MisInformation Exchange
Return to MisInformation Blog.
NEW MISSING: US Support for Women at the Annual Commission on the Status of Women Meetings
March 17, 2005
The United Nations' annual Commission on the Status of Women meetings wrapped up on March 11. This year’s Commission meetings also marked the 10th Anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women and resulting Beijing Platform for Action.
The US delegation spent much of the two-week long meetings opposing a statement which reaffirmed the Platform for Action, arguing for the addition of a sentence declaring that the Beijing Platform “does not include the right to abortion.” Over 150 NGOs signed on to a statement opposing the US’s stance Although the US delegation dropped their request later in the meetings, this is not the first time that they have disrupted international meetings on women’s rights in this way. As reported on NCRW’s MisInformation Blog, US delegations to the UN took a similar stance on the Beijing Platform last year at the Commission on the Status of Women meetings, and also with regard to another document on women’s reproductive health and rights, the Cairo Program of Action. In March 2004, at a regional meeting of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile, the United States was the only one of 38 countries to oppose a declaration of support for the Cairo Program of Action.
On March 7, 2005, President Bush indicated that the US would continue this position, as he recommended current Undersecretary of State John Bolton to be appointed as the new US Ambassador to the UN. According to the Washington Post, Bolton has a long history of opposing the United Nations, and Bloomberg News calls Bolton one of the United Nations' “ leading critics”.
Return to MisInformation Blog.
|
