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“HONORING PATRICIA DERIAN, CHAMPION OF HUMAN RIGHTS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E871 on June 9, 2016.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HONORING PATRICIA DERIAN, CHAMPION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
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HON. DAVID E. PRICE
of north carolina
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember Patricia Derian, former State Department human rights chief, who, as the Washington Post reported, ``helped save thousands of lives by giving humanitarian concerns greater weight in U.S. foreign policy.'' Patt, who grew up in Virginia and first gained a national reputation as a fighter for civil rights in Mississippi, died on May 20 at the home she and her husband, Hodding Carter III, shared in Chapel Hill, NC.
Patt graduated from the University of Virginia nursing school in 1952 and moved with her then-husband to Jackson, Mississippi. There she volunteered for Head Start, fought to integrate public schools, and participated in the 1968 challenge to the state's all-white Democratic National Convention delegation. She also served as president of the Southern Regional Council and on the executive committee of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 1976, Patt took a leadership role in Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. President Carter appointed her State Department coordinator for human rights and humanitarian affairs, a position Congress upgraded to Assistant Secretary. ``If you want a magnolia to decorate foreign policy,'' she told future Secretary of State Warren Christopher, ``I'm the wrong person. I expect to get things done.''
Patt Derian proved as good as her word, ruffling numerous feathers along the way. She persuaded the President to exert influence over international lending institutions by opposing loans to Argentina, Ethiopia, Laos, Uruguay, and other human rights violators. She helped engineer the release of thousands of political prisoners in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Her reports to Congress shed light on previously ignored subjects such as labor practices, women's rights, and female genital mutilation. Jacobo Timerman, an Argentine journalist imprisoned and tortured over many years, credited Ms. Derian with helping engineer his release and saving ``thousands and thousands of lives all over the world.''
In 1978, Patt married Hodding Carter, a well-known Mississippi journalist who was then Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. They relocated to Chapel Hill in 2005, where my wife Lisa and I came to treasure their friendship and their continued political and civic leadership, locally and nationally. Hodding was Patt's loving caretaker in her years of declining health and continues in multiple teaching and other leadership roles at the University of North Carolina.
Because of Patt Derian's ``determination and effective advocacy,'' President Carter said upon her death, ``countless human rights and democracy activists survived that period, going on to plant the seeds of freedom in Latin America, Asia, and beyond.'' She was a great humanitarian who was not afraid to challenge the constraints generally placed on diplomacy and foreign policy. As a result, we now have a broader, morally-grounded view of our country's interests and of what we stand for in the world. That is a legacy of major importance: may we rededicate ourselves to it as we remember Patt Derian with gratitude and affection.
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