The Georgian was a campaigner for human rights, democracy and public health – and a devoted husband. It was the spring of 2014 and I was at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington to interview Jimmy Carter. The former president had just published a new book on women’s rights and was keen to make his case. The abuse of women and girls was, he believed, the worst human rights violation of the time and he was determined to issue a global call to action on the subject.
He argued passionately and eloquently, rolling though a litany of abuses women and girls around the world face: rape and violence in war, trafficking, infanticide and, in his own country, an epidemic of sexual assault at universities. “This is something on which I’m going to continue to work with a very high degree of my priority for the rest of my life,” he said.
It was typical of a man who, more than any other US leader, showed that the crowning achievements of a career could come after having the most powerful job in the world rather than during it. And they were no small achievements: Carter was, by general consensus, a tireless campaigner for human rights, democracy and, perhaps most significantly, global public health.
His Carter Foundation, set up by the former president and his wife, Rosalynn, in 1982 – a year after he left the White House – has worked for nearly four decades to eradicate the painful and debilitating Guinea worm disease. An estimated 3.5 million people in 20 countries were afflicted in 1986 when his foundation launched the campaign. Last year, 14 human cases were reported.
