.209 because outside of the university system, 0:11:05.209,0:11:08.227 if they rape somebody,[br]they'll be prosecuted, 0:11:08.227,0:11:12.255 but when they get on a university campus,[br]they can rape with impunity. 0:11:12.255,0:11:14.298 They're not prosecuted. 0:11:14.298,0:11:17.642 Those are the kinds of things[br]that go on in our society. 0:11:17.642,0:11:23.214 Another thing that's very serious[br]about the abuse of women and girls 0:11:23.214,0:11:28.207 is the lack of equal pay for equal work, 0:11:28.207,0:11:30.296 as you know. (Applause) 0:11:30.296,0:11:37.133 And this is sometimes misinterpreted,[br]but for full-time employment, 0:11:37.133,0:11:40.480 a woman in the United States now[br]gets 23 percent less than a man. 0:11:40.480,0:11:43.369 When I became president,[br]the difference was 39 percent. 0:11:43.369,0:11:47.246 So we've made some progress,[br]partially because I was president 0:11:47.246,0:11:53.160 and so forth -- (Applause) (Laughter) -- 0:11:53.160,0:11:56.568 but in the last 15 years,[br]there's been no progress made, 0:11:56.568,0:11:59.424 so it's been just about 23[br]or 24 percent difference 0:11:59.424,0:12:01.699 for the last 15 years. 0:12:01.699,0:12:03.627 These are the kind of things that go on. 0:12:03.627,0:12:06.710 If you take the Fortune 500 companies, 0:12:06.710,0:12:09.849 23 of them have women CEOs, 0:12:09.849,0:12:11.660 out of 500, 0:12:11.660,0:12:14.795 and those CEOs, I need not tell you, 0:12:14.795,0:12:16.792 make less on an average 0:12:16.792,0:12:19.910 than the other CEOs. 0:12:19.910,0:12:22.388 Well, that's what goes on in our country. 0:12:22.388,0:12:24.872 Another problem with the United States 0:12:24.872,0:12:28.564 is we are the most warlike[br]nation on Earth. 0:12:28.564,0:12:32.790 We have been to war[br]with about 25 different countries 0:12:32.790,0:12:35.251 since the Second World War. 0:12:35.251,0:12:37.782 Sometimes, we've had soldiers[br]on the ground fighting. 0:12:37.782,0:12:39.802 The other times,[br]we've been flying overhead 0:12:39.802,0:12:41.775 dropping bombs on people. 0:12:41.775,0:12:45.537 Other times, of course, now, we have[br]drones that attack people and so forth. 0:12:45.537,0:12:48.210 We've been at war[br]with 25 different countries 0:12:48.210,0:12:50.993 or more since the Second World War. 0:12:50.993,0:12:53.370 There was four years,[br]I won't say which ones, 0:12:53.370,0:12:54.964 where we didn't -- 0:12:54.964,0:13:00.722 (Applause) -- we didn't drop a bomb,[br]we didn't launch a missile, 0:13:00.722,0:13:02.464 we didn't fire a bullet. 0:13:02.464,0:13:06.860 But anyway, those kinds of things,[br]the resort to violence 0:13:06.860,0:13:09.476 and the misinterpretation[br]of the holy scriptures 0:13:09.476,0:13:14.770 are what causes, are the basic causes,[br]of abuse of women and girls. 0:13:14.770,0:13:18.369 There's one more basic cause[br]that I need not mention, 0:13:18.369,0:13:23.710 and that is that in general,[br]men don't give a damn. 0:13:23.710,0:13:26.751 (Applause)[br]That's true. 0:13:26.751,0:13:31.777 The average man that might say,[br]I'm against the abuse of women and girls 0:13:31.777,0:13:36.130 quietly accepts the privileged[br]position that we occupy, 0:13:36.130,0:13:39.570 and this is very similar[br]to what I knew when I was a child, 0:13:39.570,0:13:41.797 when separate but equal had existed. 0:13:41.797,0:13:47.440 Racial discrimination, legally,[br]had existed for 100 years, 0:13:47.440,0:13:50.573 from 1865 at the end of the War[br]Between the States, the Civil War, 0:13:50.573,0:13:53.417 all the way up to the 1960s, 0:13:53.417,0:13:56.134 when Lyndon Johnson got the bills passed 0:13:56.134,0:13:58.107 for equal rights. 0:13:58.107,0:14:00.847 But during that time,[br]there were many white people 0:14:00.847,0:14:04.214 that didn't think that[br]racial discrimination was okay, 0:14:04.214,0:14:06.373 but they stayed quiet, 0:14:06.373,0:14:11.507 because they enjoyed the privileges[br]of better jobs, 0:14:11.507,0:14:14.918 unique access to jury duty, 0:14:14.918,0:14:17.169 better schools, and everything else, 0:14:17.169,0:14:19.330 and that's the same thing[br]that exists today, 0:14:19.330,0:14:22.975 because the average man[br]really doesn't care. 0:14:22.975,0:14:29.320 Even though they say, "I'm against[br]discrimination against girls and women," 0:14:29.320,0:14:32.770 they enjoy a privileged position. 0:14:32.770,0:14:35.142 And it's very difficult to get[br]the majority of men 0:14:35.142,0:14:38.188 who control the university system, 0:14:38.188,0:14:40.852 the majority of men that control[br]the military system, 0:14:40.852,0:14:44.350 the majority of men that control[br]the governments of the world, 0:14:44.350,0:14:49.584 and the majority of men that control[br]the great religions. 0:14:49.584,0:14:52.997 So what is the basic thing[br]that we need to do today? 0:14:52.997,0:14:55.528 I would say the best thing[br]that we could do today 0:14:55.528,0:14:59.840 is for the women in the powerful nations 0:14:59.840,0:15:02.563 like this one, and where you come from, 0:15:02.563,0:15:07.532 Europe and so forth, who have influence[br]and who have freedom to speak and to act, 0:15:07.532,0:15:12.558 need to take the responsibility[br]on yourselves 0:15:12.558,0:15:15.623 to be more forceful in demanding 0:15:15.623,0:15:20.265 an end to racial discrimination[br]against girls and women 0:15:20.265,0:15:21.626 all over the world. 0:15:21.626,0:15:24.527 The average woman in Egypt 0:15:24.527,0:15:26.693 doesn't have much to say[br]about her daughters 0:15:26.693,0:15:30.101 getting genitally mutilated and so forth. 0:15:30.101,0:15:32.175 I didn't even go down[br]to detail about that. 0:15:32.175,0:15:34.234 But I hope that out of this conference, 0:15:34.234,0:15:38.748 that every woman here [br]will get your husbands to realize 0:15:38.748,0:15:42.870 that these abuses on the college campuses[br]and the military and so forth 0:15:42.872,0:15:45.411 and in the future job market, 0:15:45.411,0:15:49.860 need to protect your daughters[br]and your granddaughters. 0:15:49.860,0:15:55.622 I have 12 grandchildren,[br]four children, and 10 great-grandchildren, 0:15:55.622,0:15:57.546 and I think often about them 0:15:57.546,0:16:00.611 and about the plight that they[br]will face in America, 0:16:00.611,0:16:04.396 not only if they lived in Egypt[br]or a foreign country, 0:16:04.396,0:16:06.602 in having equal rights, 0:16:06.602,0:16:08.935 and I hope that all of you will join me 0:16:08.935,0:16:12.662 in being a champion for women[br]and girls around the world[br] 0:16:12.662,0:16:14.217 and protect their human rights. 0:16:14.217,0:16:17.189 Thank you very much. 0:16:17.189,0:16:21.189 (Applause)