LOS ANGELES -- About 10 years ago Hillary Clinton delivered a seminal address in Beijing at the United Nations' 4th World Conference on Woman. The then-first lady stirred the international delegates by articulating a more inclusive definition of human rights. Bluntly put: "Human rights are women's rights," she said famously, "And women's rights are human rights."
It was one of the best speeches I had heard in a long time, especially about what I had thought was an old and settled issue. Even so, she pulled no punches whether it was in condemning female genital mutilation in Africa or forced abortions in China.
I was wrong, of course -- the issue of women's rights was neither settled then, nor is it settled now, certainly not in Asia.