UN Commission Agrees on Food Security, Not Abortion and LGBT Rights

By | April 23, 2021

Photo credit: Jane Silcock/USAID

NEW YORK, April 23 (C-Fam) The UN Commission on Population and Development adopted an agreement on food security earlier today. The agreement does not make any progress for abortion and LGBT rights.

The apparently innocuous theme of this year’s session of the commission, “Population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development”, did not stop powerful countries from attempting to add abortion, LGBT issues, and sexual autonomy for children on the menu. In the end, they were unsuccessful.

At a rare in-person meeting at UN headquarters, delegations who promote abortion and LGBT rights, lamented that the agreement did not include references to sexual rights, comprehensive sexuality education, or language that could be used to promote LGBT policies, during its adoption this morning.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico attempted and failed to add these elements during negotiations in recent weeks.

The donor countries failed to add references to “multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination” as well as “women in all their diversity” in the agreement. Both these expressions are understood to promote LGBT policies in development and humanitarian assistance.

The UN population fund (UNFPA), the UN agency which implements UN population policy, was also disappointed that the agreement did not rubber-stamp the progressive social policies of its powerful donors.

“#SexEd is not a means of sexualizing young men and women,” tweeted Natalia Kanem, the agency’s executive director. Her tweet claimed that 56% of countries actually have laws supporting comprehensive sexuality education.

Member States felt great pressure to reach an agreement this year. The last four sessions of the commission ended without an agreement amid controversies over abortion and LGBT issues.

The pressure to reach an agreement was perhaps greatest for African delegates. The chair of this year’s session of the commission was an African, Ambassador Yemdaogo Eric Tiare of Burkina Faso. Because of the way diplomats perceive UN dynamics, it would have reflected poorly on the African Group as a whole if the commission had not been able reach an agreement.

“We are really proud of gaining consensus once again under African leadership,” the delegate of Morocco declared. She spoke on behalf of 54 African countries.

Despite the overall satisfaction of the African Group, a delegate from Egypt said that it only accepted the term “reproductive rights” according to the definition of that term in the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. The conference famously left out abortion and LGBT rights from the definition of that term.

Similarly, Brazil’s delegate at the commission, said language on sexual and reproductive health was controversial and did not enjoy international consensus. He accused “special interest groups” of diverting the attention of the commission away from the theme of food security to “tangential issues.”

Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Qatar, and Iraq made similar reservations on the use of the controversial terms used by the abortion industry to promote abortion.

A delegate of the Holy See, representing Pope Francis at the United Nations, repeated its long-standing reservation on the use of such terms. He emphasized that since the 1994 conference in Cairo there had been “no change in its well-known position” and that sexuality should be exercised “in accordance with moral norms.”

Both the Russian Federation and the Holy See also expressed regret that there was no mention of family-oriented policies in the agreement.

Despite the overall deadlock on these controversial issues, progressive countries successfully used the agreement to recast the issue of food security in terms of making food production sustainable with a view towards climate change.

The resolution adopted by the commission includes several elements that are widely accepted, including highlighting nutrition for pregnant and lactating mothers and in the first 5 years of life. Hunger and malnutrition claim the lives of over 3 million children each year.

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter