Politics
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Thursday January 24, 2002
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PrintUN WOMEN'S COMMITTEE 'EXPERT' ADMITS ABORTION "HAZARDOUS TO WOMEN'S HEALTH"
TODAY'S HEADLINES
Abortion Said to be "Not Part of Women's Reproductive Rights"
NEW YORK, January 24, 2002 (LSN.ca) - In an initial report on Estonia by the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, one of the 23 UN 'experts' said, "abortions in many cases were hazardous to women's health." In responding to Estonia's report on its compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the 'expert' (unnamed in the UN report) noted that "Aside from physical complications, termination of pregnancy could entail psychological problems. It could also lead to infertility."
The UN report goes on to tackle "family life" with one 'expert' noting the high divorce rates in Estonia and asking "Were efforts being made to reconcile spouses? Because marriage helped to stabilize society, this trend was worrisome."
Kaye Balmforth, an attorney and expert in International Human Rights, who has followed CEDAW's workings for many years told LifeSite she was surprised by the report. "If this stands, it will be the first truly realistic and sensible comment on family life and abortion that I have seen in a CEDAW report," said Balmforth. In her former position as executive director of the World Family Policy Center at Brigham Young University she had called for close scrutiny of CEDAW.
While these few noted comments near the very end of the report are encouraging, the many other statements from 'experts' exhibit the old UN extreme feminism which has been characteristic of CEDAW reports for many years. However, the mere mentioning of some sensible suggestions by the UN Committee is encouraging to those who have been working for years to that end.
Pat Fagan, with the Heritage Foundation has written several reports detailing the usually strident anti-life and anti-family CEDAW Committee. "It is great to see that the conservative critique of the work of the office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights is having some effect," Fagan told LifeSite. "They are beginning to be guided by what the data says on marriage and family rather than radical ideology."
The UN report says "several experts expressed deep concern over the statement in the report that women's reproductive rights were protected by the Termination of Pregnancy and Sterilization Act. It was inconceivable that there were 98 abortions for every 100 births." An expert told the Estonian representative that "As far as the Convention was concerned, however, abortion was not a part of women's reproductive rights." This is not at all the interpretation that has held by 'experts' in CEDAW reports on other countries.
See the full initial report of the committee on Estonia at:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/WOM1312.doc.htm
See - U.S. SENATOR CONFIRMS CEDAW ALL ABOUT ENFORCING ABORTION
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/mar/00031301.html
UN CEDAW COMMITTEE BADGERS BURUNDI TO ALLOW ABORTION
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jan/01011804.html
Back to TopINTERNATIONAL HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST GROUP DENIED REINSTATEMENT TO UN STATUS
Canada, U.S. and Other Countries Advocate for Homosexual Group Linked to Pedophilia
NEW YORK, January 24, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The International Gay and Lesbian Association (ILGA) was denied a recommendation for reinstatement of its consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council yesterday. The vote in the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to reject the group was 8-6 and came after a heated debate that spanned the morning and afternoon meetings. Much of the controversy in the questioning period revolved around the weakness of the organization's condemnation of pedophilia and ties to organizations which promote it - the same issues which caused the suspension of the IGLA's consultative status in 1995.
Voting to reject the recommendation for consultative status this afternoon were: the Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, China, Ethiopia, Lebanon and Pakistan. Voting against that rejection were Romania, the United States, Bolivia, Chile, France and Germany. Turkey, Algeria, Colombia, Cuba and India abstained from voting. The U.S. vote in favour of ILGA was surprising given that U.S. UN delegations have been following a much more pro-family line under President Bush.
The representatives of Egypt and Syria, speaking as observers, expressed deep concern about IGLA's relations with the notorious pedophilia promoting group "Man-Boy Love Association," ties which the IGLA representative claimed were severed in 1997. The organization was questioned on its condemnations of pedophilia, and its opposition to age-of-consent laws and restrictions on juvenile sexuality. After hearing the organization's explanations, the representative of Sudan said that crystal-clear proof of its opposition to pedophilia had not been provided.
However, the representative of Canada jumped to the homosexual activist group's defence. She protested that questions were focusing on the past and attempted to switch the topic to the group's activities to stop the spread of AIDS. France also spoke in favour of the IGLA saying that its goals were the same as the UN's. The United States, objected to taking a vote on the matter but its objection was voted down. Chile, Germany, Bolivia, Colombia and Romania also said they regretted the fact that more time was not given for evidence-gathering and for consensus to be reached.
LifeSite reported in June last year that the IGLA demanded that the UN racism treaty ban media broadcasts critical of homosexuality.
See related LifeSite coverage:
INTERNATIONAL GAY ASSOCIATION DEMANDS THAT UN CENSOR MEDIA
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/june/0106155 .html
See the UN report on IGLA's rejection:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/NGO455.doc.htm
CHINESE WOMAN WHO UNDERWENT FORCED ABORTION ACCUSES UNFPA
WASHINGTON, January 24, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A woman who was forced to have an abortion before she fled China and another woman who was a former "family planning administrator" in China together accused the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) of supporting forced abortion in China, at a press conference today. The presentation comes as the Bush administration is under pressure from abortion advocates to release $34 million in funding to the UNFPA this year.
Mrs. Ma Dong Fan testified that after being forced to have an abortion and given an IUD without her knowledge, she was then forced to have Norplant implanted before she fled China. She was joined by Mrs. Gao Xiao Duan, a former Administrator of a Planned Birth Control Office in the People's Republic of China, who recounted the brutality she was part of in enforcing China's one-child program.
From 1984 to 1998, Mrs. Gao was employed at the office in Yonghe Town, Jinjiang Municipality, Fujian Province, where she administered the region's coercive population control policies. She described horrific human-rights abuses, including forced abortions and sterilizations, the killing of live-born babies, the imprisonment of offending women, and the destruction of their homes. In testimony before US Congressman in 1998, Gao confessed "I did so many brutal things.... All those...years I was a monster... injuring others by carrying out the Chinese Communist authorities' barbaric planned birth policy."
Also at the press conference were:
- Republican Rep Chris Smith, Chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, who recently wrote President Bush to halt UNFPA funding due to their complicity in China's coercive population control policies.
- John Aird -- A former specialist on demographic developments and China's population control policies while at the United States Census Bureau, Mr. Aird's 40-plus year career makes him a leading authority on the population control tactics of China. He now works as a consultant providing expert testimony on asylum cases related to China's forced abortion and sterilization programs.
- Harry Wu -- Director of the Laogai Research Foundation, he is an advocate for human rights in China
- Steven W. Mosher - President of the Population Research Institute (PRI), Mr. Mosher was the first social scientist permitted to study in mainland China. As an anthropologist with Stanford University, Mosher was the first western eye-witness of China's one-child policy. He recently organized an investigation of coercive abortion and coercive sterilization in counties in China where UNFPA operates.
See related LifeSite coverage:
PRESIDENT BUSH PLACES UNFPA FUNDS ON HOLD, PRO-LIFERS HOPEFUL
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jan/02011403.html
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