NEW YORK, March 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting was suspended in disarray last week as various country delegates objected to the attempt by the chairman to ratify a document as agreed upon by consensus even though several states objected. Feminists have pushed hard at the U.N. to say the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) convention mandates the provision of abortion but have run into problems attempting to force countries into giving up their religious objection to abortion.
The document in question sought to include a statement which would make countries “condemn violence against women and refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination.” Iran, Egypt and Sudan objected to the phrase but Canada and the EU led the charge in refusing to allow the statement to be deleted from the document or even modified so as to respect religious rights. In U.N. feminist parlance violence against women includes refusal to allow abortion which is called ‘forced pregnancy’.
Despite the disagreements, the chairman of the meeting attempted to call the matter agreed upon and told objecting members to register their objections at the end of the document. However, Iran objected that the move was a breech of U.N. procedure and was supported in its objection by the United States. After this the meeting was abruptly suspended.
See the U.N. report on the meeting and a detailed report by Concerned Women for America: https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/wom1399.doc.htm https://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3596&department=CWA&categoryid=nation