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Friday Fax
The Friday Fax is a weekly publication that reports closely on activities at the UN and European institutions that are harmful to the dignity of human life and the family. It is read by more than 100,000 people a week, including activists, scholars, policy makers, and government officials from around the world. The Friday Fax is an originally-researched and -written news story that regularly breaks stories about UN and EU social shenanigans.
International Organizations Research Group (IORG)
The International Organizations Research Group (IORG) is dedicated to advancing a deeper understanding of social policies advanced at the international level in order to protect and promote better national policies regarding human life, the family, religious freedom, and human rights. IORG conducts, promotes and publishes research, commissioning scholars from disciplines such as international relations, law, medicine, political philosophy, and security studies. IORG's flagship publication is its series of white papers examining the activities of United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, foundations, and other international institutions.
LEÓN, MEXICO, August 26 (C-FAM) Early reports from participants at the World Youth Conference that commenced this week in León, Mexico are that the conference is the scene of ideological rigidity and yet almost total chaos. There seem to be four conferences going on at once, one for youth, one for governments, one for parliamentarians, and one called the Global Interactive Forum.
A measure of the chaos at the governmental forum is that early yesterday it was announced the president of Mexico would appear and speak. The room gathered, quieted, music played, and then nothing happened and no one explained anything. The president never appeared, at least as of this writing.
Co-authored by Dianelle Martinez
NEW YORK, August 26 (C-FAM) In the midst of a controversial judicial consideration of homosexual adoption earlier this month, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ran an ad campaign that appeared to support the effort to overturn Mexico City’s law against homosexual adoption. According the website of the Office of High Commission, an estimated 5 million people a day carried subway tickets with the message, “Embrace diversity; End discrimination.” The purpose of the campaign was to remind citizens of Mexico City that they “are entitled to the full range of human rights.”
In addition to this campaign, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang told a Mexico City women’s conference, “Marriage between same-sex individuals is a right which includes the possibility of adopting children.” Kang also said the “UN has always been in favor of the full enjoyment of the rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
NEW YORK, August 19 (C-FAM) Last Thursday, the United Nations (UN) officially launched the “International Year of Youth” (IYY) in the UN General Assembly Hall. The theme for the year is “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding,” with a focus on health and development, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But some observers fear that the IYY agenda has been taken over by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and its allies who are using it to promote new “rights” to sexual and reproductive health education and services for young people.
The UN has devoted considerable resources for the IYY, including for a new cutting-edge website, and has incorporated the youth agenda into the work of all of the major UN agencies. At the UN launch, the Joint Statement of the Heads of UN Entities was delivered by the head of UNFPA, Thoraya Obaid.
NEW YORK, August 19 (C-FAM) A report released last week by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch promotes abortion in Argentina and criticizes Argentina for not complying with international law. The report, “Illusions of Care: Lack of Accountability for Reproductive Rights in Argentina,” charges that “[i]n Argentina, nationalistic interests combined with an orthodox Catholic discourse on ‘family values’ have historically underpinned some of the most anti-contraception and pro-population-growth policies in the region.”
The report erroneously cites several international human rights treaties and committees, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), for its claim that international law requires Argentina to provide abortion-on-demand. In fact, no international human rights treaty contains a right to abortion. When CEDAW and ICCPR were negotiated, many of the negotiating countries had pro-life laws on the books that still remain in place today.
NEW YORK, August 12 (C-FAM) Barack Obama’s sterling image among Kenyans has dimmed in the wake of a $23M U.S. campaign to promote a draft constitution that included abortion rights. The U.S. promoted the new constitution as a way to stop gross presidential power and corruption. Opponents say that same power and corruption were used to convince many Kenyans, falsely, that the document was pro-life. The constitution passed with 67% in favor on August 4th.
“In a word, we were against a most formidable government machinery that took total control of the message and denied access to the truth to its own people with the help of foreign regimes,” one Kenyan observer told the Friday Fax.
NEW YORK, August 12 (C-FAM) A recently-released document, revives concerns that the Washington DC-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is becoming yet another venue for the promotion of abortion, under the guise of “reproductive health,” and “family planning.”
The release of “Access to Maternal Health Services from a Human Rights Perspective” coincides with the “new international human right” to maternal health recently asserted by abortion activists at the UN-backed Women Deliver 2 conference which took place in Washington DC in June of this year.
KAMPALA, UGANDA, August 5 (C-FAM) The African Union (AU) finished its annual summit last week with governments agreeing to make maternal and child mortality a continent-wide priority. The summit ended with Member States extending the controversial, non-binding Maputo Plan of Action (PoA) for an additional five years and expanding new initiative called the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction on Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).
Pressure was placed on the AU from UN agencies and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGO). While United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) executive director Thoraya Obaid, called on delegates to focus on non-controversial interventions to reduce maternal deaths – such as skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care – the very next day in a speech at Makerere University in Kampala Obaid focused instead on "unsafe abortion," "reproductive rights," "reproductive health services" and "sexuality education."
NEW YORK, August 5 (C-FAM) Last week the United Kingdom (UK) announced a new maternal health initiative with an "unprecedented focus on family planning" for the developing world. The plan includes the promotion of abortion and sexual “rights” for children.
The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) chief, Andrew Mitchell, presented the plan called “Choice for Women – Wanted Pregnancies, Safe Births” at a public consultation forum hosted by DFID and attended by development experts, health professionals, and the general public.
NEW YORK, July 29 (C-FAM) A United Nations (UN) treaty committee notorious for its promotion of abortion and ideological positions not supported by UN treaties, concludes its session this week after launching attacks on motherhood and traditional gender roles, while calling for an ever-expanded array of new sexual and reproductive “rights.” The session was especially notable for the statement by the Russian Federation, which reported that decreasing abortion rates were helping to decrease the overall maternal mortality rates in that country.
The committee, which monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), is composed of 23 “independent” experts and is reviewing eight nations during their 46th session.
NEW YORK, July 29 (C-FAM) A recent gathering of Latin America’s top economic commission issued a document praising secularism, condemning "lesbophobia," calling for redistributive social systems, and liberally promoting sexual and reproductive rights.
Delegates from more than 30 Latin American and Caribbean countries attended the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (ECLAC) Eleventh Session of the Regional Conference on Women in Brazil. The purpose of the conference was to address gender equality and women’s empowerment in economic terms. The delegates were mainly “gender” advisors, representing the government of member states.
