Women come together everyday, in every country. We come together in feilds and factories. In village markets and supermarkets. In living room and board rooms.

Whether it is playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at our office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concerns. Time and time again, our talk turns to our children and our families. However different we may be, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future. And we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world - and in doing so, bring new strength and stability to families aswell.

By gathering here tonight, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in the lives of women and their families: access to education, health care, jobs and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and participate fully in the political life of their countries.

Let us listen to the voices of women in our homes, neighbourhoods, and workplaces. Let us look at the women who gather here and everywhere around the globe to unite for this cause - the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, policymakers, and women who run their own businesses.

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish. That is why ever woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in this discussion.

Woman comprise more than half the world's population. Women are 70% of the world's poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write. Woman are the primary caretakers for most og the world's children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued - not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by governmant leaders.

At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countires. Women also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated; they are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation; they are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers; they are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the bank lending office and banned from the ballot box.

Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to speak for those who could not. I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighbourhoods, clean air and clean airwaves; for older women, some of them widows, who have raised their families and now find that their skills and life experiences are not valued in the workplace; for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food cooks so that they can be at home during the day with their kids; and for women everywhere who simply don't have time to do everything they are called upon to do each day.

I speak for them, just as each of us speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives, simply beacuse they are women. The truth is that most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity.

We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realise her God-given potential. We also must recognise that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected.

Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated.
It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution.
It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.
It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes.
It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.
It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.

If there is one message that echoes from this, it is that human rights are women's rights - and that women's rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among thse rights are the right to speak freely - and the right to be heard.