LIVE BLOGGING From the World Youth Conference in Leon, Mexico
Government representatives at the WYC were just as confused as the conference drew to a close as they have been throughout the week. The Declaration of Guanajuato was adopted earlier today but the question of whether the controversial NGO recommendations would be appended to the declaration was not definitively answered.
Earlier this week, an elite group of youth delegates – many of whom were chosen and paid for by UNFPA – submitted their “recommendations” to the governments convened for the WYC. These included demands for: a redefinition of gender to include the “spectrum of gender identities,” “comprehensive sexuality education” and “safe abortion.”
C-FAM’s Terry McKeegan spoke with one of the conference chairmen after the declaration was adopted. According to him, the NGO recommendations would NOT be attached or appended to the declaration when it is presented to the UN next month.
After the chaos of the last week, where no clear procedures were followed for drafting, negotiating or passing documents, I’d take that information with a big grain of salt.
Macedo said that governments would have until the end of September to register any written reservations to the declaration through their foreign ministries.
As one of the many WYC participants whose credentials mysteriously went “missing,” I would urge any government delegation wishing to make a reservation against the NGO recommendations to get them in well before the end of September as you never know when things might get “lost” in the mail.
The Declaration of Guanajuato will be presented at the United Nations during the MDG review from September 22 – 25.
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