Best Moments of the Year for Life and Family at the United Nations

By | December 29, 2016

NEW YORK, December 30 (C-Fam) It has been a remarkable year. As has been the case in recent years, we have many more positive stories to highlight than negative ones.

  1. Abortion is Not a Right Under Humanitarian Law

When abortion groups failed to establish a human right to abortion during the landmark UN conferences of the 1990s they turned their attention to new avenues to promote abortion. One such avenue is humanitarian law. Since 2013, C-Fam has tracked several accelerated attempts to manipulated humanitarianism to establish an international right to abortion. The Secretary General went into an unprecedented conference on humanitarianism in Istanbul last May declaring abortion and LGBT rights to be centerpieces of humanitarianism, and putting words in UN member states’ mouths to feign agreement on this. Thankfully states did not agree. Humanitarianism remains based on the obligations undertaken by states in the Geneva conventions. C-Fam’s Director of Researcher, Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D., published an important article to expose these abuses.

  1. Abortion Groups Still Unable to Control Sustainable Development Goals

This was the first year in which the Sustainable Development Goals were in effect. Abortion groups were disappointed when their foothold was pulled from under them when the first review of the goals took place this July. Not only did the Secretary General decide to avoid any controversy by completely overlooking any of the new goals that might implicate controversial subjects, UN member states have yet to approve the indicators that UN bureaucrats are trying to prescribe for the entire world as a way to measure progress on the new goals. Such an approval is not likely so long as controversial indicators are proposed by UN bureaucrats.

  1. WHO Recognizes Danger of Depo Provera

After years of denials the World Health Organization is beginning to admit there is a problem with powerful long-term hormonal contraceptives that Bill and Melinda Gates, WHO, USAID, UNFPA, and other donors have been hoisting on African women. A new study, coauthored by WHO staff, showed some of those health risks, including irreversible bone-density loss and higher likelihood of HIV transmission. WHO has still to publish a new guidance on contraceptives, that is also expected to warn about Depo Provera. Better late than never.

  1. General Assembly Scraps Comprehensive Sexuality Education

The General Assembly got rid of the only mention of “comprehensive sexuality education” in UN policy this year—a type of sex education that prescribes teaching children as young as 3 how to masturbate. Thanks to the African Group of States, and their relentless efforts to protect the family and children from this harmful policy prescription over the past 4 years, the European and Latin American sponsors of the resolution scrapped comprehensive sexuality education altogether in the annual resolution on the Rights of the Child. There is also more good news. In Panama and other Latin American countries tens of thousands marched against these polices earlier this year. Even in the United States, government bureaucrats are beginning to realize that abstinence based sex education is more effective than “safe sex” education.

  1. Friends of the Family Organize at the United Nations

A group of two dozen UN member states calling themselves the Group of Friends of the Family is increasingly vocal at the United Nations. The group held a high-level event in May to celebrate the international day of the family at UN headquarters as well as other events, including an event on the right of children to know and be cared for by their mother and a father during the General Assembly. The Group made important interventions throughout the year, including in the Habitat III negotiations and the controversy over the UN bureacracy’s new LGBT stamps. The Group is working closely with a new coalition of civil society organizations of which C-Fam is the main sponsor.

BONUS. More and More Countries Rebel Against Cultural Imperialism of International Bureaucracy

Pro-life and pro-family advocates sometimes are discouraged because governments so often are quiet in the face of abuses and overreaching by international bureaucrats. This year we were extremely encouraged to notice several governments publically oppose the agenda that is being pushed by international bureaucracies. Poland criticized Council of Europe bureaucrats of furthering the interests of the abortion industry. Paraguay scathingly opposed the abortion agenda of the Organization of American States. Even the U.S. Congress decided to reign in the UN Human Rights Commissioner for using the Zika epidemic to promote abortion. The Holy See and other delegations at UN headquarters were also vocal against his overreach. Sadly, Ireland, who once defended its pro-life laws, has begun to bow in submission to the international bureaucrats.

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