Why are the neo-cons so afraid of women? Why do they hate women's freedom? Not content with rolling back women's rights in the US, they continue to demand that the rest of the world follows the same repressive policies - regardless of the poverty, misery and death it may cause (after all, it's only women and mostly brown skinned ones at that).
The 10th anniversary of the Beijing conference has been shadowed by the US demanding that the UN publically renounce abortion rights.
more....
The UN's commission on the status of women had drafted a brief declaration reaffirming support for the Beijing declaration, and calling for further effort to implement its recommendations.
Organisers had hoped that informal discussions last week would reach a consensus on the draft, leaving the next fortnight clear for government officials and women's activists to hold more substantive talks on advancing economic equality and political participation, and fighting violence against women.
But those hopes were crushed in a closed-door session late last week when Washington demanded the declaration reaffirm its support for the declarations made in Beijing 10 years ago only if "they do not include the right to abortion", says a copy of the US text obtained by the Guardian.
from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1427583,00.html
The chief of the US delegation, Sichan Siv, went on to tell his counterparts that Washington opposed the ratification of the international treaty on women's equality, as well as resolutions that would "place emphasis on 'rights' that not all member states accept, such as so-called 'sexual rights'."
Mr Siv also told diplomats that Washington opposed any move to seek funds from industrialised countries to implement the reforms called for under the Beijing declaration.
What's with the 'so-called sexual rights'? It is not the first time, by a long way, that the Bush administration has played moral cop with aid for the poorest countries :
US president George W Bush's decision to reinstate the "Global Gag Rule" that prevents NGOs from providing abortion-related services, including counselling and referrals, has started affecting projects that aim to improve the reproductive health of Nepalis.
AIDS is going to be the single biggest killer of young Nepalis in the next five years and is spreading rapidly because of unprotected sex and injecting drug use. Nepal also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world mainly due to lack of health care and unsafe abortions.
One estimate two years ago showed that at least six Nepali women die every day because of unsafe abortions. There are still hundreds of women in jails serving sentences for abortion, three-fourths of them are illiterate and have never received legal support. Legalised abortion would make it safer and also help women in prison, but such reforms and legal services will be jeopardised if American funding dries up.
from:
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/issue130/nation_1.htm
The Bush administration, which has blocked payments to the United Nations Population Fund because of unfounded reports that American money was going to abortion in China, opened a new front in its opposition to international family planning efforts this month.
This time, in meetings surrounding the United Nations Special Session on Children, the American delegation tried to parlay its "abstinence-only" sex education plan into international policy.
The bid to give prominence to a "just say no" policy on adolescent sex was defeated by a majority of nations this time. Yet women's health experts, inside and outside the United Nations, fear that the issue will sooner or later resurface, and say Washington's campaign can only hurt girls in the poorest nations.
from:
http://www.ew2000plus.org/child_2002enews.htm
It seems to me that the Bush administration is growing in confidence, as any bully does who is not stood up to. I am in the UK and hear anti-bush administration sentiments constantly. There are some fledgling movements afoot to boycott american companies, and my feeling is that more people are realising that financial boycotts and/or sanctions are the only thing that will make an impression on the boy emperor's ambitions. They will only be content when all women are barefoot and pregnant - what better way to disempower half the world's population.