U.S. Delegates at U.N. Meeting on Women's Rights Say 1995 Beijing Conference Did Not Establish Right to Abortion

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 01 Mar 2005 - 17:00 PDT

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The U.S. delegation to the United Nations on Friday ahead of a two-week U.N. review of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing voiced concern about language in the 1995 conference's Platform For Action and proposed an amendment specifying that the platform does not include a right to abortion or "create any new international human rights," the AP/Boston Globe reports (Lederer, AP/Boston Globe, 2/28). At the Beijing conference, which occurred during the Clinton administration, abortion rights were declared a "health issue" and the adopted conference platform stated that abortion should be safe in places where it is legal and that criminal charges should not be filed against any woman who undergoes an illegal abortion, Reuters reports. The platform also "broke new ground" by advocating comprehensive sex education for adolescents, according to Reuters (Leopold, Reuters, 2/28). The platform also stated that women have the right to "decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality ... free of coercion, discrimination and violence." Ahead of this year's review, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women -- which organized the two-week meeting expected to be attended by delegates from more than 100 countries and more than 6,000 women's rights advocates -- proposed a "short" declaration asking the participating countries to "reaffirm" progress toward the Beijing platform, "welcome" progress toward achieving gender equality, "stress" that challenges remain and "pledge to undertake further action to ensure ... full and accelerated implementation," according to the AP/Globe.

Details of U.S. Position
However, Bush administration representatives on Thursday at an informal, closed-door meeting said the United States could not sign on to the declaration because of concerns that the Beijing platform classified legal abortion as a human right. On Friday, U.S. delegates formally proposed an amendment to the Beijing platform that would reaffirm U.S. commitment to the platform and declaration "while reaffirming that they do not create any new international human rights and that they do not include the right to abortion" (AP/Boston Globe, 2/28). "What we have been advocating is not new," Richard Grenell, spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said, adding, "We believe wholeheartedly that the Beijing document does not establish or guarantee a right for an abortion. It's the message that we always send, to state what U.S. policy is."

Reaction
Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition and a member of the U.S. delegation at the Beijing conference, said the Bush administration "threw down the gauntlet" by proposing the amendment, adding, "Each one of us would like to insert an amendment on our particular interest. But the United States is putting up red flags by taking a unilateral position during a multilateral consensus" (Reuters, 2/28). Kyung-wha Kang, chair of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, did not comment on the U.S. amendment but said that the commission encourages all country delegations to "exercise as much flexibility and cooperation ... so that in the end we can adopt language that all can agree to" (AP/Boston Globe, 2/28).

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