(Published March 12, 2010 in the Huffington Post) This Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will mark the fifteenth anniversary of her speech at the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 . Then-First Lady Clinton's remarkable speech represented one of the loudest, clearest calls for all nations to uphold women's rights, and to recognize that "women's rights are human rights." There is much for Secretary Clinton to celebrate this Friday as she reflects upon the progress the world has made towards realizing the goals set at the conference in Beijing fifteen years ago. But the work that began in Beijing is far from finished. One striking example of the continued abuse of women's human rights has remained largely unchanged since 1995, despite the fact that it affects one-fifth of the world's women: China's One Child Policy. (Read more after the jump)

On Wednesday, the Laogai Museum was honored by a visit from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  We were of course overjoyed, but at the same time disappointed that President Obama did not see fit to meet with the Dalai Lama at this time.  As we saw from the press this morning, the Chinese still kicked off about the fact that the “reviled” Dalai Lama received an award in Congress. 

Obama may have thought that by not meeting with the Dalai Lama before his upcoming trip to Beijing, he would somehow gain favor with the Chinese government on other issues.  In reality, they’ll leverage this decision by pressuring the Obama administration to lower the bar even further when it comes to human rights.  Back in the spring during her trip to Beijing, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said human rights would not be allowed to “interfere” with other strategic issues like climate change or the financial crisis.  But what good is a climate change agreement in a world where the Chinese government routinely imprisons environmental whistleblowers?  And what good is a Chinese-led solution to the global financial crisis without a free press to make sure that the financial sector is transparent?