News

Tuesday February 29, 2000


Canada, EU & UN On Abortion Pushing Rampage At Beijing+5 Conference

NEW YORK, Feb 29 (LSN.ca) – The 44th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) began yesterday and will run to March 17. Eleven days of the three-week session will be allocated to the Commission acting as the final Preparatory Committee for the General Assembly Special Session, “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century” (Beijing +5). Three main documents were included with the information packages to delegates and together they demonstrate that a major focus of the whole exercise remains the promotion of abortion, “emergency contraception” and sex education for children and adolescents.

The three documents of importance are the report of the UN Secretary General on the review and appraisal of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the proposed outcome document: text, and the Summary of the WomenWatch Online Working Groups on the 12 Critical Areas of Concern.

The Secretary General’s report removes any doubt that within “reproductive health” the UN includes abortion. In a subsection of Kofi Annan’s report entitled “reproductive health” he covers “abortion” noting that “the (Beijing) Platform for Action recommends that laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions be revised (para. 106 k).” He reports that since the Fourth World Conference on Women a few countries have “liberalized” their abortion laws.

Within the same section the Secretary General notes that “the Platform for Action recommends that girls have continuing access to information and services as they mature and recognizes the specific needs of adolescents with regard to education and information on sexual and reproductive health issues and on sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS (para. 106 m, 107 g).”

Annan’s report makes the pro-abortion objective of the process clear as he notes in a section entitled “obstacles in the implementation of the strategic objectives,” that “Criminalization of abortion, and lack of political will, together with social consensus, to change the abortion law, remains a concern.”

The WomenWatch working group paper concurs with Annan’s report noting that one of the ten “obstacles to progress” is “lack of choice regarding reproductive health as a barrier to promotion of women’s health.” Another of the ten “obstacles” repeats the abortion salvo but mentions religion as a causal factor in obstructing “progress.” “The rise of joint religious and political coalitions that have been able to roll back legislation supporting women’s reproductive choice,” says the document. And again the document warns of “The threat to reproductive rights posed by rising religious fundamentalism, prompting the repeal of progressive policies on reproductive rights, particularly in Eastern European countries.”

The proposed outcome document to Beijing +5 concerns “further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.” Viewing the proposed (bracketed) amendments to the document it seems as if the European Union and Canada were in a competition to see which could make more mention of “reproductive health” with Canada the run away winner in the abortion promotion.

For example, under “Achievements” in “Women’s Health” that have taken place since the original Beijing conference Canada seeks to insert specific mention of “emergency contraception” and also wishes to mention “the reaffirmation by Governments to their commitment to promote women’s reproductive health and reproductive rights.” But under “obstacles” Canada looks to include that “the health care services available to refugee women and girls, particularly sexual and reproductive health care, are still not sufficient and severely underfinanced.”

Canada also seeks to include the term “sexual orientation” in the document and deems “lack of access to sexual and reproductive health information, education, and services” an “obstacle” with regard to progress on “the girl child.”

See the Secretary General’s report in pdf at:
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/ecn6-2000-pc2.pdf

See the CSW summary of the WomenWatch working groups in pdf at:
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/ecn6-2000-pc-crp1.pdf

See the proposed outcome document at:
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/outcome.htm NEW YORK, Feb 29 (LSN.ca) – The 44th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) began yesterday and will run to March 17. Eleven days of the three-week session will be allocated to the Commission acting as the final Preparatory Committee for the General Assembly Special Session, “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century” (Beijing +5). Three main documents were included with the information packages to delegates and together they demonstrate that a major focus of the whole exercise remains the promotion of abortion, “emergency contraception” and sex education for children and adolescents.

The three documents of importance are the report of the UN Secretary General on the review and appraisal of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the proposed outcome document: text, and the Summary of the WomenWatch Online Working Groups on the 12 Critical Areas of Concern.

The Secretary General’s report removes any doubt that within “reproductive health” the UN includes abortion. In a subsection of Kofi Annan’s report entitled “reproductive health” he covers “abortion” noting that “the (Beijing) Platform for Action recommends that laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions be revised (para. 106 k).” He reports that since the Fourth World Conference on Women a few countries have “liberalized” their abortion laws.

Within the same section the Secretary General notes that “the Platform for Action recommends that girls have continuing access to information and services as they mature and recognizes the specific needs of adolescents with regard to education and information on sexual and reproductive health issues and on sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS (para. 106 m, 107 g).”

Annan’s report makes the pro-abortion objective of the process clear as he notes in a section entitled “obstacles in the implementation of the strategic objectives,” that “Criminalization of abortion, and lack of political will, together with social consensus, to change the abortion law, remains a concern.”

The WomenWatch working group paper concurs with Annan’s report noting that one of the ten “obstacles to progress” is “lack of choice regarding reproductive health as a barrier to promotion of women’s health.” Another of the ten “obstacles” repeats the abortion salvo but mentions religion as a causal factor in obstructing “progress.” “The rise of joint religious and political coalitions that have been able to roll back legislation supporting women’s reproductive choice,” says the document. And again the document warns of “The threat to reproductive rights posed by rising religious fundamentalism, prompting the repeal of progressive policies on reproductive rights, particularly in Eastern European countries.”

The proposed outcome document to Beijing +5 concerns “further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.” Viewing the proposed (bracketed) amendments to the document it seems as if the European Union and Canada were in a competition to see which could make more mention of “reproductive health” with Canada the run away winner in the abortion promotion.

For example, under “Achievements” in “Women’s Health” that have taken place since the original Beijing conference Canada seeks to insert specific mention of “emergency contraception” and also wishes to mention “the reaffirmation by Governments to their commitment to promote women’s reproductive health and reproductive rights.” But under “obstacles” Canada looks to include that “the health care services available to refugee women and girls, particularly sexual and reproductive health care, are still not sufficient and severely underfinanced.”

Canada also seeks to include the term “sexual orientation” in the document and deems “lack of access to sexual and reproductive health information, education, and services” an “obstacle” with regard to progress on “the girl child.”

See the Secretary General’s report in pdf at:
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/ecn6-2000-pc2.pdf

See the CSW summary of the WomenWatch working groups in pdf at:
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/ecn6-2000-pc-crp1.pdf

See the proposed outcome document at:
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/outcome.htm


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