Melanne Verveer: “It's about protecting those who are in the path of these horrors that are being perpetrated.”

During the revolutions, women in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya were on the front lines for freedom, dignity, democracy, and economic opportunity.

All those benefits of women's full economic participation I mentioned earlier--stronger, more stable societies--are also in our national interest.

It is a powerful tool, and I hope that the United States can finally put it in our human rights arsenal as well.

I believe that many women woke up with the Arab Spring, and they will not go back to sleep.