By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent
NEW YORK, May 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sweden and Finland, joined by UN-affiliated “human rights” groups, are urging Chile to decriminalize abortion as part of a series of recommendations made to the country during the Universal Periodic Review process conducted by the United Nations.
“Noting that the Committee on the Rights of the Child had urged Chile to review its complete criminalization of abortion, it recommended to (b) further efforts to ensure that the abortion laws are brought in line with Chile’s human rights obligations,” the UN’s “Human Rights Council” wrote in a document summarizing the recommendations (https://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session5/CL/A_HRC_WG6_5_L9_Chile_e.pdf).
According to the same document, Finland recommended that Chile review “legislation criminalizing the termination of pregnancies in all circumstances, including in cases of rape, incest and situations where the life of the mother is at risk.”
They are joined by Britain, which is asking Chile “to increase access to emergency contraception for all women particularly for adolescents and victims of rape” despite (or perhaps because of) a recent Supreme Court decision banning the free distribution of abortifacient “emergency contraception.”
Sweden also recommended to Chile that “discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity be prohibited by law and included in equality programmes and policies,” while the Netherlands urged Chile to follow the homosexualist “Yogyakarta principles” as a “guide to assist policy development.”
The Czech Republic is also pushing Chile to “Review Article 373 of the Criminal Code so that it cannot be abused for persecution of persons belonging to sexual minorities.”
An assortment of international and Chilean “human rights” organizations also contributed to a UN report that included suggestions in favor of legalizing abortion and promoting “gender identity” rights. Among them were the “Center for Reproductive Rights,” “Corporacion Humanas,” and “Human Rights Watch” (see document at https://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session5/CL/A_HRC_WG6_5_CHL_3_E.pdf).
The Chilean government has, however, discarded the pro-abortion suggestions, noting that “there are some suggestions that the government of Chile is not going to accept, because they have to do with topics that are not on the agenda of the government.”
Abortion is against the law in Chile, although the Supreme Court has allowed the distribution of abortifacient contraceptives, including the “morning after pill,” in private clinics. An attempt to make homosexuality a class specifically protected in anti-discrimination law failed last year in the nation’s Congress.
The Chilean homosexualist website “Opus Gay” is lamenting the fact that the Chilean government also agreed to analyze the suggestion of the government of Bangladesh that it “protect the right of family being the natural and fundamental group of society based upon the stable relationship between a man and a woman, as enshrined in Article 16 of UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights).”
The Holy See also recommended that Chile “continue to adhere to the cultural and religious values which make up the identity of the country in defence of the right to life and in defence of the right of the family.”
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Chilean Homosexual Non-Discrimination Law Fails Following Protest
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091003.html
Chile Legislators Soundly Reject Abortion Despite UN Pressure
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06112209.html
United Nations Now Pushes Chile and Malta to Legalize Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04113003.html