ABORTION OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED AS A HUMAN RIGHT AT UN

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 (LSN) – Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that women’s health, including sexual and reproductive health (i.e. abortion),  was finally acknowledged to be a human right. Sadik made her comments last week to a meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. “The international community’s recognition of that right and the growing understanding of all it implied were among the most notable achievements in human rights since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ”  she said.  Sadik also pointed to the inclusion of the “right” to abortion on demand in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN’s increased power to enforce these “rights.”“In 1998, the world was (sic)  celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights…To mark that anniversary, nothing would be more fitting than to strengthen the role of the United Nations system and the human rights treaty bodies in enabling women to realize their human rights, including the rights to reproductive and sexual health,” she said.  Pro-life, pro-family organizations should consider this to be a very grave development related to all of their efforts to defend life and family. If these UN plans are successfully implemented, all pro-life work, legislation and statements could be seriously challenged in all UN member nations.  The UN’s current efforts to implement a UN Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg with strong enforcement authority add additional cause for alarm. Elizabeth Evatt, of the UN Human Rights Committee, recently stated to an International conference of lawyers in Canberra that it is a violation of the Human Rights of women not to provide “safe” abortions and that the the new court will ensure that there is no immunity from international human rights prosecution.