Colombia Joins Pro-Life Geneva Consensus Declaration

By | May 20, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C. May 20 (C-Fam) The government of Colombia joined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a pro-life and pro-family diplomatic agreement launched under the Trump administration, to fight back attempts to make abortion a human right and redefine the family.

“We take advantage of this occasion to announce that Colombia joins the Geneva Consensus,” said María Carmelina Londoño, the Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs of Colombia, during a special session of the Organization of American States to commemorate the International Day of Families, which occurs every year on May 15.

Colombia became the third country to join the Geneva Consensus Declaration in recent months, after Guatemala and the Russian Federation, proving that the pro-life and pro-family initiative launched by former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a continued appeal and staying power even after President Joe Biden withdrew the U.S. government from the declaration in 2021 and urged other signatories to do the same.

Several delegations spoke of the pro-family policies of their governments during the special session requested by the government of Brazil.

“Our Colombian brothers joining the declaration is a great victory for the pro-life cause in our continent. It is a victory for the sovereignty of countries, of serious work to protect the health of women, and above all to defend the life of unborn babies,” said Cristiane Britto, Brazil’s Minister for Women, the Family and Human Rights.

Brazil currently acts as secretary of the coalition of countries who have signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration. Britto met with ministers from Latin American and Caribbean countries in New York last week to discuss ways to expand the group of countries that have signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration. She tweeted an image of their meeting.

The Geneva Consensus Declaration was officially launched by 34 countries in October of 2020 in Washington D.C. at a special event with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. It was also officially recorded with the United Nations General Assembly. Ministers who made comments at the launch of the declaration promoted women’s health, protection of life, protection of the family, and the sovereign right of nations to legislate on these issues.

The declaration reaffirms that the family is the “natural and fundamental group unit of society” in line with binding international treaties. It also explicitly states that there is no international right to abortion, that abortion should never be promoted as a method of family planning, and that decisions about abortion policy are to be taken exclusively at the national level.

The declaration’s unambiguous rejection of abortion as an international right contradicts the findings of Colombia’s own Constitutional Court, which since 2006 has declared abortion an international right, including most recently in a ruling in February this year. The court ordered the Colombian government to facilitate access to abortion-on-demand into the sixth month of pregnancy and until the moment of birth for cases where a baby in the womb is found to be disabled. Since then, members of Colombia’s Congress have rejected all legislative proposals to decriminalize abortion. But the executive branch has allowed abortion in public hospitals through administrative actions. Abortion remains a crime from the moment of conception in Colombia.

The Ministry for Multilateral Affairs of Colombia confirmed the alignment of the Colombian Government with the Geneva Consensus Declaration in comments to Colombian daily El Espectador.

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