Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume II, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs

323. Memorandum From Michelle Bova of the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs to the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (Derian)¹

Washington, January 11, 1979

SUBJECT

• Green/Pickering Memos on the Plight of Women in Developing Countries

In response to the memos sent to you by Thomas Pickering and Marshall Green, respectively (copies attached),² I met separately with Ambassador Green, Arvonne Fraser and Luke Lee of Mr. Pickering’s office. These meetings elicited the following suggestions for how this Administration and HA, in particular, could take a more active role in promoting the rights of women and children internationally:

1. HA should create a full time officer position which would deal with the rights of women and children internationally. Discussion: Luke Lee has done some impressive work in this area, as attested by the attached sample of writing material which he has produced.³ Now that Patsy Mink has left OES and Ambassador Green will be leaving, the priorities of the office have changed. Luke is no longer being encouraged to take a broad range view of the causes and less conventional cures of over population. He plans to return to academic life but would prefer to stay on at State and continue the work he has begun. Ambassador Green believes that if you speak with Tom Pickering there is a chance that he could transfer Lee’s current position in OES to HA. Another possibility lies in convincing the Inspectors of the need for such a slot in HA. I do not believe that our current staffing would enable us to take on this additional responsibility in a meaningful way. The following two recommendations are probably not feasible if this position is not created.

2. HA should recommend the creation of an Inter-Agency Group on the Status of Women and Children Internationally. Discussion: There is a need to coordinate the various programs carried out by USG agencies domestically and overseas which affect the status of women and children. A Task Force composed of representatives of State (HA and IO), AID (Women in Development), Treasury (International Development Banks), The Census Bureau, Labor and HEW could be assigned this task. Its mandate could be linked to U.S. participation in the International Year of the Child and the UN Decade for Women. In order to work it would need dynamic and experienced leadership. I believe Marshall Green would be willing to assume this task. I am certain he would do an excellent job. Sara Weddington at the White House would probably lend her support.

3. In conjunction with PA, HA should issue a booklet similar to the “Silent Explosion” (attached)⁴ which deals with women’s and children’s rights and needs in an international setting. This booklet would be disseminated to all our missions and used domestically to encourage outside support and other USG agency attention to the problems raised. The booklet could be sent to our missions under a covering message from you to our Ambassadors highlighting U.S. participation in the International Year of the Child and the UN Decade for Women.

4. Next year’s human rights reports should give more detailed and much more sophisticated attention to the rights of women and children. Discussion: This year’s reports mention that problems exist in general terms. We do not, however, have the data base to describe those problems in a serious and detailed fashion. This year we were able to give greater attention to social and economic rights. Next year let’s add women and children. By encouraging our posts to become better informed on these issues and helping them by providing scarce information or putting them in touch with likely sources, we will encourage the development of more information. Most importantly we will sensitize our missions to these problems and this, in turn, will enable them to raise the issues with host governments and develop programs for mutual cooperation. Arvonne Fraser is promoting several projects which address the need for increasing the data base on the status of women in developing countries.

I’ve attached the Report she submitted to the Congress in August, 1978 which describes some of these efforts (see pages 159–206, an interesting example is described after the heading “Country Profiles” on page 182).⁵

5. HA should support increased efforts in AID and IO to develop specific programs dealing with the rights and needs of women and children. Discussion: HA support of programs of the Bureau of Private and Voluntary Affairs was instrumental in maintaining higher budget levels for that Bureau. While funding does not appear to be a problem for the women’s programs, as we have noted in the case of the human rights money, there is a real reluctance on the part of AID field missions and overworked planners in the regional bureaus to develop good projects in a field which many of them believe is peripheral to development, or, at least, not of a high priority. HA could do more to nudge them along.

1. Source: Department of State, Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, 1979 Human Rights Subject Files, Lot 82D102, SHUM Women 1979. No classification marking. Derian initialed the memorandum and added a handwritten notation: “I talked w/ Tom Pickering; he’s exploring the idea of transferring the slot. You’re right; if we don’t get the slot, we won’t be able to manage to improve & enlarge our efforts—Return to me please. P.D.”
2. Pickering’s and Green’s memoranda to Derian, dated December 11 and November 30, 1978, respectively, are attached but not printed.
3. Not attached and not found.
4. Not attached. See Document 320.
5. Not attached. Presumable reference to Report on Women in Development: Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate and the Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives in Fulfillment of Section 113 (b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended, August 3, 1977. (Washington D.C., Office of Women in Development, U.S. Agency for International Development, August 1978)