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She is currently living in New York City

Washington (CNN) First lady Melania Trump called for women's empowerment and celebration of diversity in rare remarks Wednesday morning at the State Department.

"As leaders of our shared global economy, we must continue to work towards gender empowerment and respect for people from all backgrounds and ethnicities, remembering always that we are all ultimately members of one race, the human race. Each one of us is uniquely different," Trump said, honoring 12 women at the 2017 Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Awards.

The awards honor women across the globe who have overcome injustice -- from domestic violence to environmental disaster to gender bias to acid attacks -- and gone on to transform their societies, often in the face of personal danger.

"We must continue once again to shine a light on the horrendous atrocities taking place around the corner and around the globe," Trump said. "We must continue to fight injustice in all its forms, in whatever scale or shape it takes in our lives. Together, we must declare that the era of allowing brutality against women and children is over, while affirming that the time for empowering women around the world is now. For wherever women are diminished, the entire world is diminished with them."

Wednesday's event was Trump's first formal on-camera speech since her husband took office. She made brief remarks thanking attendees at an inaugural ball and though she gave a speech at the White House on International Women's Day, reporters were escorted out of the room before she spoke. The State Department event comes as she continues to slowly embrace her first lady spotlight.