Friday Fax
Volume 9, Number 13 | March 17, 2006
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Dear Colleague, Today we report double good news. First, pro-life negotiators won a solid victory at the Commission on the Status of Women last week in New York. Second, this Friday Fax marks the introduction of Samantha Singson as the newest member of the C-Fam team. She will be one of the writers of the Friday Fax, including this one, and she will be our chief UN representative. She's a remarkably talented young Canadian with years of UN experience. She comes to us from our good friends at Campaign Life Coalition in Canada, to whom we are profoundly grateful.
Spread the word. |
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Commission on the Status of Women Deletes
Abortion-Inclusive Language in Agreed Conclusions
By Samantha Singson
As the 50th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) met for its closing ceremony last Friday, delegates were uncertain whether a set of Agreed Conclusions would be adopted. Negotiations went down to the wire as delegates struggled to come to consensus on the contentious health section of the draft text. The original draft of the Agreed Conclusions' section on women's health focused almost solely on "sexual and reproductive health services and rights." As the Friday Fax has reported in the past, pro-abortion advocates have tried to establish a so-called international human right to abortion on demand using this terminology. The European Union, joined by Turkey, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, fought to keep the focus on sexual and reproductive health by referencing the reported 500,000 maternal deaths every year. As negotiations wore on, many states expressed mounting frustration at the narrow focus on the sexual and reproductive health of women. Costa Rica, Egypt, the United States, Pakistan, El Salvador, Nigeria, Syria and Sudan were among those countries calling for the Commission to address women's health in a more comprehensive way, bearing in mind the myriad of health concerns faced by women throughout the course of their lives. Much to the consternation of delegates, the draft Agreed Conclusions contained no references to the top causes of death of women in the developing world, namely malaria and tuberculosis. The NGO Pro-Life and Pro-Family Coalition presented statistics on the major causes of death of women and girls that were released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002's World Health Report. The Report attributed only 1.9 percent of women's deaths on maternal conditions. As stated in a fact sheet distributed to UN delegates by members of the pro-life and pro-family coalition, fully 89 percent of deaths of women and girls are attributable to causes unrelated to sexual and reproductive health. The fact sheet caused an immediate stir among negotiators, forcing states to begin discussion on the other health care needs of women. At the end of the conference, consensus was finally reached on the Agreed Conclusions and the resulting health paragraph looked nothing like the original draft. In the end, reproductive health language was largely muted in the document, while a broader understanding of the health needs of women was included. |
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Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic
Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required. Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427 New York, New York 10017 Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291 E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org |