News

By Marie-Christine Houle  
 
TORONTO, Canada, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) The following report contains a wide variety of topics. It should serve to demonstrate the interconnectivity of social spheres. The UN typically uses any means possible to impact policies that affect families.

* Climate Change    

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The UNFCCC is opening today in Bali.  Scheduled to conclude on December 14th, the Conference could be used by pro-abortion groups to push an anti-family, anti-life agenda. Typically, the goals of a large part of the environmental movement are at odds with those of the pro-life movement. 

Many environmentalists believe that human beings are the main cause for what they see as the decline of the planet and therefore equate fewer humans with less damage to the environment.  Pro-abortion and family planning organizations are utilizing the environmental platform as a way to promote their anti-life agenda. 

Capitol Resource Institute reported last week that Planned Parenthood is currently co-sponsoring a campaign with the Sierra Club in California. The goal of the Global Population and Environment Program is to “protect the global environment and preserve natural resources for future generations by advancing global reproductive [code word for ‘abortion’] and sustainable development initiatives.” The Conference will be monitored closely. Please consult next week’s UN report for the latest developments.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Human Development Report 2007/2008

The UNDP released its 2007/2008 Human Development Report on Tuesday, November 27th. The 399 page long document is mostly centered on climate change, more precisely on the effects of climate change on the poorest countries and consequently, the responsibility of the developed world to commit to a solution.

The list of recommendations presented in the foreword calls for the integration of adaptation to climate change into all aspects of national planning. It also suggests that the preferred solution should “empower and enable vulnerable people to adapt to climate change by building resilience through investments in social protection, health, education and other measures.”

The term “health” is always used loosely by UN agencies, allowing pro-abortion lobbyists to push for sexual and reproductive health. The document should generate a lot of discussion among international leaders. It will most likely be at the forefront of the discussion during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change mentioned above.

2008 Declared International Year of Sanitation

The UN estimates that 2.6 billion people in the world live without appropriate sanitation. Again many groups may grab this statistic and re-interpret it has meaning that the world is over-populated.

* HIV/ AIDS

Unite for AIDS concert in Montreal

It appears that people remain largely unaware of the fact that UNAIDS revised its estimates of the number of people affected by HIV/AIDS as reported in last week in the LifeSiteNews UN briefing.  Other UN agencies are attempting to revive popular support for the usual AIDS programs. 

Last Wednesday, UNICEF and private enterprise groups co-sponsored a concert at the Bell Centre in Montreal. This type of event can contribute to public misinformation.  It is a noble goal to want to stop the AIDS epidemic and the general public may not look beyond the general sentiment.  People remain unaware that many UN initiatives to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS involve some measures that are anti-family such as the distribution of condoms and explicit, amoral sex-ed programs.

Link between hunger, health and HIV/AIDS

The Associated Press of Pakistan reported that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) released a report last week in an attempt to emphasize the connection between hunger, health and HIV/ AIDS.  The report points out that people suffering from HIV/ AIDS who receive treatment are often undernourished and unable to absorb the benefits of the medications they receive. This new perspective may insure that donor countries remain committed to the still urgent cause despite the revised numbers published by UNAIDS.  However the funds might still be used to promote anti-family programmes related to HIV/ AIDS.

* Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Samantha Singson of C-FAM reported last Friday that the Third Committee of the General Assembly passed a resolution increasing the length and number of CEDAW meetings. Miss Singson explained that, in its concluding comments, the CEDAW Convention has often been used to try to “pressure countries into legalizing abortion”. Many member states have expressed reservation to the Convention, giving them the opportunity to exclude themselves from some provisions of the Convention they may disagree with.  The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution. For more information, click on the following link to access the full article by Samantha Singson: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07112912.html.
 
* Special representative to the secretary general appointed by UN General Assembly to report on violence against children

Following the 18th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN General Assembly decided to engage a special representative to report on violence against children.  In an article published on Merinews Power to People, Narendra Chaurasia said that over 1000 NGOs from around the world signed a petition calling for the appointment of this special representative.  In the piece, Joe Becker of Human Rights Watch, a group promoting sexual and reproductive rights stated that “the special representative of the secretary-general will provide high level international leadership to confront this global curse.” 

Pro-life NGOs tend to oppose the appointment of such representatives as they are seen as more UN bureaucrats likely to oppose the efforts of the pro-life movement to defend life and the family at the UN.