By: Mary Mostert, ConservativeNet.com Analyst
March 13, 1998
Editor's Note: The reason why it is more important to cut UN funding, than to attempt to halt the funding of abortion in foreign lands with a law is because UN documents have made the "law" approach obsolete. In a Report to the Secretary General of the United Nations in a section entitled "Human rights for Women," (written as a Follow-up of the Fourth World Conference on Women: Implementation of strategic objectives and action in the critical areas of concern) the Treaty Commission on the Status of Women - Economic and Social Council Report states: the "human rights of women has acquired a new dimension over the course of the last decade." This "new dimension" includes the notion that there are special rights for women that "are not simply a matter of policy choices for Governments but impose legally sanctioned duties to respect and ensure the rights in question."
One of the new "rights" being sought in the United Nations is the "right" to an abortion. This, and other UN documents, make the notion that a simple law can stop US Funding of abortions unworkable. If the $916 Billion appropriation is given to the UN, some of our own money will be used to force America to protect and defend the new International "woman's human right" to abortion on demand.
These new and unique women's rights require:
"the creation of effective channels of redress to hold States accountable for violations of those rights. Guaranteed rights are reinforced by international mechanism of monitoring and supervision that ensures governmental accountability for their implementation and realization at the national level. Women's empowerment is advanced by establishing concrete standards and mechanisms of accountability for violations of human rights, encompassing civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the rights approach is being increasingly pursued by women, women's organizations and other entities seeking to promote gender equality and women's empowerment. "Human Rights Committee, Volume 1, Supplement 40 (A/52/40) September 1997, the committee expresses concern that abortion in Peru gives rise to a criminal penalty, that clandestine abortions are the main cause of maternal mortality. "Those provisions not only mean that women are subject to inhumane treatment but are possibly incompatible with articles 3, 6 and 7 of the Covenant. The Committee goes on to "recommend" that Peru "must take the necessary measures to ensure that women do not risk their life because of the existence of restrictive legal provisions on abortion." (paras 160 & 167); the Committee is "also concerned at the high mortality rate of women resulting from clandestine abortions" in Columbia (para 287). *the Committee expressed concern about the very high level of maternal mortality "much of which arises as a result of illegal abortion" in Bolivia. The Committee regretted "that the State party could not provide information about the effect of laws that criminalize abortion on this high level of deaths." (para 212); and in its remarks on Georgia, the Committee referred to "the lack of methods of contraception other than abortion". (para 239)
Clearly this can be regarded as an indication of the Committee's ideological view that abortion is just another method of contraception - a view that was soundly rejected by UN member nations at both Cairo and Beijing.
Summary:
The economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1996/6, requested the Secretary-General to submit and analytical report to the Commission on the Status of Women on the thematic issues to be addressed at each session. Four critical areas of concern from the Beijing Platform for Action were selected for consideration at the forty-second session of the Commission: "Violence against women" (chap. IV.D, "Women and armed conflict" (chap. IV.E), "Human rights of women" (chap. IV.I) and "The girl child" (chap. IV.L)
The present report takes into consideration the intergovernmental mandates contained in Commission on the Status of Women resolution 41/4 and General Assembly resolution 52/97 on violence against women migrant workers; Commission resolution 41/5 and Assembly resolution 452/98 on traffic in women and girls; and Assembly resolution 52/99 on traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls.
The present report addresses strategies for accelerating the implementation of the Platform for Action in the four critical areas of concern mentioned above, drawing, inter alia, on recommendations from expert group meetings organized by the Division for the Advancement of Women of the United Nations Secretariat in preparation for the Commission's consideration of agenda item 3[c]
HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN (E/CN.6.1998/5)
Attention to the human rights of women has acquired a new dimension over the course of the last decade. Although the 1985 Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for Advancement of Women proposed various basic strategies for women's legal equality in its chapter on equality, little attention was paid to international human rights law as a framework and an obligation of Governments in the realization of women's equality in the chapters on development and peace. Since then, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as other global United Nations conferences and summits of the 1990s, have reaffirmed that enjoyment by women of their human rights is a priority for Governments and the United Nations and essential for the advancement of women (Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, para II.36; Platform for Action, para. 213.)
Mainstream national (see E/CN.6/1998/6) and international mechanism for the protection and promotion of human rights, including United Nations human rights treaty bodies, non-conventional mechanism, such as the Commission on Human rights and its special rapporteurs, working groups and similar mechanisms (see E/CN.4/1997/40) are increasingly paying attention to the full and equal enjoyment by women of their human rights and to violations of human rights that are particular to women. These mechanisms are also increasingly responding to the challenge of paying attention to gender factors that affect women's ability to enjoy fully and equally all human rights they are entitled to. Non-governmental organizations and organizations of civil society continue to be critical actors in awareness-raising regarding women's enjoyment of their human rights. In those efforts, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, together with the Platform for Action, provide an essential basis and guidance for a gender-sensitive conceptualization, interpretation and implementation of human rights.
Human rights require that States accord priority consideration to their fulfilment (see Beijing Platform for Action, para. 213; Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, paras. 1.1, 1.4 and II.36). Rights are not simply a matter of policy choices for Governments but impose legally sanctioned duties to respect and ensure the rights in question. Moreover, the full recognition of rights requires the creation of effective channels to redress to hold States accountable for violations of those rights. Guaranteed rights are reinforced by international mechanism of monitoring and supervision that ensure governmental accountability for their implementation and realization at the national level. Women's empowerment is advanced by establishing concrete standards and mechanism of accountability for violations of human rights, encompassing civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the rights approach is being increasingly pursued by women, women's organizations and other entities seeking to promote gender equality and women's empowerment.
To comment to Mary Mostert E-mail: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com