
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 29, 1995                   TAG: 9508290020
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BEIJING

HILLARY RODHAM Clinton is not going to Beijing to (1) shop, (2) show off a new hairdo or (3) negotiate Sino-American relations. She is going to lend her prestige to the worldwide movement for human rights - in the interest of half of the world's population whose human rights have been disproportionately shunted aside by nations' governments, including China's.

Those who criticize Mrs. Clinton's planned attendance at the United Nations-sponsored World Conference on Women are wrong to suggest it will allow China to gloss over its dismal record on human rights and its treatment of women. The opposite is true:

With thousands of Chinese women participating in the conference, Mrs. Clinton's high-profile presence will help spotlight the often brutal treatment they endure, and help thwart Chinese attempts to restrict press coverage or muzzle those prepared to speak out on China's repressive policies.

Indeed, were Mrs. Clinton to skip the conference, China's leaders might more easily discredit its importance and divert attention from its purpose: the advancement of women. The first lady's conspicuous absence would send the message that the United States gives less-than-high priority to this issue, never mind that women in many countries are still regarded as second-class citizens, if not chattel.

What could and should emerge from this conference is an action plan for increasing women's access to health care and education, and for promoting the important role they must play in economic development and maintaining a sustainable global population. These are issues that should concern all Americans. It doesn't help that the Clintons' political critics are trying to undermine the agenda in Beijing.

North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, the worst mouth in the South, calls the conference ``a smorgasbord for radicals who are constantly fighting against traditional family values.''

Would he include among these "traditional values" the widespread abuses of females - rape, genital mutilation, denial of educational opportunities and health care, domestic violence, enslavement of children - that are often winked away by government authorities as cultural practices that are none of the rest of the world's business?

Mrs. Clinton should speak out forcefully against such practices. Women of the world need assurance that America is their ally in their battle for human rights.

by CNB