Pro-Family Groups Attacked by Canadian Government and UN Secretariat

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The Canadian government has paid for a report that attacks pro-lifers who participate at UN conferences. Just last week Assistant Secretary General Angela King charged pro-family NGOs with disruptive tactics at the recent Beijing+5 prepcom. The Canadian report and King's comment come amid a kind of war of words being waged against the pro-family coalition working at UN headquarters in New York.

     The Canadian report, issued a few weeks ago by the Institute for Feminist Studies at the University of Quebec at Montreal, is a dossier on 12 pro-life organizations that participate at UN conferences. Called "Right-Wing Anti-Feminist Groups at the United Nations" it levels a number of charges at pro-family groups including that they are "sustained" by the Vatican.

     Druelle charges the pro-family coalition with being against women's rights. "These groups demand not only that the right to abortion be denied, but also that the traditional patriarchal family be the only type of family to be recognized by national governments. Many of these groups have aggressive attitudes not only towards feminists but also towards homosexuals. They perceive feminism and homosexuality as threats to the family."

     Druelle also accuses pro-family groups with targeting the work of "particular caucuses," intimidating "selected delegates," and spreading "false information in their information leaflets." She also charges that "right-wing anti-feminist groups attempted to cause obstructions and prevent meetings of the Lesbian Caucus from taking place." She claims that during a panel discussion on "sexuality and fundamental human rights, they sent hundreds of representatives, including the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, into the room in order to obstruct and intimidate by praying." Most likely using the unsubstantiated information from Druell's report, last week Angela King, Assistant UN Secretary General for Gender Affairs, told a journalist that pro-lifers "prayed over women and threw water on them."

     Druelle identifies 12 organizations at the core of what she sees as a right wing conspiracy at the UN. Among them are Campaign Life Coalition (Canada), Concerned Women for America (US), Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (US), International Right to Life Federation (US), REAL Women of Canada, and the World Youth Alliance.

     Pro-family leaders explain that their groups are vastly outnumbered and work in a UN atmosphere that is consistently hostile to their point of view. Because of their small numbers, pro-lifers insist they must adhere very closely to all the rules of UN lobbying. They insist the charges against them are "false" and "come from a kind of liberal hysteria."

     Pro-lifers point out it is simply their presence that draws attacks. During a meeting of the Linkage Caucus at Beijing+5 40 pro-lifers attended out of more than 200. Maria Giovine explains that "every time one of us tried to speak we were shouted down. They would begin chanting that we were bought and sold by the Vatican." At the same meeting Maurice McBride, a conservative lawyer from Virginia, tried to speak and was also drowned out. A witness said the radical feminists "laughed at him and booed."

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