WEBVTT

00:00:01.957 --> 00:00:03.518
Let me tell you a story

00:00:03.518 --> 00:00:06.724
about a little girl named Naghma.

00:00:06.724 --> 00:00:08.546
Naghma lived in a refugee camp

00:00:08.546 --> 00:00:11.425
with her parents and her eight brothers and sisters.

00:00:11.425 --> 00:00:13.361
Every morning, her father would wake up

00:00:13.361 --> 00:00:15.801
in the hopes he'd be picked for construction work,

00:00:15.801 --> 00:00:19.367
and on a good month he would earn 50 dollars.

00:00:19.367 --> 00:00:20.755
The winter was very harsh,

00:00:20.755 --> 00:00:23.439
and unfortunately, Naghma's brother died

00:00:23.439 --> 00:00:25.359
and her mother became very ill.

00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.939
In desperation, her father went to a neighbor

00:00:27.939 --> 00:00:30.336
to borrow 2,500 dollars.

00:00:30.336 --> 00:00:32.250
After several months of waiting,

00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:33.767
the neighbor became very impatient,

00:00:33.767 --> 00:00:36.485
and he demanded that he be paid back.

00:00:36.485 --> 00:00:38.929
Unfortunately, Naghma's
father didn't have the money,

00:00:38.929 --> 00:00:41.764
and so the two men agreed to a jirga.

00:00:41.764 --> 00:00:44.294
So simply put, a jirga is a form of mediation

00:00:44.294 --> 00:00:47.534
that's used in Afghanistan's 
informal justice system.

00:00:47.534 --> 00:00:50.988
It's usually presided over by religious leaders

00:00:50.988 --> 00:00:52.686
and village elders,

00:00:52.686 --> 00:00:55.886
and jirgas are often used in
rural countries like Afghanistan,

00:00:55.886 --> 00:00:57.737
where there's deep-seated resentment

00:00:57.737 --> 00:00:59.999
against the formal system.

00:00:59.999 --> 00:01:02.337
At the jirga, the men sat together

00:01:02.337 --> 00:01:05.251
and they decided that the 
best way to satisfy the debt

00:01:05.251 --> 00:01:09.840
would be if Naghma married
the neighbor's 21-year-old son.

00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.500
She was six.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:14.565
Now, stories like Naghma's unfortunately

00:01:14.565 --> 00:01:16.253
are all too common,

00:01:16.253 --> 00:01:17.748
and from the comforts of our home,

00:01:17.748 --> 00:01:19.503
we may look at these stories as another

00:01:19.503 --> 00:01:21.763
crushing blow to women's rights.

00:01:21.763 --> 00:01:24.294
And if you watched Afghanistan on the news,

00:01:24.294 --> 00:01:27.993
you may have this view that it's a failed state.

00:01:27.993 --> 00:01:31.809
However, Afghanistan does have a legal system,

00:01:31.809 --> 00:01:35.671
and while jirgas are built on
long-standing tribal customs,

00:01:35.671 --> 00:01:39.034
even in jirgas, laws are supposed to be followed,

00:01:39.034 --> 00:01:40.962
and it goes without saying

00:01:40.962 --> 00:01:43.583
that giving a child to satisfy a debt

00:01:43.583 --> 00:01:47.649
is not only grossly immoral, it's illegal.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:47.649 --> 00:01:50.176
In 2008, I went to Afghanistan

00:01:50.176 --> 00:01:52.496
for a justice funded program,

00:01:52.496 --> 00:01:55.203
and I went there originally 
on this nine-month program

00:01:55.203 --> 00:01:57.115
to train Afghan lawyers.

00:01:57.115 --> 00:01:59.376
In that nine months, I went around the country

00:01:59.376 --> 00:02:02.312
and I talked to hundreds of
people that were locked up,

00:02:02.312 --> 00:02:03.910
and I talked to many businesses

00:02:03.910 --> 00:02:06.440
that were also operating in Afghanistan.

00:02:06.440 --> 00:02:07.784
And within these conversations,

00:02:07.784 --> 00:02:09.655
I started hearing the connections

00:02:09.655 --> 00:02:11.645
between the businesses and the people,

00:02:11.645 --> 00:02:13.715
and how laws that were meant to protect them

00:02:13.715 --> 00:02:15.416
were being underused,

00:02:15.416 --> 00:02:19.474
while gross and illegal punitive
measures were overused.

00:02:19.474 --> 00:02:22.298
And so this put me on a quest for justness,

00:02:22.298 --> 00:02:25.020
and what justness means to me

00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:28.715
is using laws for their intended purpose,

00:02:28.715 --> 00:02:31.040
which is to protect.

00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:34.543
The role of laws is to protect.

00:02:34.543 --> 00:02:38.258
So as a result, I decided to 
open up a private practice,

00:02:38.258 --> 00:02:40.599
and I became the first foreigner to litigate

00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:42.815
in Afghan courts.

00:02:42.815 --> 00:02:45.672
Throughout this time, I also studied many laws,

00:02:45.672 --> 00:02:47.202
I talked to many people,

00:02:47.202 --> 00:02:48.373
I read up on many cases,

00:02:48.373 --> 00:02:50.763
and I found that the lack of justness

00:02:50.763 --> 00:02:52.749
is not just a problem in Afghanistan,

00:02:52.749 --> 00:02:55.070
but it's a global problem.

00:02:55.070 --> 00:02:56.821
And while I originally shied away from

00:02:56.821 --> 00:02:58.938
representing human rights cases

00:02:58.938 --> 00:03:01.117
because I was really concerned about how it would

00:03:01.117 --> 00:03:03.760
affect me both professionally and personally,

00:03:03.760 --> 00:03:06.513
I decided that the need for justness was so great

00:03:06.513 --> 00:03:08.384
that I couldn't continue to ignore it.

00:03:08.384 --> 00:03:10.701
And so I started representing people like Naghma

00:03:10.701 --> 00:03:13.157
pro bono also.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:13.157 --> 00:03:14.863
Now, since I've been in Afghanistan

00:03:14.863 --> 00:03:17.326
and since I've been an attorney for over 10 years,

00:03:17.326 --> 00:03:21.040
I've represented from CEOs 
of Fortune 500 companies

00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:23.368
to ambassadors to little girls like Naghma,

00:03:23.368 --> 00:03:24.918
and with much success.

00:03:24.918 --> 00:03:27.833
And the reason for my success is very simple:

00:03:27.833 --> 00:03:29.843
I work the system from the inside out

00:03:29.843 --> 00:03:31.262
and use the laws in the ways

00:03:31.262 --> 00:03:33.998
that they're intended to be used.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:33.998 --> 00:03:36.120
I find that

00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:39.536
achieving justness in places like Afghanistan

00:03:39.536 --> 00:03:41.684
is difficult, and there's three reasons.

00:03:41.684 --> 00:03:44.240
The first reason is that simply put,

00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:47.339
people are very uneducated as
to what their legal rights were,

00:03:47.339 --> 00:03:49.930
and I find that this is a global problem.

00:03:49.930 --> 00:03:51.144
The second issue

00:03:51.144 --> 00:03:54.583
is that even with laws on the books,

00:03:54.583 --> 00:03:56.848
it's often superseded or ignored

00:03:56.848 --> 00:03:59.170
by tribal customs, like in the first jirga

00:03:59.170 --> 00:04:00.702
that sold Naghma off.

00:04:00.702 --> 00:04:03.404
And the third problem with achieving justness

00:04:03.404 --> 00:04:06.216
is that even with good, existing laws on the books,

00:04:06.216 --> 00:04:08.862
there aren't people or lawyers 
that are willing to fight

00:04:08.862 --> 00:04:10.558
for those laws.

00:04:10.558 --> 00:04:13.432
And that's what I do: I use existing laws,

00:04:13.432 --> 00:04:15.231
often unused laws,

00:04:15.231 --> 00:04:18.865
and I work those to the benefits of my clients.

00:04:18.865 --> 00:04:21.413
We all need to create a global culture

00:04:21.413 --> 00:04:23.241
of human rights

00:04:23.241 --> 00:04:25.990
and be investors in a global 
human rights economy,

00:04:25.990 --> 00:04:27.757
and by working in this mindset,

00:04:27.757 --> 00:04:30.474
we can significantly improve justice globally.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:30.474 --> 00:04:32.866
Now let's get back to Naghma.

00:04:32.866 --> 00:04:35.265
Several people heard about this story,

00:04:35.265 --> 00:04:36.790
and so they contacted me because they wanted

00:04:36.790 --> 00:04:39.355
to pay the $2,500 debt.

00:04:39.355 --> 00:04:41.216
And it's not just that simple;

00:04:41.216 --> 00:04:42.998
you can't just throw money at this problem

00:04:42.998 --> 00:04:44.151
and think that it's going to disappear.

00:04:44.151 --> 00:04:46.632
That's not how it works in Afghanistan.

00:04:46.632 --> 00:04:50.030
So I told them I'd get involved,

00:04:50.030 --> 00:04:52.318
but in order to get involved, 
what needed to happen

00:04:52.318 --> 00:04:55.141
is a second jirga needed to be called,

00:04:55.141 --> 00:04:57.250
a jirga of appeals.

00:04:57.250 --> 00:04:59.501
And so in order for that to happen,

00:04:59.501 --> 00:05:02.206
we needed to get the village elders together,

00:05:02.206 --> 00:05:04.467
we needed to get the tribal leaders together,

00:05:04.467 --> 00:05:06.056
the religious leaders.

00:05:06.056 --> 00:05:07.630
Naghma's father needed to agree,

00:05:07.630 --> 00:05:08.881
the neighbor needed to agree,

00:05:08.881 --> 00:05:11.085
and also his son needed to agree.

00:05:11.085 --> 00:05:15.110
And I thought, if I'm going to 
get involved in this thing,

00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:18.765
then they also need to agree 
that I preside over it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:18.765 --> 00:05:21.735
So, after hours of talking

00:05:21.735 --> 00:05:22.943
and tracking them down,

00:05:22.943 --> 00:05:25.806
and about 30 cups of tea,

00:05:25.806 --> 00:05:27.718
they finally agreed that we could sit down

00:05:27.718 --> 00:05:31.050
for a second jirga, and we did.

00:05:31.050 --> 00:05:33.134
And what was different about the second jirga

00:05:33.134 --> 00:05:35.709
is this time, we put the law at the center of it,

00:05:35.709 --> 00:05:37.053
and it was very important for me

00:05:37.053 --> 00:05:38.811
that they all understood that Naghma

00:05:38.811 --> 00:05:41.150
had a right to be protected.

00:05:41.150 --> 00:05:42.696
And at the end of this jirga,

00:05:42.696 --> 00:05:44.989
it was ordered by the judge

00:05:44.989 --> 00:05:48.825
that the first decision was erased,

00:05:48.825 --> 00:05:52.257
and that the $2,500 debt was satisfied,

00:05:52.257 --> 00:05:54.090
and we all signed a written order

00:05:54.090 --> 00:05:55.481
where all the men acknowledged

00:05:55.481 --> 00:05:57.601
that what they did was illegal,

00:05:57.601 --> 00:06:02.399
and if they did it again, that 
they would go to prison.

00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:04.168
Most —

00:06:04.168 --> 00:06:05.636
(Applause)

00:06:05.636 --> 00:06:07.483
Thanks.

00:06:07.483 --> 00:06:09.299
And most importantly,

00:06:09.299 --> 00:06:10.800
the engagement was terminated

00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.809
and Naghma was free.

00:06:12.809 --> 00:06:15.666
Protecting Naghma and her right to be free

00:06:15.666 --> 00:06:18.300
protects us.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:21.762
Now, with my job, there's above-average

00:06:21.762 --> 00:06:24.505
amount of risks that are involved.

00:06:24.505 --> 00:06:27.212
I've been temporarily detained.

00:06:27.212 --> 00:06:29.805
I've been accused of running a brothel,

00:06:29.805 --> 00:06:32.110
accused of being a spy.

00:06:32.110 --> 00:06:34.238
I've had a grenade thrown at my office.

00:06:34.238 --> 00:06:36.937
It didn't go off, though.

00:06:36.937 --> 00:06:38.537
But I find that with my job,

00:06:38.537 --> 00:06:41.503
that the rewards far outweigh the risks,

00:06:41.503 --> 00:06:43.877
and as many risks as I take,

00:06:43.877 --> 00:06:45.846
my clients take far greater risks,

00:06:45.846 --> 00:06:47.349
because they have a lot more to lose

00:06:47.349 --> 00:06:48.839
if their cases go unheard,

00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:51.962
or worse, if they're penalized
for having me as their lawyer.

00:06:51.962 --> 00:06:53.736
With every case that I take,

00:06:53.736 --> 00:06:56.656
I realize that as much as
I'm standing behind my clients,

00:06:56.656 --> 00:06:58.669
that they're also standing behind me,

00:06:58.669 --> 00:07:02.462
and that's what keeps me going.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:02.462 --> 00:07:04.359
Law as a point of leverage

00:07:04.359 --> 00:07:06.881
is crucial in protecting all of us.

00:07:06.881 --> 00:07:09.517
Journalists are very vital in making sure

00:07:09.517 --> 00:07:12.791
that that information is given to the public.

00:07:12.791 --> 00:07:15.277
Too often, we receive information from journalists

00:07:15.277 --> 00:07:18.921
but we forget how that information was given.

00:07:18.921 --> 00:07:21.507
This picture is a picture of the

00:07:21.507 --> 00:07:23.500
British press corps in Afghanistan.

00:07:23.500 --> 00:07:26.649
It was taken a couple of years
ago by my friend David Gill.

00:07:26.649 --> 00:07:28.517
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists,

00:07:28.517 --> 00:07:31.363
since 2010, there have been 
thousands of journalists

00:07:31.363 --> 00:07:33.241
who have been threatened, injured,

00:07:33.241 --> 00:07:35.873
killed, detained.

00:07:35.873 --> 00:07:38.112
Too often, when we get this information,

00:07:38.112 --> 00:07:39.336
we forget who it affects

00:07:39.336 --> 00:07:42.634
or how that information is given to us.

00:07:42.634 --> 00:07:45.244
What many journalists do, 
both foreign and domestic,

00:07:45.244 --> 00:07:49.315
is very remarkable, especially
in places like Afghanistan,

00:07:49.315 --> 00:07:50.887
and it's important that we never forget that,

00:07:50.887 --> 00:07:52.243
because what they're protecting

00:07:52.243 --> 00:07:54.525
is not only our right to receive that information

00:07:54.525 --> 00:07:56.582
but also the freedom of the press, which is vital

00:07:56.582 --> 00:07:59.458
to a democratic society.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:59.458 --> 00:08:03.343
Matt Rosenberg is a journalist in Afghanistan.

00:08:03.343 --> 00:08:05.233
He works for The New York Times,

00:08:05.233 --> 00:08:06.850
and unfortunately, a few months ago

00:08:06.850 --> 00:08:08.990
he wrote an article that displeased

00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:10.296
people in the government.

00:08:10.296 --> 00:08:13.546
As a result, he was temporarily detained

00:08:13.546 --> 00:08:17.859
and he was illegally exiled out of the country.

00:08:17.859 --> 00:08:19.911
I represent Matt,

00:08:19.911 --> 00:08:22.039
and after dealing with the government,

00:08:22.039 --> 00:08:23.719
I was able to get legal acknowledgment

00:08:23.719 --> 00:08:26.780
that in fact he was illegally exiled,

00:08:26.780 --> 00:08:29.840
and that freedom of the
press does exist in Afghanistan,

00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:32.372
and there's consequences if that's not followed.

00:08:32.372 --> 00:08:34.118
And I'm happy to say that

00:08:34.118 --> 00:08:36.206
as of a few days ago,

00:08:36.206 --> 00:08:37.532
the Afghan government

00:08:37.532 --> 00:08:39.744
formally invited him back into the country

00:08:39.744 --> 00:08:43.377
and they reversed their exile order of him.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:43.377 --> 00:08:47.016
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:48.049 --> 00:08:51.252
If you censor one journalist, 
then it intimidates others,

00:08:51.252 --> 00:08:53.224
and soon nations are silenced.

00:08:53.224 --> 00:08:55.942
It's important that we protect our journalists

00:08:55.942 --> 00:08:57.719
and freedom of the press,

00:08:57.719 --> 00:08:59.778
because that makes governments
more accountable to us

00:08:59.778 --> 00:09:01.763
and more transparent.

00:09:01.763 --> 00:09:03.670
Protecting journalists and our right

00:09:03.670 --> 00:09:07.844
to receive information protects us.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:07.844 --> 00:09:10.860
Our world is changing. We live
in a different world now,

00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:13.243
and what were once individual problems

00:09:13.243 --> 00:09:16.061
are really now global problems for all of us.

00:09:16.061 --> 00:09:19.700
Two weeks ago, Afghanistan had its first

00:09:19.700 --> 00:09:21.691
democratic transfer of power

00:09:21.691 --> 00:09:24.943
and elected president Ashraf Ghani, which is huge,

00:09:24.943 --> 00:09:27.440
and I'm very optimistic about him,

00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.419
and I'm hopeful that he'll give Afghanistan

00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:30.690
the changes that it needs,

00:09:30.690 --> 00:09:33.187
especially within the legal sector.

00:09:33.187 --> 00:09:35.090
We live in a different world.

00:09:35.090 --> 00:09:37.439
We live in a world where my 
eight-year-old daughter

00:09:37.439 --> 00:09:40.153
only knows a black president.

00:09:40.153 --> 00:09:42.861
There's a great possibility that our next president

00:09:42.861 --> 00:09:44.197
will be a woman,

00:09:44.197 --> 00:09:47.100
and as she gets older, she may question,

00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:48.845
can a white guy be president?

00:09:48.845 --> 00:09:50.619
(Laughter)

00:09:50.619 --> 00:09:53.730
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:53.730 --> 00:09:56.910
Our world is changing, and 
we need to change with it,

00:09:56.910 --> 00:09:58.542
and what were once individual problems

00:09:58.542 --> 00:10:01.390
are problems for all of us.

00:10:01.390 --> 00:10:03.468
According to UNICEF,

00:10:03.468 --> 00:10:09.509
there are currently over 280 million

00:10:09.509 --> 00:10:11.394
boys and girls who are married

00:10:11.394 --> 00:10:13.176
under the age of 15.

00:10:13.176 --> 00:10:15.219
Two hundred and eighty million.

00:10:15.219 --> 00:10:17.761
Child marriages prolong the vicious cycle

00:10:17.761 --> 00:10:22.181
of poverty, poor health, lack of education.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:22.181 --> 00:10:26.868
At the age of 12, Sahar was married.

00:10:26.868 --> 00:10:28.717
She was forced into this marriage

00:10:28.717 --> 00:10:30.417
and sold by her brother.

00:10:30.417 --> 00:10:32.485
When she went to her in-laws' house,

00:10:32.485 --> 00:10:35.173
they forced her into prostitution.

00:10:35.173 --> 00:10:38.986
Because she refused, she was tortured.

00:10:38.986 --> 00:10:43.011
She was severely beaten with metal rods.

00:10:43.011 --> 00:10:45.803
They burned her body.

00:10:45.803 --> 00:10:49.293
They tied her up in a basement and starved her.

00:10:49.293 --> 00:10:53.503
They used pliers to take out her fingernails.

00:10:53.503 --> 00:10:55.332
At one point,

00:10:55.332 --> 00:10:58.537
she managed to escape from this torture chamber

00:10:58.537 --> 00:11:00.910
to a neighbor's house,

00:11:00.910 --> 00:11:04.206
and when she went there, instead of protecting her,

00:11:04.206 --> 00:11:06.221
they dragged her back

00:11:06.221 --> 00:11:07.857
to her husband's house,

00:11:07.857 --> 00:11:11.638
and she was tortured even worse.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:13.864 --> 00:11:16.975
When I met first Sahar, thankfully,

00:11:16.975 --> 00:11:18.206
Women for Afghan Women

00:11:18.206 --> 00:11:21.534
gave her a safe haven to go to.

00:11:21.534 --> 00:11:24.720
As a lawyer, I try to be very strong

00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:26.379
for all my clients,

00:11:26.379 --> 00:11:30.193
because that's very important to me,

00:11:30.193 --> 00:11:33.122
but seeing her,

00:11:33.122 --> 00:11:37.024
how broken and very weak as she was,

00:11:37.024 --> 00:11:40.321
was very difficult.

00:11:40.321 --> 00:11:43.808
It took weeks for us to really get to

00:11:43.808 --> 00:11:47.164
what happened to her

00:11:47.164 --> 00:11:49.120
when she was in that house,

00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:51.760
but finally she started opening up to me,

00:11:51.760 --> 00:11:54.080
and when she opened up,

00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:55.552
what I heard was

00:11:55.552 --> 00:11:58.152
she didn't know what her rights were,

00:11:58.152 --> 00:12:00.355
but she did know she had 
a certain level of protection

00:12:00.355 --> 00:12:02.982
by her government that failed her,

00:12:02.982 --> 00:12:04.584
and so we were able to talk about

00:12:04.584 --> 00:12:07.126
what her legal options were.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:07.126 --> 00:12:09.134
And so we decided to take this case

00:12:09.134 --> 00:12:10.890
to the Supreme Court.

00:12:10.890 --> 00:12:12.760
Now, this is extremely significant,

00:12:12.760 --> 00:12:14.673
because this is the first time

00:12:14.673 --> 00:12:17.509
that a victim of domestic violence in Afghanistan

00:12:17.509 --> 00:12:20.302
was being represented by a lawyer,

00:12:20.302 --> 00:12:23.037
a law that's been on the 
books for years and years,

00:12:23.037 --> 00:12:26.443
but until Sahar, had never been used.

00:12:26.443 --> 00:12:28.655
In addition to this, we also decided

00:12:28.655 --> 00:12:30.378
to sue for civil damages,

00:12:30.378 --> 00:12:33.325
again using a law that's never been used,

00:12:33.325 --> 00:12:36.353
but we used it for her case.

00:12:36.353 --> 00:12:38.615
So there we were at the Supreme Court

00:12:38.615 --> 00:12:41.857
arguing in front of 12 Afghan justices,

00:12:41.857 --> 00:12:44.493
me as an American female lawyer,

00:12:44.493 --> 00:12:47.980
and Sahar, a young woman

00:12:47.980 --> 00:12:53.163
who when I met her couldn't 
speak above a whisper.

00:12:53.163 --> 00:12:54.834
She stood up,

00:12:54.834 --> 00:12:57.120
she found her voice,

00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:59.917
and my girl told them that she wanted justice,

00:12:59.917 --> 00:13:02.556
and she got it.

00:13:02.556 --> 00:13:05.385
At the end of it all, the court unanimously agreed

00:13:05.385 --> 00:13:09.568
that her in-laws should be
arrested for what they did to her,

00:13:09.568 --> 00:13:12.177
her fucking brother should also be arrested

00:13:12.177 --> 00:13:14.123
for selling her —

00:13:14.123 --> 00:13:18.543
(Applause) —

00:13:18.543 --> 00:13:20.546
and they agreed that she did have a right

00:13:20.546 --> 00:13:22.964
to civil compensation.

00:13:22.964 --> 00:13:25.743
What Sahar has shown us is that we can attack

00:13:25.743 --> 00:13:28.521
existing bad practices by using the laws

00:13:28.521 --> 00:13:31.459
in the ways that they're intended to be used,

00:13:31.459 --> 00:13:33.940
and by protecting Sahar,

00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:37.520
we are protecting ourselves.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:39.152
After having worked in Afghanistan

00:13:39.152 --> 00:13:41.150
for over six years now,

00:13:41.150 --> 00:13:43.201
a lot of my family and friends think

00:13:43.201 --> 00:13:45.993
that what I do looks like this.

00:13:45.993 --> 00:13:48.499
(Laughter)

00:13:48.499 --> 00:13:53.137
But in all actuality, what I do looks like this.

00:13:53.137 --> 00:13:55.010
Now, we can all do something.

00:13:55.010 --> 00:13:57.790
I'm not saying we should all buy a
plane ticket and go to Afghanistan,

00:13:57.790 --> 00:14:00.812
but we can all be contributors

00:14:00.812 --> 00:14:02.871
to a global human rights economy.

00:14:02.871 --> 00:14:05.139
We can create a culture of transparency

00:14:05.139 --> 00:14:06.463
and accountability to the laws,

00:14:06.463 --> 00:14:08.874
and make governments more accountable to us,

00:14:08.874 --> 00:14:11.897
as we are to them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:11.897 --> 00:14:13.889
A few months ago, a South African lawyer

00:14:13.889 --> 00:14:15.644
visited me in my office

00:14:15.644 --> 00:14:17.569
and he said, "I wanted to meet you.

00:14:17.569 --> 00:14:21.563
I wanted to see what a crazy person looked like."

00:14:21.563 --> 00:14:23.542
The laws are ours,

00:14:23.542 --> 00:14:25.575
and no matter what your ethnicity,

00:14:25.575 --> 00:14:28.466
nationality, gender, race,

00:14:28.466 --> 00:14:30.585
they belong to us,

00:14:30.585 --> 00:14:35.374
and fighting for justice is not an act of insanity.

00:14:35.374 --> 00:14:37.615
Businesses also need to get with the program.

00:14:37.615 --> 00:14:39.336
A corporate investment in human rights

00:14:39.336 --> 00:14:41.214
is a capital gain on your businesses,

00:14:41.214 --> 00:14:43.340
and whether you're a business, an NGO,

00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:47.435
or a private citizen, rule 
of law benefits all of us.

00:14:47.435 --> 00:14:49.750
And by working together with a concerted mindset,

00:14:49.750 --> 00:14:53.206
through the people, public and private sector,

00:14:53.206 --> 00:14:55.503
we can create a global human rights economy

00:14:55.503 --> 00:14:59.036
and all become global investors in human rights.

00:14:59.036 --> 00:15:00.820
And by doing this,

00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.480
we can achieve justness together.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:05.573
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:05.573 --> 00:15:09.573
(Applause)