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United Nations Now Questions Pro-Life Malta and Chile on Abortion Availability

GENEVA, November 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A United Nations committee has asked two of the five countries in the world which prohibit all abortions to detail their abortion policies. Pro-life leaders on the international scene are concerned about the development, particularly since the same UN committee has told other countries which protect unborn children to legalize abortion.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is considering the reports of Chile and Malta and will make recommendations to the countries on November 26.

Based on compliance reports from the countries it monitors, the committee addresses its concerns to countries as a "list of issues". The topic of abortion comes up in the "list of issues" regarding both pro-life countries. Of note, the committee is also considering the report of Denmark which permits abortion, however abortion is not listed in the committee's "list of issues" with Denmark.

Pro-life leaders are concerned with the committee's line of questioning, especially considering previous statements by the committee urging other pro-life countries to liberalize abortion laws. "In light of what has happened in the past I'm very concerned," Jim Hughes, the Vice President of International Right to Life Federation, told LifeSiteNews.com. "Once again we're seeing an attempt by outsiders to affect the democratic rights of free people."

In 2001, the CESCR committee urged Senegal, Panama and Nepal to liberalize abortion laws. (see LifeSiteNews.com coverage http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/sep/01090601.html )

The members of this committee and their countries of origin follow:

Mr. Clement Atangana (Cameroon);
Mr. Rocío Barahona Riera (Costa Rica)
Ms. Virginia Bonoan-Dandan (Chairperson - Philippines)
Ms. Maria Virginia Bras Gomes (Portugal)
Mr. Dumitru Ceausu (Romania)
Mr. Abdessatar Grissa (Tunisia)
Ms. Chokila Iyer (India)
Mr. Azzouz Kerdoun (Algeria)
Mr. Yuri Kolovsov (Russian Federation)
Mr. Giorgio Malinverni (Switzerland)
Mr. Jaime Marchan Romero (Vice-Chairperson - Ecuador)
Mr. Sergei Martynov (Belarus)
Mr. Ariranga Govindasamy Pillay (Mauritius)
Mr. Kenneth Osborne Rattray (Jamaica)
Mr. Eibe Riedel (Germany)
Mr. Walid Sa'di (Jordan)
Mr. Philippe Texier (France)
Mr. Alvaro Tirado Mejia (Colombia)

For more information on the committee members see:
(copy and paste URL into address bar)

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/895cc497384d43e6c1256e5f0050924b?Opendocument

See the UN committee's list of issues with Malta and Chile:
(copy and paste URL into address bar)

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/E.C.12.Q.MLT.1.En?Opendocument

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/E.C.12.Q.CHL.1.Fr?Opendocument

See Abortion-Pushing UN Committee Must be Held Accountable
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/041110a.html

jhw

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