US AND VATICAN OPPOSE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AT UN CHILD SUMMIT
The U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Children ended Friday night
with a compromise and overall endorsement of the conference's final document
after 30 hours of "bitter non-stop negotiations" over references in the
draft declaration to access to abortion and abstinence-based sex education.
The final document does not contain any reference to reproductive health
services,a phrase US delegates -- with the support of the Vatican and
several Islamic nations -- argued implied access to abortion.
In a move that infuriated its allies, EU negotiators abandoned the EU
position on reproductive health during the Outcome negotiations. In effect
the EU proposed removing any significant reference to the Beijing and Cairo
conferences, which strongly endorsed the idea that the health of women and
girls will be enhanced by access to reproductive services.
The delegates later agreed "reluctantly" to accept the plan, in which the US
delegation agreed to drop its proposal to define a family as a union "based
on marriage between a man and a woman" and instead accept "various forms of
the family," as the end of the conference approached. The compromise also
included the removal of "strong endorsements" of more comprehensive sex
education programmes, but it did not go so far as to endorse
abstinence-based sex education as the best way to avoid STIs and unintended
pregnancies.

IPPF REACTION

Priyanka Debnath, 18, representing IPPF at the Session said:
"If the General Assembly's final decision doesn't include young people's
views, then what was the point in talking about youth participation?"
IPPF Assistant Director-General Dr Pramilla Senanayake, taking part in a a
BBC World News Hour discussion with Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy,
pointed out that revisiting Cairo and Beijing resolutions was
counter-productive. She also highlighted IPPF's position that sex education,
unwanted pregnancy, child abuse, and trafficking were fundamental to the
health and welfare of children all over the world.

SOURCE: IPPF; Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 13 May 2002