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Sex Toys on Display at the World Youth Conference; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

LEÓN, MEXICO, September 2 (C-FAM)  Last week at the World Youth Conference, organized primarily by the Mexican government and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the main event for most of estimated 5000 “participants” was the Interactive Global Forum, a massive expo with hundreds of booths and exhibits.  A tour of the booths revealed what passes for “age-appropriate” sexual education in some UN circles.  Because the venue for the World Youth Conference had considerably more exhibit space than most UN conferences, it was a unique opportunity for organizations focusing on youth to put their best face forward.  In the expo hall, there were dozens of booths with pornographic or sexually explicit materials or presentations.   Read More.

World Youth Conference Ends In Controversy And Chaos; By Samantha Singson

EÓN, MEXICO, September 2 (C-FAM) The World Youth Conference (WYC) closed in León, Mexico last week with frustrated and confused delegates adopting what is being called the Declaration of Guanajuato, which will be presented to the UN (United Nations) General Assembly later this month.   Delegates became increasingly frustrated as they were shut out of the negotiating process. Unlike at the United Nations where meetings are open to any delegation wishing to make amendments, at the WYC delegates were told that meetings were closed and that they should submit written amendments to the "drafting committee," comprised of a handful of countries.  Read More. 

Chaos and Ideology Reign at UN Conference on Youth in Mexico; By Samantha Singson   Austin Ruse   Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

     LEÓN, MEXICO, August 26 (C-FAM)  Early reports from participants at the World Youth Conference that commenced this week in León, Mexico are that the conference is the scene of ideological rigidity and yet almost total chaos. There seem to be four conferences going on at once, one for youth, one for governments, one for parliamentarians, and one called the Global Interactive Forum.      A measure of the chaos at the governmental forum is that early yesterday it was announced the president of Mexico would appear and speak. The room gathered, quieted, music played, and then nothing happened and no one explained anything. The president never appeared, at least as of this writing.  Read More.

UN Bureaucracy Campaigns for Homosexual Adoption in Mexico; By Amanda Pawloski and Co-authored by Dianelle Martinez

     NEW YORK, August 26 (C-FAM)  In the midst of a controversial judicial consideration of homosexual adoption earlier this month, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ran an ad campaign that appeared to support the effort to overturn Mexico City’s law against homosexual adoption. According the website of the Office of High Commission, an estimated 5 million people a day carried subway tickets with the message, “Embrace diversity; End discrimination.” The purpose of the campaign was to remind citizens of Mexico City that they “are entitled to the full range of human rights.”  Read More.

UNFPA Uses International Year of Youth to Exploit Children; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

     NEW YORK, August 19 (C-FAM)  Last Thursday, the United Nations (UN) officially launched the “International Year of Youth” (IYY) in the UN General Assembly Hall.  The theme for the year is “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding,” with a focus on health and development, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  But some observers fear that the IYY agenda has been taken over by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and its allies who are using it to promote new “rights” to sexual and reproductive health education and services for young people.

     The UN has devoted considerable resources for the IYY, including for a new cutting-edge website, and has incorporated the youth agenda into the work of all of the major UN agencies.  At the UN launch, the Joint Statement of the Heads of UN Entities was delivered by the head of UNFPA, Thoraya Obaid.  Read More. 

Human Rights Watch Incorrectly Charges Argentina with Treaty Violations over Abortion; By Seana Cranston, J.D.

     NEW YORK, August 19 (C-FAM)  A report released last week by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch promotes abortion in Argentina and criticizes Argentina for not complying with international law.  The report, “Illusions of Care: Lack of Accountability for Reproductive Rights in Argentina,” charges that “[i]n Argentina, nationalistic interests combined with an orthodox Catholic discourse on ‘family values’ have historically underpinned some of the most anti-contraception and pro-population-growth policies in the region.”    Read More.

Barack Obama’s Image in Kenya Tarnished by Abortion Battle; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.

NEW YORK, August 12 (C-FAM)  Barack Obama’s sterling image among Kenyans has dimmed in the wake of a $23M U.S. campaign to promote a draft constitution that included abortion rights. The U.S. promoted the new constitution as a way to stop gross presidential power and corruption. Opponents say that same power and corruption were used to convince many Kenyans, falsely, that the document was pro-life. The constitution passed with 67% in favor on August 4th.   “In a word, we were against a most formidable government machinery that took total control of the message and denied access to the truth to its own people with the help of foreign regimes,” one Kenyan observer told the Friday Fax.  Read More. 

Organ of Organization of American States Used to Promote Abortion in Latin America; By Seana Cranston, J.D.

NEW YORK, August 12 (C-FAM)  A recently-released document, revives concerns that the Washington DC-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is becoming yet another venue for the promotion of abortion, under the guise of “reproductive health,” and “family planning.” 
The release of “Access to Maternal Health Services from a Human Rights Perspective” coincides with the “new international human right” to maternal health recently asserted by abortion activists at the UN-backed Women Deliver 2 conference which took place in Washington DC in June of this year.  Read More. 

African Union Submits to Pressure for Abortion as Cure for Maternal Deaths; By Samantha Singson

     KAMPALA, UGANDA, August 5 (C-FAM)  The African Union (AU) finished its annual summit last week with governments agreeing to make maternal and child mortality a continent-wide priority. The summit ended with Member States extending the controversial, non-binding Maputo Plan of Action (PoA) for an additional five years and expanding new initiative called the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction on Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).   Pressure was placed on the AU from UN agencies and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGO). While United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) executive director Thoraya Obaid, called on delegates to focus on non-controversial interventions to reduce maternal deaths – such as skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care – the very next day in a speech at Makerere University in Kampala Obaid focused instead on "unsafe abortion," "reproductive rights," "reproductive health services" and "sexuality education."  Read More.

UK Announces Plan to Push Radical Sex Agenda on Developing Nations; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. and  Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

     NEW YORK, August 5 (C-FAM)  Last week the United Kingdom (UK) announced a new maternal health initiative with an "unprecedented focus on family planning" for the developing world. The plan includes the promotion of abortion and sexual “rights” for children.       The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) chief, Andrew Mitchell, presented the plan called “Choice for Women – Wanted Pregnancies, Safe Births”  at a public consultation forum hosted by DFID and attended by development experts, health professionals, and the general public.   Read More.

UN Committee Attacks Motherhood, Demands New “Rights” for Women; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

     NEW YORK, July 29 (C-FAM)  A United Nations (UN) treaty committee notorious for its promotion of abortion and ideological positions not supported by UN treaties, concludes its session this week after launching attacks on motherhood and traditional gender roles, while calling for an ever-expanded array of new sexual and reproductive “rights.”  The session was especially notable for the statement by the Russian Federation, which reported that decreasing abortion rates were helping to decrease the overall maternal mortality rates in that country.  Read More.

Latin American Economic Summit Promotes Abortion, Condemns “Lesbophobia”; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. and Amanda Pawloski

     NEW YORK, July 29 (C-FAM)  A recent gathering of Latin America’s top economic commission issued a document praising secularism, condemning "lesbophobia," calling for redistributive social systems, and liberally promoting sexual and reproductive rights.   Delegates from more than 30 Latin American and Caribbean countries attended the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (ECLAC) Eleventh Session of the Regional Conference on Women in Brazil. The purpose of the conference was to address gender equality and women’s empowerment in economic terms. The delegates were mainly “gender” advisors, representing the government of member states.  Read More.

US Rams Through UN Approval of Homosexual Group that Opposes Religious Freedom; By Samantha Singson

     NEW YORK, July 22 (C-FAM)  The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted this week on a US-led initiative to accredit the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). The move effectively bypassed a subsidiary committee’s decision to defer action on the group until it answered questions about its support of new homosexual ‘rights,’ which many Member States believe directly conflict with recognized rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression.  The Obama administration has been an active champion of IGLHRC's application to the UN since the June meeting of the committee on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) when US representatives insisted on an immediate vote on IGLHRC even though other committee members still had unanswered questions. In response to the US attempt to force a decision, Egypt called for a procedural "no action" motion.  Read More.

Nuncio to Iraq Appointed as New Head of Holy See Mission to UN; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

     NEW YORK, July 22 (C-FAM)  Late last week, Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt as the new permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations (UN) in New York, succeeding Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who was recently appointed papal nuncio to Poland.  Archbishop Chullikatt has extensive experience as a member of the Holy See diplomatic corps, having served most recently in one of the most challenging posts, apostolic nuncio to war torn Iraq and also Jordan, a position he has held since 2006.  Born in Bolghatty, India in 1953, he is the first non-Italian to head the Holy See Mission in New York.  Read More.

Calls for Radical Autonomy for Youth Ahead of Mexico Conference; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

      NEW YORK, July 15 (C-FAM)  Two recently released documents prepared in anticipation of an upcoming youth conference make unprecedented claims for new “rights” for youth that experts say directly conflict with traditional norms and international law.  The draft declaration which will be considered by governmental participants at the World Youth Conference, to be held at the end of August in Leon, Mexico, calls for a “comprehensive development of young people that includes: a humanist education to face ethical challenges” and “sexuality education.”  There is also a call to “guarantee the highest level of physical and mental health of the youth population taking into account diverse … gender contexts,” and for providing “universal access to reproductive health, including through family planning as a method of reducing maternal mortality in adolescent girls and young women.”    Read More.

UN Secretary General Announce New "Superhero" Advocacy Team for MDGs; By Samantha Singson

     NEW YORK, July 15 (C-FAM)  For months, the international community has been preparing for the September review summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  As part of the preparations, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently announced the formation of an MDG advocacy team composed of prominent politicos and philanthropists who will "build political will and mobilize action on the eight Goals." The list, which includes noted population control supporters and abortion advocates, is causing concern.  Read More.

U.S. Attacks Egypt Over Homosexual Rights at UN; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.

     NEW YORK, July 8 (C-FAM)  At the United Nations (UN) last month, several U.S. representatives attacked Egypt for asking for further investigation into a  homosexual advocacy organization which has applied for special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. These attacks culminated in a sharp rebuke delivered last week by U.S. ambassador Susan Rice. The actions seem to contravene President Obama’s strategy of engaging Egypt and other Muslim societies in key foreign policy aims such as Middle East peace.  Read More.

UN Creates What May Become a Billion Dollar Agency for Radical Feminism; By Samantha Singson and Amanda Pawloski            

     NEW YORK, July 8 (C-FAM)  Last Friday the General Assembly voted to consolidate four separate United Nations (UN) bodies dedicated to women’s issues into one new gender equality entity called “UN Women.” The resolution capped a victory for radical feminists who lobbied for years for the new entity and is the latest in an overall push to bring women’s issues even more onto the UN agenda.  After four years of sometimes harsh negotiations, member states agreed on simplifying the disjointed efforts of four UN offices dedicated to women’s issues; the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI).  Read More.

UN Office of Human Rights Continues Drum Beat for New Human Right to Maternal Health; By Samantha Singson

GENEVA, June 24th (C-FAM)  The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) has presented a new report to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council on "Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights" that calls for a new “right” to maternal health.    The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) heralded the new report and boasted of having a "leading role" in getting maternal mortality put on the human rights agenda. CRR organized three panels on implanting a “human rights-based approach” to reducing maternal mortality at the recent Women Deliver 2 conference.  Read more.

US Administration Launches All-Out International Homosexual “Rights” Offensive; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.                         

WASHINGTON DC, June 24th (C-FAM)  United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed a reception at the State Department, proclaiming that “human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights, once and for all.”  The reception celebrated “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month,” as was officially proclaimed by President Barack Obama for the month of June, and follows a recent incident at the United Nations (UN) where U.S. representatives made loud demands for immediate action on accrediting a homosexual “rights” group to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).   Read more.

Abortion Activists Claim New “Right” to Maternal Health; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. ; co-authored by Catherine Glenn Foster

    

(WASHINGTON DC – C-FAM) At the United Nations (UN)-backed Women Deliver conference in Washington DC last week, abortion activists announced the achievement of a new international human right to maternal health just three years after launching a campaign to establish it.  Advocates said that the new right requires nations to liberalize abortion laws and create numerous new bureaucracies, procedures and programs.

     In a paper entitled, “Preventing Maternal Mortality and Ensuring Safe Pregnancy," the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) asserted,  “[W]omen’s rights to life, health, and non-discrimination entitle them” to maternal health and that “governments must ensure women’s access to high-quality, appropriate reproductive health care, abolish discriminatory laws and social practices … and allow women to make autonomous decisions regarding their reproductive lives.” Read more.

IPPF Leads Push for Abortion Rights as UN Prepares for High-Level MDG Review; By Samantha Singson                                

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a new campaign this week called "A Promise is A Promise," demanding that states implement policies and programs to achieve the controversial Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 5b on "universal access to reproductive health by 2015."  Read more.

Women Deliver 2 Fails to Deliver, Ends With A Whimper; By Samantha Singson

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Three thousand abortion advocates packed into the Washington, DC Convention Center this week for the Women Deliver 2 conference, a meeting aimed at increasing funding and government accountability for maternal mortality reduction strategies, including access to "safe abortion." While organizers closed the conference amid applause and cheers from a half-empty auditorium, outcomes fell far short of the ambitious funding goals set by organizers in the months leading up to the conference.  Read More

UN Leadership in Disarray as Scientific Dispute Shatters Consensus on Maternal Health; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.                    

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Deep divisions with top United Nations (UN) officials and abortion activists on one side and maternal health researchers on the other became public this week during the Women Deliver 2 conference in Washington DC. The dispute threatens to derail hopes of raising $30B for family planning at international development conferences in the coming months. These include the Group of Eight summit this month and the UN High Level Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Review in September.  Read More

Researchers Asked to Hide Scientific Debate over Maternal Deaths; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.; Co-authored by Catherine Foster

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  At a meeting on maternal and child health research in Washington last week, United Nations (UN) staff and abortion advocates told scientists they should “harmonize” their findings or discuss them “in a locked room” so that the press could not report maternal death numbers that conflicted with the ones they use to lobby policy makers and major international donors.  Read More

IPPF Report Calls for Youth Sex Rights and Reveals New UN Funding; By Samantha Singson and Terrence McKeegan, J.D.            

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The abortion giant, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), has just released its latest financial statement. The report boasts of increased spending on youth programs and a significant increase in funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with an overall 20% boost in income as compared to 2008.  Read More

UN Takes Aim at Youth with Conferences in Mexico City and Tunisia; By Samantha Singson

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The United Nations (UN) is now preparing to kick off the International Year of Youth.  The Government of Mexico will host a world conference on youth in August that will produce a ministerial declaration on youth and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  Conference organizers hope that the document will influence the high-level review on the Millennium Development Goals that takes place in September at the UN General Assembly.   Read More

Human Rights Activists Call for a Super-Treaty Monitoring Body at UN; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.                         

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  A new law review article by Professor Michael O’Flaherty, rapporteur of the Yogyakarta Principles, calls for the melding of all UN human rights treaty-monitoring bodies into something like a single entity. He calls for the adoption of this reform without the required consent of the Member States that are parties to those treaties.  Read More

Portugal Legalizes Homosexual Marriage, Visiting Pope Condemns It; By Samantha Singson   Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

(NEW YORK - C-FAM)  This week, the president of Portugal announced his decision to ratify a law allowing gay marriage in the small European country. The same-sex marriage bill first passed in the Portuguese parliament in January, but was subject to a presidential veto. The president's decision to sign the bill into law makes Portugal the sixth European country allowing same-sex couples to wed.



     The ratification by President Anibal Cavaco Silva, described as a practicing Catholic, comes just days after a papal visit to the predominantly Catholic country where Pope Benedict spoke out against the legislation. Read More

Gender-bending Yogyakarta Principles Brought to Council of Europe; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.; Co-authored by Emanuele Rizzardi  

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Two recent initiatives out of the Council of Europe (CoE) on sexual orientation and gender identity are seen as the first major step to codify the radical Yogyakarta Principles into the framework of international institutions. 

     The Yogyakarta Principles (Principles) is a 2007 document adopted by a group of human rights “experts” including several United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs and members of UN treaty monitoring bodies.  The Principles list human rights that already exist in binding international law, and reinterprets each one to include homosexual “rights.”   Read More                                                                       

UNFPA and Abortion Advocates to Push "Reproductive Rights" on UN Treaty Bodies; by Samantha Singson

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  This week, abortion advocates the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and Amnesty International (AI) are teaming up with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to host the "first-ever" briefings on "reproductive rights" for the committees responsible for monitoring compliance with the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

According to the CRR website, the briefing with the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) will focus on "reproductive rights violations" such  "denial of reproductive healthcare services, including abortion and post-abortion care."  Read More

G8 Battle Breaks Out Over International Abortion Funding; By Terrence McKeegan, J.D.                                         

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The campaign to insert abortion funding into maternal health initiatives has dominated the media coverage leading up to the 36th annual G8 Summit, which will be held in Huntsville, Canada in late June.  The host government, Canada, has come under considerable criticism from the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), pro-abortion NGOs and the Canadian media for refusing to bring abortion into the debate.  Read More

New US House Bill Would Overturn Last Meaningful Restrictions on International Abortion Funding; by Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Last Friday, a Congresswoman from Brooklyn, New York introduced a bill in the United States (US) House of Representatives that would greatly expand international funding for abortion, contraception, and sex education, and would effectively eliminate the long-standing Helms Amendment prohibiting the use of US foreign assistance funds for abortion.

The Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act of 2010, sponsored by Representative Yvette Clarke and co-sponsored by at least 17 other House members, appears to be linked to the US statement at the recently concluded United Nations (UN) Commission on Population and Development (CPD).  That statement touted that “President Obama has requested $715.7 million for bilateral and multilateral reproductive health, including family planning, in 2011.  If approved later this year by Congress, this amount will represent the single largest U.S. contribution in history for international reproductive health programs.”  Read More.

New Push to Extend Controversial Maputo Plan of Action in Africa; By Samantha Singson                                      

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Last week, the African Union (AU) held a continental conference on maternal and child health in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the possibility of extending the non-binding Maputo Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (Maputo PoA), which was scheduled to expire this year.   Read More.

April 22, 2010

Last Minute Backroom Negotiations Leave Witnesses Baffled at UN Commission on Population and Development; By Samantha Singson Terrence McKeegan, J.D.

(NEW YORK – C –FAM)  Observers were left scratching their heads trying to figure out what went wrong in the final few hours of the United Nations (UN) Commission Population and Development (CPD), which ended last Friday at UN headquarters in New York. After three days of marathon negotiating sessions, the UN Commission on Population and Development came together in the final plenary to adopt an eight-page text on "Health, Morbidity, Mortality and Development." Despite reassurances from governments that controversial language regarding "sexuality education" and "reproductive rights" would not be included in the final document, in the final few hours of the conference, behind closed doors, the controversial language came back into the document.   Read more.

Top Abortion Law Firm Says Government Funded Abortion is a Human Right; By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.                    

(NEW YORK – C-FAM)  A top abortion-rights law firm recently released its conclusion that the last decade of international legal trends indicate that abortion is not only an international human right, but that government funding is part of that right. They claim that the “vicious” health care debate in the United States over abortion funding shows that the U.S. is flouting international law.  Read more.

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