Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute

CURRENT FRIDAY FAX
Volume 13, Number 8
February 4, 2010

Pro-lifer Wins Christian Party Chairmanship

Co-authored by Emanuele Rizzardi

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) Italian pro-life politician Luca Volontè captured the chairmanship of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) last week, besting second-place finisher Jean-Claude Mignon of France, whom socially-liberal members had rallied around after their favored candidates faded.

Immediately upon assuming the chairmanship of the EPP, the chamber’s Christian Democratic grouping, Volontè was confronted with a number of challenges on controversial social issues. Due to coordinated EPP opposition, a report on "discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity" sponsored by Swiss socialist Andreas Gross was withdrawn and referred to the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. Volontè had engineered a flood of some 70 substantive amendments to the bill, joined by Italian colleagues Renato Farina and Lorenzo Cesa, as well as Marco Gatti, representing San Marino, an independent microstate on the Italian peninsula.

UN Member States Discuss New Women's Super-Agency Details

By Samantha Singson

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) This week at the United Nations (UN), member states will start deliberating the details of the new "super" agency for women. The General Assembly decided last fall to reform the current "gender architecture" by consolidating the UN's four existing departments on women and establish a new office, but details regarding the new entity's mandate, structure and funding have yet to be finalized.

In anticipation of these meetings, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon released a comprehensive proposal for the new entity last month, outlining a vision for the new office that includes a half-billion dollar budget, national, regional and international advocacy work and the creation of a new under-secretary-general position to accommodate the new office's executive director.

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