UN CALLS FOR ENSURING ABORTION ACCESS AT NGO CONFERENCE

NEW YORK, Sept 15 (LSN) – Yesterday at the opening meeting of the fifty-first annual NGO Conference,  organized by the UN’s Department of Public Information (DPI), Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) interpreted the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to include the guarantee of abortion on demand. Sadik claimed that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has “special significance for women,” in that they “must be free to make choices in all areas of their lives.”“Fundamental to freedom of choice were decisions concerning reproductive and sexual health and freedom from discrimination, coercion and violence,” she said.  Repudiating most authentic religious faiths, Sadik said that “oppressive traditions” restrict “women’s freedom to exercise their right to reproductive health” and thus “limit their choices in childbearing and by the lack of access to reproductive health services.” Sadik then demanded that the international community take action against the “oppressive traditions.”“The international community must confront such abuses of human rights honestly and forcefully. Governments must be urged to enact and enforce laws against such abuses and there must be ceaseless advocacy to alter patterns of behaviour that had allowed them to continue.”  To view the UN report on the opening session of the NGO conference go to:  https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1998/19980914.ngo305.html