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As we sit in this meeting room celebrating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, I’d like you to look
around. Look at all the representatives that are here from NGOs, academia and the private sector, all
the ambassadors and staff from the member states and all the personnel from the myriad of UN
agencies. Think of the problems that have been solved here, saving and enhancing countless lives
around the world. And think, what would have happened if the United Nations did not exist.
Because in 1945, it was possible that the UN may not have been born. The League of Nations did not
make it. And the war that spurred that concept, was called the “war to end all wars”. So no, the
establishment of the United Nations in 1945 was not a done deal. What was the difference between
failure of the League of Nations and success of the United Nations? Let me take you back in time to
1944, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President of the United States. He was in Woodrow Wilson’s
administration when the League of Nations failed and he was determined that it not happen again. His
wife, Eleanor Roosevelt had been an active member of the League of Women Voters of the United
States when we were founded in 1920. She was asked to serve as an “active member” of the New York
State Board in 1920 by LWVNY President Vanderlip . Mrs. Roosevelt distinguished herself on the New
York State Board by working with progressives like Mrs. Vanderlip on programs regarding child labor,
education, poverty eradication and women’s working conditions. She was in the audience at the LWVUS
national convention in 1921 when our founder Carrie Chapmann Catt stirred the assemblage to work
for an international body dedicated to peace by stating, “ I am for a League of Nations…Let us
consecrate ourselves to put war out of the world!”
In 1922, Mrs. Roosevelt was made chair of the national Advocacy committee of the League and
remained active until 1933, when she became First Lady. She maintained the personal relationships
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with the progressive women she had worked with at the League and credits the League with stirring the
political passions within her and giving her voice and access to the most progressive women of the day.
So, in 1944 when FDR was looking for way to mobilize the country for the postwar view that would
include an international body that was dedicated to peace, he turned to his wife’s friends at the League
of Women Voters and asked that they get involved.
And get involved we did! We started a campaign to drum up support within the State Department
(which was not on board) flooding them with 1000 letters every day. In the autumn of 1944, we
launched the “Take it to the People” campaign distributing millions of pieces of literature and holding
educational forums throughout the country, urging attendees to write their Senators for approval of the
United Nations Charter, resulting in ratification by the US Senate on July 28, 1945 by a vote of 89-2. We
sent Anne Hartwell Johnstone to the San Francisco Conference in 1945, where the US delegation asked
her to assume leadership to help create the Commission on the Status of Women. And when the CSW
was created, it was Judge Dorothy Kenyon, a former League of Women Voters New York officer, who
was its first US representative.
I want to take you back again to the 1920’s when Eleanor Roosevelt was Chair of the LWVUS Advocacy
committee and before she was first lady. During this time, there were 4 centers of women’s political
power in New York State and the League was part of those centers. Eleanor Roosevelt was in the thick
of those centers as well, working for social change to improve the lives of women and children. She
worked alongside women like Frances Perkins, who was to become FDR’s Secretary of Labor during the
Depression years and put into place programs that would help improve the lives of women and children.
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And it was during those years that she formed her opinion that” women go into politics to change the
world.”
So in 1945, when then President Truman asked her to be part of the 1st US delegation to the newly
formed United Nations, she went. It was as a result of her commitment to those that didn’t have voices
and because of her skills as a non-partisan politician, that the newly formed ECOSOC asked her to be
part of a “small nuclear”. This Human Rights Commission, with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair went on to
form the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was ratified in 1948 by a vote of 48-0.
Through the decades our work at the UN continued, promoting its achievements and engaging on the
issues of concern of the day. Moving forward to 1995, the League of Women Voters went to the Beijng
Conference. The League was represented there by its main Observer, Margery Cohen, who recognized
that only by working in concert with other women and NGOs will we be able to achieve the goals
identified in Beijing. And she recognized that if a girl didn’t get to grow up to be a woman, there was no
point in women’s rights. So, she and Doris Schapira, who later became our UN main Observer helped to
form a new organization within UNICEF, the Working Group on Girls. WGG worked with other NGOs to
make sure that girls and their Human rights were recognized throughout the UN assembly. Using the
same advocacy and education tactics that League used in 1944 to drum up support for approving the UN
Charter, we continually work with our partners in WGG and the larger UN community, to ensure that
girls have a right to a violence free environment, education and self determination for a full life. As a
result of these and other efforts, on December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly
adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize
girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
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OK, I know, so from a historical perspective, all of this is very good—we have a United Nations, there’s
the Commission on the Status of Women, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Working Group on
Girls and the International Day of the Girl. But what has the League of Women Voters done lately?!
Today, the League of Women Voters can be seen working with our partners on major issues of
importance to the lives of women and girls everywhere. We utilize the power of the United Nations as
a magnet to the leaders of governments, civil society, academia and the private sector to tackle issues of
concern. And we utilize the power of the League of Women Voters which values civil discourse of
issues to develop strategies, interventions, programmes and solve issues around the world. In a place
where talk is plentiful, it’s important to remember that action in local communities throughout the
world is what will solve the problems of the world.
For the past 4 years, we partner with member States including Germany, Brazil, Turkey, Sweden,
Canada, Phillippines, Tanzania, New Zealand, El Salvador, Poland, United States, with other NGOs and
coalitions, with UN Agencies including UNICEF, ECOSOC, UN Women, President of the General Assembly
and the Special Representative to the Secretary General to Prevent Violence Against Children and also
with the private sector and academia. We partner with all of these organizations and others to work on
the issues of main concern to us:
1. Increase women’s leadership and participation in democratic political processes to achieve
social and economic change by highlighting best practices around the world to encourage others
to adopt those practices;
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2. Furthering democracy around the world by intervening at appropriate times to encourage
extending voting rights to women;
3. Promote gender equality and human rights for all women and girls by highlighting best
practices around the world and participating in programs that accomplish same;
4. Prevent violence against women and girls by developing strategies, providing opportunities for
not only the sharing of best practices, but directly working with governments, the private sector,
academia and civil society to implement the practices at the communities level.
And so I ask each and everyone of you –what is it that you want to accomplish? As I look around this
room, I see a group that can achieve the Global Goals if we work together to understand the underlying
root causes, clearly articulate the issues, highlight those best practices that work in local communities
as well as measure the progress being made to make the Global Goals happen! Let us carry on the
legacy of the great women and men that came before us to accomplish our dreams. For as Eleanor
Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
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