Radical Feminists Suffer Unexpected and Stinging Defeat at Beijing+5

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  Radical feminist efforts to extend their gains from the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) ended in defeat this weekend as UN delegates finished Beijing+5 negotiations at sunrise Saturday morning. Although some UN bureaucrats have put a happy spin on the Beijing+5 outcome, radical feminist non-governmental (NGO) organizations have expressed outrage at the final document.

     Several major radical feminist organizations expressed disappointment in the Beijing+5 document. The Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutger's University, and the Women's Environment and Development Organization in New York issued a statement criticizing Beijing+5's failure to advance a stronger document.

     Beijing+5 was a process that lasted several years and spent many millions of dollars to advance radical feminist rights. Organizers had hoped to place "sexual orientation" into the new document, as well as the new term "sexual rights," a broad term that could have meant special rights for homosexuals and the right of sexual expression for children. Both measures were soundly defeated by a coalition of states from every region in the world.

     Another major victory for pro-family forces came over abortion. Radicals intended to force medical personnel to learn the abortion procedure. Language similar to this was written into last year's Cairo+5 document. This year they failed and had to revert to language from the original Cairo document that insists "in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning."

     It became clear the feminists might be headed for defeat late on Thursday night when they lost the debate on "sexual orientation." Nation and after nation stood up to the US and the EU and insisted that "sexual orientation" could never enter the new document. Throughout the day on Friday, excitement continued to build as conservative diplomats emerged from private meetings and said the West was capitulating on the most radical language.

     In the end all the radical feminists could do was hold their gains from five years ago. It was decided by conference managers that if new language could not be agreed upon, then the new document had to revert to language from the old Beijing conference. As the conference progressed late into Saturday morning, new language from the feminists was rejected time and time again. In the end, the radical feminists had to fight hard to maintain the status quo established in Bejing five years ago.

     Pro-family lobbyists are surprised by the sweep of their victory. UN documents are written by the radicals and all pro-family delegates and NGOs can do is limit the damage. According to UN insiders, part of the credit for this pro-family victory rests with the "bureau," a small number of UN members states that decide the rules of the conference. This year they insisted on the classic definition of consensus, which means that any three states can strike something from the document under debate. This rule has been ignored in recent years and has allowed the smaller states to be bullied by the larger ones.

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