Since 1988. She is assisting on human rights. Ssues karen has been the heart and soul of the human rights and deborah so its a giant treat to have karen here and i know you wee heard this before but are also blessed to have john pulitzerere who was a prizewinning biographer and contributor to the New York Times book review. They print periodicals. [laughter] he is a professor at Vanderbilt University from chattanooga. There is a border dispute between georgia and tennessee but we are pleased he is from north georgia. [laughter] [applause] you are obviously not running this year. Im not running in tennessee, thats for sure. He has embarked on a project in addition to the numerous books he has written and have been bestsellers and Pulitzer Prize winners, his last year, he published the soul of america, the battle for our better angels and that project i think along , may bein this group better than introducing you to them, introduce him to you and i will introduce you them to you which is to say this is a group of people who share your desire to find out what it is and to remember what it is our countries based on and that soul israel. We believe the Carter Center has a special place. Based on that soul here. Do, as we get ready he is ready for the spotlight again. We will have a Panel Discussion but as an introduction, there is video we will show very briefly that highlights the work of the human rights defenders that the Carter Center supports. As i said yesterday, the Carter Center has done its very best to only but on ideals ideals as put into practice and to support the people who on the ground every day, day in and day out are fighting the battles for human rights in their own communities. I think these examples are remarkable. You will hear more about them but i will show the video briefly about the human rights defenders and then john meacham will direct the rest of the panel. There will be time for questions that have been preasked so once we get there, we will let them go for a while. After we have had to many questions. Very much for being here. Im excited about the panel. [applause] bowies heroes] [applause] mr. Meacham as a tennessean, i am the diversity. I appreciate it very much but i think we should all be honest that the only reason we are here is because of mrs. Carter. So thank you. [applause] i know its the only reason you got the card. Start with a little bit of whats happening right now. Im interested, mr. President in your views at whats happening at the u. S. Mexico border with family separation and your reaction to what we are seeing their and what you think ordinary americans can do about it. President carter every day, we send a graceful signal around the world that this is what the president and the United States government stands for and that is torture and kidnapping of those children, separation from the parents and deprivation of those who are incarcerated and there are thousands of unknown children still incarcerated that has not been revealed by the government. Try to think of what isis is doing. Its a disgrace to the United States and i hope it will soon 2020ded, maybe not until elections. Im not sure. Hopefully as we change president s. 4 would mr. Meacham it be basic political activism that you would advise people worried about it . Should they just tried to change the president . President carter i think everyone in the United States should take the same position and for human rights, the basic measurement of how governments are performing, that would be the best thing to do. What we would do is apply human rights in the finest and most precise way we can and as fulfilling as we can to comply with the universal declaration as soon as possible. If you apply the basic human rights standards to every instance that happens in diplomacy and everyday life, that would be the best thing for the United States to do and i hope all americans will take us up. Mr. Meacham what would a Carter Mondale administration how would the administration have by saudio the murder arabia of Jamal Khashoggi . Believe wearter i would have demanded a complete high aboutut how high up the orders came from. As you know, they sent about 15 where he the embassy was destined to be, scheduled to be, and he apparently they killed him and cut them up in little pieces and buried him in an unknown place. That could only have been done under the orders from some of the highest people in any government. I would demand an accounting for that will stop when i was president , we tried to put human rights as a measuring stick in every incidents. We didnt always succeed but thats what our effort was. Mr. Meacham one more off the top of the news and then we will dive in. Proven to have interfered with one of our human rights which is the right of free and fair elections. What is your reaction . How should we deal with that . President carter the president himself should condemn it and which 16happened intelligence agencies of already agreed to and there is dont doubt that the russians did interfere in the election. I think the interference, though not yet quantified, should be fully investigated would show its from the election in 2016. He was put into office because the russians interfered. On his behalf. You say President Trump is an illegitimate president . [laughter] i can retracter what i just said. [laughter] [applause] mr. Meacham having made news [laughter] lets talk about eleanor roosevelt. [laughter] which to me is news. Talk about your interest in human rights, give them both your background in the segregated south and your International Experience in the navy, heading into your public career. I grew up in ar Little Village in georgia which had about 50 families. My family was the only one that was white. All the rest of them were africanamerican. I grew up completely immersed in africanamerican culture, black culture. As a little child, i could see that there was a great differentiation between white and black. My mother was a registered nurse and never paid any attention to segregation, she treated everyone the same. She was part of the medical establishment in plains, georgia so she was impervious to this. Grew up in that environment and later, i became chairman of the board of education in our county. I demanded that the other Board Members go to visit schools and to see whats going on. Kidsund that the black as close aso school they could to where they live because they did not have school buses. White kids had school buses but black kids didnt. Gotafricanamerican kids handmedown textbooks, inferior schools. The board of education later insisted that africanamericans get textbooks, too. So when they finally got a few everybody saw the school buses carrying children and they knew this was being done and segregation started to go away. So thats how i grew up. It was a completely segregated area. I went into the navy when i was 18 years old. I went to georgia tech at naval rotc and i eventually got into submarines. I was in a submarine in 1948. Harry truman was commanderinchief and president and who i still think of the best president who has lived in my own lifetime. Ordainedarry truman that racial segregation be abolished and in all the military sort services. It so because of transition an easy on my submarine and other ships around me and how much benefited brought to everybody and the attitude toward one another, fellow citizens and fellow navy men equally. That was a very good test seven or eight years before Martin Luther king jr. Became famous or rosa parks. Harry truman was the one that broke the ice and started desegregation america. Mr. Meacham your religious upbringing must of been essential. President carter it was. I grew up also immersed in a church in plains which was baptist and my father was a sunday School Teacher and we went through many parts of the bible. I was a particularly the sermon on the mount and the chapter of matthew. Essence ofs out the what is presently known as universal human rights. He spelled out the proper relationship between the powerful and the week, between the jews and gentiles, between men and women and he said everybody should be treated equally. That was the foundation of what said and itevelt evolved into the universal declaration of human rights. There are times in Human History where the United States has gone through all the basic measure of revisions and struck at the andnce of the primary moral ethical values are and put them terms but also semilegal terms which was in the development of the declaration of human rights. That has never happened before or since in history. Im afraid that now they are being abandoned around the world. The Carter Center is fighting against that every day. Mr. Meacham when you were running for president in 1975 and 1976, did you know that the asan rights agenda would be central to you if you got there . President carter i did. I would say when i became president , during my term, there was a general sigh of relief in america that finally we have resolved racism and gotten over years of slavery and 100 years of official and legal discrimination by white people against black people. The kind of had a sigh of relief but lately, with developments in the white house and other places, its become a very burning issue again. There is a great deal of discrimination and racial animosity that is evolving and come to the forefront again. One of the demonstrations of that is not only between africanamericans and why people but we have seen that on television lately. Also at the border. We assume someone trying to come to our country like my grandparents did many years ago is inferior to those who are longestablished here like i am. That discrimination against newcomers to our country is another indication of a serious in ourights mistake country that is being promulgated worldwide. We are all entitled to some basic human rights. Without being embarrassed about it. Mr. Meacham one of the things you hear and i agree with as abouts when people say the current moment, this is not who we are. It kind of is. Right . Tension, we are southerners and faulkner was right, the pass is never dead and its not even past. President carter thats right. Mr. Meacham when i look at your you are annk about army on the right side of this in this perennial struggle between our better angels and worst instincts. But its never on this side of paradise going to be resolved. To thinko thank is there a benefit to us being more honest about our worst instincts . And racism and xenophobia isolationism and nativism are parts of the american character . And our struggle is to make them ebb as opposed to flow . President carter that certainly is part of our political situation. Past, overcoming slavery and overcoming racial ,iscrimination of 400 years slavery was officially abolished, its a way for the United States to correct its longstanding mistakes. Sometimes, its not easy to do it, to face altercation in our country. Luckily, this time instead of having a civil war, we are having a war of political factions. Partyeral, the democratic is now standing on the side of ofsenting the finest aspect American Civil Rights is to the hope our party will continue to show everyone in the United States and around the world is equal to everybody else not only in the eyes of human beings but also in the eyes of god. Mr. Meacham mr. Vice president , can i ask you we talked about 1948 which in many ways is a huge Inflection Point in the formation of the human rights question. You have the declaration with mrs. Roosevelt, you had the of the Democratic Party after fellow minnesota and said the party had to walk out of the shadows into the sunlight of civil rights which sent Strom Thurmond back to the selfprofessed. Can you talk about your upbringing in minnesota and how you were shaped in these signed inand when you with president carter, did you know this was a lifetime gig . [laughter] Vice President mondale i do now. [applause] Vice President mondale our upbringings were different. There were a lot of similarities. My dad was a farmer and a minister. Was a devout methodist. He would give three sermons every sunday morning. Mr. Meacham 3 . Vice president mondale in these little towns and i would go to sunday school, wednesday night prayer and dinner and then i would sweep and cleanup the church. That was my religious leadership. [laughter] not bad preparation for the Vice President. [laughter] Vice President mondale yes, i was sweeping around there. Youre not being helpful. [laughter] mr. Meacham i will be quiet now. Vice president mondale one of found mostthat i impressive about our years together was how much our suited us to Work Together even with anybody briefing us. Cartersven though background from the south was different, it was very similar. We had 125 years without a southern president until jimmy carter. The difference was, he stood for civil rights. And one of the great contributions to human rights in our country and in the world was in thesonal courage small town in southern georgia, standing up for civil rights when it was not the thing to do. Houseoing into the white and speaking up for human rights and filling in the blanks of what america should do as the leader in the world of human rights. It was my privilege over those four years to try to work with the president as he led us in this remarkable direction which nota precedent which is perfectly complied with today but it made a difference which still has a big effect in the world. Thinkacham when you back, is there an example or two you would point is to or a case study about how we should be doing this . Vice president mondale i thought the boat people issue was a good issue about human rights leadership. The vietnamese communist government decided to push their citizens of chinese ethnic on seaworthy sea boats. Many of them lost their lives as a result. Carter tried to intervene in a positive way to provide an alternative for these boat people to live a decent life. President carter we were trying to admit 12,000 per month of the refugees, you might say, from the vietnam war. A lot ofident mondale them were drowning at sea and we got the navy to go out and pick these people up. It wasnt a very popular thing at the time but i think of proved to be a great step forward. These poorhing was then the boat saw American Navy trying to help them and save their lives and set them on a new way. I dont think they will ever get over that. That was carters leadership. [applause] mr. Meacham when you went up to the hill to talk to your former colleagues about these kind of issues, did they get it . Vice president mondale some of them did and some of them still havent gotten it. [laughter] Vice President mondale we had to work on it but we have pretty good support on the hill, i would say in both parties. As one of the positive members i positive memories of that time, we spent a lot of time the main people the main thing is that senators are afraid of it. They say you are right and i know youre right but ive got to get elected and this will not be very popular. Themember we get some of come i can remember a couple of them said im going to vote for you but im going to lose the election and i want president carter to put me on the federal bench afterwards. [laughter] mr. Meacham so the jobs broker. Vice president mondale yeah,. President carter and a lot of is voted for us and lost. Vice president mondale i think them lost their seats. Mr. Meacham what about latin america . I thinksident mondale this is maybe where we first proved the depth and breadthth of the president s program and it began with the panama canal issue. What second to do it human rights . That was a symbol of colonial rule for 100 years or more. We had run not place our way. We would employ the locals but they had no role in the policy or leadership of the program or management of the program. The president went out and said we are going to let the people of panama run this program. We will help them and we need the right to come back in if our security is imperiled. That worked very well. Its working well now. It wasnt going to work. I remember the general in charge of our troops down there said there is no point in trying to stay on here with military force because there is so much anger about us that we cannot do it. So that has worked and its been very successful. Hill and go up on the lobby a lot and push a lot but it got done. That broughtter about beneficial changes in latin america. Office, z and i got an 2 3 of the countries in south america were under dictatorships, military dictatorships mostly. All of the praise he is president s in the administration had been in bed with military dictators because they got from bauxite and bananas and pineapples and so forth. Charge wouldin send their children to west point so it was a close relationship. I took the other way around and rights. Implement human years, every eight country in south america was a democracy. That was a profound and very rapid change from one form of government to another. The people down there brought it about. [applause] one for you and then we will go to dr. Ryan. World watching around the given thenalism, what affect does that have on the human rights agenda and what do you wish can do . Folks what can i do to participate to push back against that . President carter the Carter Center has made a very thorough analysis of whats happened to human rights on a global basis after 9 11. Was an unprovoked attack against the United States. , and some off 9 11 this is excusable i guess, would have been in a war now for over 15 years in afghanistan. We have also greater restriction of privacy of the average american citizen. Have passed, that has changed. We have abandoned some of the basic principles of human rights that have been promulgated in the geneva conventions. Ways, the wouldbe human rights violators in Foreign Countries used to be restrained as america was restrained. We have had that restraint lifted and they have become abusive more than they would have because the United States is no longer the champion of human rights. Vice president mondale i think its that but i also think you see a cheerleader in the president of the is right wing surge that has occurred in the world. Loves our current leaders, has contempt for democratic leaders, his rhetoric is harsh, his divisiveness, all is kind of a hateful thrust. We are going to the right as a result. Ive never seen a republican president in my lifetime do anything like that. Its not about party politics. Hes got something deep inside him that is detestable. [laughter] [applause] mr. Meacham is he a symptom or a cause . Vice president mondale i think he is both. Generis. We have never had a person like this even near the white house. Me that they think they recognize symptoms of psychiatric psychological problems and him. You can almost predict now what he will do. It will be about him, he will celebrate him, he will be right and we will be wrong no matter what goes on, thats what he does. There is some need and him to do that. I think yourter just stated the headlines. [laughter] mr. Meacham let me put it this of, jody would have a hell an afternoon. Dr. Ryan, take us to a high level here . [laughter] you for let me thank the phd which is the quickest and easiest and cheapest thd in history. Back to president carters remarks and Vice President mondale about the genesis one of the things president carter did in his time is when he decided to make human rights the centerpiece was to sign the United Nations human rights treaty. Before this time, there was a doctrine that said the u. S. Should never submit its sovereignty or subject its sovereignty to the u. N. By signing those treaties, he said we, the United States, will go on equal basis and put ourselves on equal basis with other nations and human rights. This is an extremely significant shift. His presidency also invested in the u. N. , human rights office, that became the u. N. High commission for human rights so this was an investment in the global Norm Development of human rights that president carter and Walter Mondale both committed to and acted on. This is significant. What was happening at the same time was the human rights and Amnesty International is given the nobel prize in 1977 during the Carter Administration. There was really an upsurge of a human rights movement. President carter and his administration injected that movement with energy, with moral support, morale, and your thing he did mentioned latin america, this was our hemisphere yet he sent pat derrian the assistant secretary for human rights who was an amazing champion human rights and i see some of her colleagues here. They brought that message to the dictatorships in latin america. In fact, pat threatened military support to argentina if the disappeared people did not reappear and they did. They reappeared alive because of that threat of withholding military support. Atlanta a professor in who came and told us that i was one of the 3000 that would have an hadnt if pat derri gone down and pounded her first. Not just by rhetoric but by real action, the Carter Administration made such an important difference in latin america. This was during the cold war. Not only did president carter write a handwritten letter to andre sakharov, the soviet dissident. This was in a country that was an adversary, he held our allies to the same standards at least in our hemisphere and he held our allies to that same standard and in our own country. What that did was that created a normative framework based on legitimacy and credibility so that human rights activists around the world could really say human rights is the universalwe are not agents of t. We are part of a global movement. That continued as president carter said until 9 11 when that trajectory a positive development shifted to a negative trajectory because of torture, indefinite detention, assassination policy, etc. , and the war in iraq. This is what were dealing with the fabric ofving human rights throughout the world. Bringondale if i could up an issue, we were having trouble in south africa. The apartheid come allwhite antiblack government were not africans,et black fellow citizens be part of the public process. And the president sent me to to meet it was a terrible assignment. [laughter] i spent three days debating with him about what his government should open up and get rid of discrimination. Actor. A really bad that is another story. [laughter] but he had once praised adolph hitler. This was not good material. We really pressed him. Office, we did not get it done, but we started something there in africa that did make a difference. They heard us. It encouraged citizens throughout africa to believe that they, too, had a right to participate in the public life for their country. And a lot of progress occurred because of that example. Jon mr. President . Carter one other aspect of human rights that has not been mentioned is the right of people to live in peace. Unfortunately, not just under trump, but a long time our country has been the foremost warlike country on earth. I had in my sunday School Lesson a few sundays ago, i looked it up on google, the United States has been a country now for about 242 years. We have been completely at peace 16 years. We have been at war with somebody 242 years. That is another thing he asked ask about, a symptom or a cause. If the American People did not war was ok to go to work in order to expand americans influence on global affairs, then we would not do that because most president s look on going to war and crisis as a way for them to change from a very beleaguered civilian administrator to the commanderinchief. Problem war is prevalent in our country. 16 years out of 242 years total. V. P. Mondale under our four years, we started no worse, we did not shoot a gun at anybody. It was a time when we sought to find peaceful answers. [applause] jon do you believe that it has been 40 years or so. One of the factors that is clearly shaping both governance and the life of the governed, is the the digital and packaging of news as inner attainment, as partisan entertainment . And some of this goes back. Begins during the hostage situation, so there is a very thin line. Do acknowledge what do you make of the point that we almost spend too much time engaged in ongoing partisan strife and not enough time thinking about the underlying questions . Pres. Carter i think the rymandering and the mess court made toreme barry sears mistakes. One of them just yesterday. This has caused our country to before, i said this change from a democracy to other the accuracy, where money is prevailing factor. Theocracy. Say jon the money. Pres. Carter the money infusion and the gerrymandering of a person has meant running for office, they have to see how much money they can raise and when they get an office, whether democrat or republican, they then want to show some favor to the people that helped them to get into office. It has become a matter of our country not responding to the average working people in our country, but to the richest and most powerful already. Court ruled supreme yesterday that local governments could redesign their districts without appeal to the higher courts . Did i understand that . Moreis going to open up and more of these manipulation of districts and frustration gerry by the way. We do not pronounce his name right. It drives me crazy. Im the only person who cares, including the gerry family. Anyway. It throughout the 14th amendment argument that partisan gerrymandering violates equal protection. Mondale that is going to be real trouble. Jon that is a case of technology. A remember covering the georgia redistricting in 1990 or so and and they big pieces have these big pieces of paper in a can go out and pick one house. Theres dont center for compromise. No political incentive. Let me ask a question, two questions, if i may, from the audience. This is from ross cooper to president carter. What steps should a new president take immediately to restore the moral authority of the United States on human rights . Pres. Carter this president or jon a new president. [laughter] and if you want to make any projections on that. Pres. Carter i go with what the candidates have said in the debate. All the orders president has issued considering the border affairs, but also to announce we will reenter the affairs accord as full participants in preventing global warming, becoming a crisis. And also that we are going to participate with other countries in other aspects of human rights. I would say those would be the first things that you can do with executive order. A lot of what trump has done, it is damaged our countrys reputation. He is very proud. Jon oh, yes. Dr. Ryan, im going to stick with that. It is very tom clancy. I dont know why you are upset [laughter] jon what you consider the most significant human rights achievement in the past 30 years . Globally . The u. S. Or jon this is alicia smith. Do you want to amend your question . Ryan the u. S. Until 9 11, was human rights champions all over the world. Funding, support, moral support. And that continues despite the because a few days ago there was a few there was an election in his symbol. Ogans party lost the second round. This is an indication that democracy movements are still there, not going to be deterred, were going to win this over time. At the issue we have to ask ourselves is, what can we do now , and in the u. S. I would look to the next to administration because this one is not willing to do it, too fund human rights peacests directly, Fund Builders who are out there trying to make peace in the trenches. This is a philosophy of the Carter Center, that we believe the people can solve their own problems if we go into partnership with them and recognize it is their societies to fix. We are to do our part. We have to stop waging war and stop abusing the power that we have in negative ways. That is important. We have immense power. We have to use a correctly. If we do, we will make a huge anderence in both peace human rights. Jon mr. Vice president , if a young senator came to you and said, what is the most important piece of advice you can give me, what would you say . Pres. Co. Lets be heard on human rights, lets be heard on justice, lets be heard on fairness, lets be heard on those issues that can disappear unless they have champions. A single senator, if they get there arend work very few offices where that can be said. The presidency, of course. The house, less so. , the senate can make a big difference. I had another senator in mind. [laughter] jon as mark twain said, he became Vice President and was never heard from again. Mr. President , im going to use a biblical analogy. It is been 40 years, so like moses, do you have a song for us . Benedictionnd of for what the country, what the world could be should be doing . Pres. Carter i happen to be a christian, and i would say follow the principles of the universal declaration of human rights or jesus sermon on the mount. I dont see new distinction between the two. They seem to be quite compatible to me. And the other is islam and judaism. That moral and ethical standards. I think theyre all compatible with the basic for doubles of the universal compatible with universal declaration of human rights. Jon one of the things ive always admired about president carter, the of a graph to why not the best, from reinhold niebuhr, can you quote it . Pres. Carter established justice in a central world. Jon in a sinful world. A very few in this generation of done to fulfill that duty as you. Thank you, sir. [applause] we would like to ask you to stay in your seats for just a minute so we can get the special guests out. After that, we would like to see you in the golf clubhouse, as yesterday, for lunch. If you will give us a second, then had to the golf course. That is a pretty easy set of instructions to follow. We very much appreciate it. Thank you all very much, jon, and everyone else, a fantastic panel. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] World Leaders are gathered in japan for the g20 summit. Later today, President Trump will be meeting with president xi jinping of china. On saturday, he will meet wit