NEWS for Friday-Saturday-Sunday, June 23-25, 2000
UN POPULATION CHIEF ANGRY AFTER WOMEN'S CONFERENCE
NEW YORK (CWNews.com)
The director of the UN Population
Fund (UNFPA) reportedly wept in anger before delivering a
speech to the UN General Assembly at the end of the
Beijing+5 review of a women's conference on June 9,
according to the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
(C-fam).
A UN delegate told C-fam Sadik wept as she angrily edited
her statement concerning the Beijing+5 review after
pro-family groups, including the Vatican, Muslim and
Catholic countries, prevented feminist groups from
enshrining "reproductive and sexual rights" as UN policy.
"I had hoped to deliver a different sort of statement
today, pointing out all the progress that has been made by
women and on behalf of women since we met five years ago in
Beijing," Sadik told the session. "I had hoped to be able to
join in congratulating all the participants in this process
for your work to consolidate the movement towards equality
and justice for all the world's people. Unfortunately, it
seems that this Special Session is still unable to agree on
language concerning some of the most basic human rights as
they affect women."
Sadik also accused opponents of wanting "death, disease,
and suffering" for women and girls by denying them access
to legalized abortion. Sadik said she had wanted to include
a provision that would have required medical personnel to
learn how to perform abortions even if it violated their
consciences. The proposal was defeated.
C-fam said Sadik's anger may have been due to the fact that
she is soon to leave the UN and had hoped pro-abortion gains
at Beijing+5 would have been her legacy.
We encourage you to check the Catholic World News site at the
CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and the Dossiers, features and Daily Dispatches from ZENIT International News Agency CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC, but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.
|