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Two reports about recent manipulation of a UN international youth meeting by advocates of
abortion.
CATHOLIC FAMILY & HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 4038
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
Website: http://www.cafhri.org
_________________________________________
FRIDAY FAX
August 7, 1998
Volume 1, Number 43
MOSLEM/MORMON DELEGATES COMPLAIN
OF UN MANIPULATION AT INTERNATIONAL YOUTH MEETING
* Pro-family lobbyists report an intensive effort by UN agencies to
direct the outcome of debate at the Third World Youth Forum of the
United Nations System, which concludes today in Braga, Portugal. The UN
personnel seem particularly determined to ensure that references to
"reproductive rights" for youth and to "sexual and reproductive health"
are included in the official "Braga Youth Action Plan."
* Procedural irregularities long predate the conference, which began on
August 2. Cory Leonard, director of the Utah-based NGO Family Voice,
said that the UN Youth Unit refused for months to explain accreditation
procedures to his pro-family organization. And when NGO Family Voice
representatives arrived in Braga, they were initially refused
accreditation by UN Youth Unit official Karin Johanson, and were only
allowed to participate after repeated pleas to Portuguese organizers.
* Once debates began, the UN domination of the supposedly "democratic"
and "youth-driven" process became even more blatant. NGO Family Voice
delegate Ryan Nelson was twice elected democratically to the Youth
Forum's official drafting committee, only to be dismissed by organizers.
The second time, he was told he was dumped because the drafting
committee had "too many white males." But when he sat in on the
committee's first meeting on Tuesday, he discovered there was not a
single white male on it.
* The next day, World Health Organization official Paul Bloem overrode
a pro-family resolution reached by delegates attending a "working group"
on health issues. After the youths voted for the resolution, Bloem
requested a new vote in which he would participate. With his opposition
to the family-affirming resolution on record, the impressionable youth
representatives rejected it in favor of one calling for "creative drama
presentations" to highlight health issues.
* UN Population Fund (UNFPA) officials (there are no less than 29 UNFPA
representatives registered in Braga) have been even more intrusive.
During debate over the content of the Preamble to the Youth Action Plan,
an adult woman demanded that a reference to "reproductive rights" be
included. A Danish youth delegate immediately objected that the
"reproductive rights" reference did not belong there, and that there had
not been adequate time allowed for debate. The group's coordinator
ignored those complaints and promised to include the "reproductive
rights" reference.
* Later, the woman who had proposed the reference admitted that she was
a UNFPA official, not a youth delegate. However, she insisted that she
and other UN officials were not directing debate, but merely offering
"clarifications" about selected issues.
* Many youth delegates are unconvinced. Several have complained
publicly that proceedings are being manipulated toward a predetermined
result, particularly on life and family issues. "You have basically a
liberal European minority attitude, and you're imposing it," commented
Altaf Husain of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth.
CATHOLIC FAMILY & HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 4038
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
Website: http://www.cafhri.org
_________________________________________
FRIDAY FAX
August 14, 1998
Volume 1, Number 43
HOLY SEE LEADS FIGHT FOR FOR LIFE AND FAMILY
AT LISBON YOUTH CONFERENCE
* Pro-family nations, led by the Holy See and assisted by international
pro-family lobbyists, scored a significant victory on the final day of
the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth in Lisbon. Quite
unexpectedly, a paragraph recognizing the family as "the basic unit of
society" and affirming the call of young people to marriage was
incorporated into the preamble of the official "Lisbon Declaration."
* The Holy See bid to include the reference to family and marriage was
thought to have little chance of success when negotiations began on
Sunday, according to main negotiation committee chairman Ethel
Blondin-Andrew, Canada's Secretary of State for Youth. The prospects
darkened even further on Monday when the more liberal western states
helped to reject an earlier Holy See bid to recognize the fundamental
rights of parents.
* But when debate on family and marriage commenced on Tuesday,
resistance to the language was overcome by an artful bit of diplomacy by
tiny Andorra. In place of the language suggested by the Holy See,
Andorra suggested using language approved long ago at the 1995
Copenhagen Social Summit. Muslim and Catholic countries were joined in
support by the United States and all resistance to the family-affirming
Copenhagen language fell away.
* National delegates credited pro-family lobbyists in the eventual
successful outcome. Among them, Holy See delegate John Klink noted the
presence of many pro-life youth representatives attending their first UN
gathering. He credited them specifically with ensuring a strong
pro-family content in the final report on a "working group" discussion
held during the conference.
* On the other hand, pro-family forces acknowledge that they suffered a
major setback with the rejection of a parental-responsibility reference
in the Lisbon Declaration. The Declaration calls for youth access to
"reproductive health care" and "family planning methods of their
choice." The Holy See had campaigned strenuously for a reference to
parental rights be inserted. Since both "reproductive health" and
"family planning" services by official UN definition include
access to abortion and artificial contraception, the Lisbon Declaration
now calls for parent-free access to those anti-life services.
Alarmingly, WHO spokesman Paul Bloem stated at an August 10 press
conference that UN agencies interpret the Lisbon Declaration's health
recommendations as being applicable to children as young as 10.
* In spite of these hazards, the delegates rejected the Holy See bid to
temper the language regarding "reproductive health" and "family
planning" with an acknowledgment of parental authority. In so doing,
Klink pointed out, the conference had ignored key human-rights
documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that specifically affirm
parental responsibilities.
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