Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday lamented the loss of Nelson Mandela, whom she called “a giant among us,” while accepting a human rights award.
“He will be certainly remembered for the way he led, his dignity, his extraordinary understanding — not just of how how to bring democracy and freedom to his beloved South Africa, but how important it was that he first brought freedom to himself,” Clinton said as she accepted an award at the Lantos Foundation.
The former secretary of state reflected on the first black South African president’s “extraordinary depth of his self-knowledge,” saying Mandela’s ability to reconcile the various contradictions he embodied — lawyer and freedom fighter, prisoner and leader — had particularly struck her.
Clinton was awarded the 2013 Lantos Prize for her “tireless efforts to promote human rights for women around the world and her groundbreaking work on promoting human rights through Internet freedom,” according to the foundation.
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