US drops UN abortion demand

2005-03-04 11:43

New York - The United States pressed ahead with its campaign to change the final declaration of a high-level UN meeting to advance the fight for women's equality, but it did bow to pressure and drop a controversial demand for a reference to abortion in the document.

Facing intense pressure from countries around the globe, US Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey announced on Thursday that the United States was dropping part of its proposed amendment. It stated that the landmark platform adopted at the 1995 UN women's conference in Beijing to achieve equality of the sexes did not include a "right to abortion".

But Sauerbrey said the US still wants part of the amendment added to the final declaration to reaffirm that the 150-page Beijing blueprint to achieve equality for women does not "create any new international human rights".

The European Union, the African Union, the Mercosur nations of South America and many other countries strongly opposed the new amendment.

Nilcea Freire, Brazil's minister of state for women's affairs, said not a single country supported the revised US amendment, and every speaker insisted that the declaration be left untouched and simply reaffirm the language of Beijing, "nothing more".

"We don't want amendments and negotiations," said Luxembourg's Maddy Mulheims, speaking on behalf of the EU.

Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, called the shortened US amendment "disingenuous".

"By keeping the phrase no new international human rights, they can then turn around and say, of course no right to abortion," she said.

Sauerbrey told reporters the reason no other countries got up to support the US position was "peer pressure" and intimidation.

Sauerbrey stressed that the major US concern has been to establish a principle that the Beijing platform "is not a legally binding document, that issues such as abortion are issues of national consensus, national policy".

"Whatever happens in the next day or two, I think one of the things that has been very clearly established that should give a lot of comfort to concerned Americans is that virtually every country said we interpret it the same as you - we interpret that these are issues of national sovereignty," Sauerbrey said.

June Zeitlin, executive director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization, said dropping the reference to abortion was "a good first step."

"We hope the US will continue down this path and not take another detour, and join the women of the world and the global consensus to unequivocally reaffirm the Beijing platform for action," he said. "And that requires withdrawing the entire amendment."

The proposed US amendments have angered many of the 130 governments and 6 000 representatives of women's and human rights organisations because they have put the spotlight on abortion, not on the many other obstacles on the road to women's equality.

- AP