LIMA (CWNews.com/LSN.ca) - Last week at a meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the regional group agreed on the position they will take to the upcoming Beijing +5 conference, promoting so-called "reproductive rights."

    The UN meeting, to be held in New York in June, has been labeled: "Women in 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century." The meeting in Lima served as the region's preparation for the June meeting and the 400 participants from 45 countries adopted a "Lima Consensus" which included the promotion of abortion and sex-education under their usual synonyms "sexual and reproductive rights."

    Of the four main points from the Consensus mentioned in a UN report on the proceedings, the first two referred to the "need to":

    "Reorient public policies, placing social and gender equity at the center of governmental concerns;"

    "Direct State policies so as to redress inequalities and to guarantee human rights of women and girls, particularly sexual and reproductive rights, devoting special attention to the most vulnerable groups."

    Various UN agencies and pro-abortion non-governmental agencies have used recent international conferences to promote their agendas of population control, radical feminism, and promotion of sexual promiscuity especially to children. The Vatican in recent years has led pro-life, pro-family groups and the delegations of mainly Catholic and Muslim countries in opposing those policies.