Politics
Thursday July 22, 2004
Malta Stands Fast against UN Feminist Offensive
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
NEW YORK, July 22, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has met with the Maltese delegation to continue discussion of that country's compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Malta entered and maintains a set of 'reservations' to the full implementation of the treaty, which it ratified in 1991. Abortion is illegal in overwhelmingly Catholic Malta and the Maltese appear determined to keep it that way.
The Committee met again with the Maltese representatives on July 19th to hear replies to questions posed to it on July 13th. The Committee is putting the pressure on to adopt the so-called Optional Protocol of the treaty, which, once signed, would forbid Malta to make further reservations to the Commitee's demands, including abortion.
Sina Bugeja, of the Maltese Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity, said that it was not the Government's intention to transpose the Convention into domestic legislation. Bugeja noted that the Convention itself gave States the right to make reservations. She said that Malta was among over 55 States that had entered reservations to the Convention, and it was exercising its right as a sovereign State to do so. The Government was currently considering signing the Convention's Optional Protocol, she added.
However the UN 'experts' were not satisfied with the right of a sovereign state to make laws according to the wishes of its population. A UN report of the meeting shows the gathered experts pressuring the Maltese to "reconsider" their reservations about instituting abortion on demand. Committee Vice-Chairperson Heisoo Shin, the expert from the Republic of Korea urged the Maltese delegation to adopt the Optional Protocol.
Bugeja responded that one reservation had been entered to allow for legislation considered necessary to protect the health and safety of the woman or the human fetus. Furthermore, Bugeja was forthright in saying that the reservation to article 16 on marriage and family life had been intended to leave no room for interpreting the provisions of that article as an obligation by Malta to legalize abortion.
Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jul/04071503.html
ph
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.