![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/03\/ruthwedgwood.jpg\" "\\"ruthwedgwood\\"")
Ruth Wedgwood:<\/strong><\/p>\nWell, it\u2019s a pleasure to be here.\u00a0 And I have to say, I haven\u2019t seen this many wonderful women in one place since my days at Radcliff College of two, three, four decades ago when we were trying to get the Harvard men to treat us equally.\u00a0 So, this is really an extraordinary gathering. [applause] [French]\u00a0 Now I know where Joan d\u2019Arc got her strength, not from the French army but from the French women, so. [applause] But finally let me, before I cut to the chase, let me just give credit to one man which is Antonio Cassese, who just passed away, who was a wonderful Italian jurist, did human rights and war crimes, was the president of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and then later the Lebanon war crimes tribunal.\u00a0 And it\u2019s he who first alerted me to the issue of Ashraf and the human rights situation of the people who were imprisoned there.\u00a0 So I want to pay homage to him in doing this.<\/p>\n
Now where we are, obviously an extraordinary moment in the Middle East.\u00a0 And frankly, Arab Spring won\u2019t last unless there\u2019s Persian Spring [applause] because the mullahs will spread their money around and they\u2019ll do to the rest of the region what they have so successfully done for so long now to Iraq and to Lebanon.\u00a0 So, I worry not only for the security and stability of the region, but for the possibility of some stability for Arab Spring if Persian Spring does not succeed.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t think we should suppose that any of the recent achievements are stable so long as the mad mullahs remain in power.<\/p>\n
I also want to, forgive me, but I\u2019m American, give some credit to the good faith of American officials even where we disagree with them if we do.\u00a0 Still one should suppose that they\u2019re seeking to do what they think is best.\u00a0 And the question is how to inform them of facts and circumstances they may have not have taken account of.\u00a0 And there have been women involved in this, as you know, Hillary Clinton, who as my favorite, when Barack Obama said, \u201cYou\u2019re nice enough, Hillary,\u201d I shot an e-mail to her campaign manager late at night saying, \u201cThat does it for me.\u201d [laughs] But Hillary Clinton I think wants to be seen as a historic Secretary of State.\u00a0 Samantha Power, who wrote several books on the human rights problems of the UN, including the death of Sergio Vieira de Mello, is in the White House.\u00a0 So there are women in positions where they can make decisions that advance the ball.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s currently in play in the U.S. is whether the MEK will be taken off the foreign terrorist list.\u00a0 And I take it from informal conversations I\u2019ve had with various European friends, that perhaps it\u2019s our decision on that that is keeping European countries from being more proactive in admitting their quantity and share of people from Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty.\u00a0 Frankly, I think the Europeans are silly to wait for us because if Belgium and France and Holland and Germany and Italy and Romania and Spain and Britain would each admit 50 to 75 people each, the pump would be primed, the water would flow, and you wouldn\u2019t have to wait for the U.S.\u00a0 So to the Europeans here and the parliamentarians I would suggest you think about what Europe can do proactively and admitting people so that they\u2019re not trapped.\u00a0 I\u2019m half Jewish and the history of World War II where nobody would admit the Jews who were refugees, where they were stuck in Europe\u2014and the U.S. had a terrible visa policy at the time I have to say, and as responsible as anybody for shutting the door\u2014but if some countries in Europe would admit a modest number of people who would not be an economic burden, this would give the mullahs no excuse to attack the camps or put them in inhumane conditions because of the assertion that nobody else wants them, that they\u2019re human trash to be thrown out to do everybody a favor.\u00a0 So Europe, I really do challenge you, as a friendly American, to think through why you haven\u2019t acted, why each government whose parliamentarian citizens are represented here are content with European parliamentary resolutions instead of a small adjustment to your immigration policy.\u00a0 That would be a very good thing to do, in my view, to try to seek a timely resolution that will prevent a catastrophe.<\/p>\n
On the FTO\u2014and I\u2019m not involved in the court case, I\u2019m just speaking here as a law professor\u2014it is, I\u2019ll say, a future-oriented test, not what happened in the past.\u00a0 Because I\u2019ve been doing polls of cab drivers and limousine drivers and friends and merchants in the U.S., and you get all kinds of opinions on all kinds of people.\u00a0 But what\u2019s interesting about the test for the foreign terrorist designation in the U.S. under our law is it\u2019s future-oriented, it\u2019s what will happen in the future.\u00a0 And I have to say, if I was still a prosecutor like I used to be, the character witnesses you\u2019ve heard today would be the most extraordinary set of witnesses that one could ever hope for in front of a fact finder.\u00a0\u00a0 But I do think that what\u2019s relevant for everyone to keep in mind, certainly in Washington too, is that this is a future-oriented test.\u00a0 What has the movement become?\u00a0 Not what was it in 1960 or \u201965 or \u201970 or \u201980 or \u201990, but now?\u00a0 So either everyone in this room is very na\u00efve or else perhaps the future may look even different from the past.\u00a0 And that too would moot out and put to the side some of the quarrels I think you get in various of the consequential communities.<\/p>\n
Finally, let me just say about humane treatment, I did spend my eight years of penury on the U.N. Human Rights Committee in Geneva and New York.\u00a0 And we looked at both the customary law of human rights, the covenant on civil and political rights, principles of internally displaced persons, the IDP guidelines that Swiss colleague Walter Kalin so brilliantly championed, and we also looked at the art law of armed conflict from time to time.\u00a0 And by every one of those sets of standards humane treatment is non-negotiable.\u00a0 And one can imagine there\u2019d be transitional problems in setting up a new camp, but if Camp Liberty becomes the opposite, if it becomes a camp of punishment, then it will indeed reflect very badly on our capacity to conform to the human rights principles that we preach to everyone else.\u00a0 So I do think indeed, that one can\u2019t suppose that the transfer of people from Ashraf to Liberty solves the problem.\u00a0 The problem is to give them decent accommodations wherever they are [applause] and to make sure they have some place to get to.\u00a0 Because I don\u2019t think the mad mullahs are going to cease and desist in their influence on Iraqi politics.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Iraq is going to be at all a hospitable environment.\u00a0 And therefore, to save lives and save freedom of thought, it\u2019s essential I think that Europe act to admit people in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n
And finally, let me just say that again, if I may feel sentimental for just one more moment, because I teach at a faculty that just tenured its second woman in history.\u00a0 I\u2019ve battled for women\u2019s rights at Harvard as I said, and sometimes tore my hair out\u2014what little remains\u2014to try to make sure that we got equal treatment with men.\u00a0 So one of the most proudest qualities of the current movement is the graceful leadership it has and the way it has celebrated the moral constancy, the moral fervor, the long-suffering nature of women, both in sustaining their families but also in sustaining the moral commitments that all of us hold dear, that most of us believe came from God but certainly came from the best qualities of human beings.\u00a0 So in making sure that this problem resolves itself in a fashion that makes a difference in Iraq, a difference in Iran, it really calls upon the kind of fiber that each of us, as a female\u2014and a few of you males out there too\u2014have and have had to use to endure through life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And finally, I guess I would just say given the commitment of Iran in my reading to produce a nuclear weapon as Linda Chavez said before, more is at stake here simply than the important welfare and human rights of a large collection of human beings in two countries.\u00a0 It really is the entire stability of the Middle East.\u00a0 The people I know who have come back from the State Department say, \u201cIf Iran gets a bomb, Egypt will get one, Saudi will get one, Turkey will get one, everyone will have one.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019ll be like the old Tom Lehrer song, you have to have a bomb in your pocket.\u00a0 And therefore, seeking transition in Iran is not simply an issue for the region but an issue for nuclear safety on the entire globe.\u00a0 So I do think that the commitment of women here is one that has the largest consequences for the future of the human race.\u00a0 Thank you. [applause]<\/p>\n
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NCRI – In an unprecedented conference in Paris on 10 March, 2012, women who had gathered from several continents called for support for women who have risen in the Arab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-11810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran-resistance","tag-updated"],"yoast_head":"\n