Volume 4, Number 7

February 2, 2001

Bush Negotiators Cheered For Conservative Statement At UN Child Summit

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM) Governmental delegates wildly cheered the first statement of the new Bush Administration to the United Nations yesterday morning. The speech also signaled a significant change in US UN policy. Ambassador Michael Southwick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, voiced strong administration support for the ongoing preparatory process for the upcoming Child Summit but criticized international progress international progress in childhood nutrition, education, and basic health care.

     Southwick, however, veered sharply from previous US policy on the question of parents and the family. Clinton Administration negotiators tended to fight mention of the family and were the leading forces against the rights of parents in UN documents. Southwick said, "The last decade has also revealed new challenges" including "the erosion of parental authority." The right kind of document he said "would help countries, communities, and their civil society partners decide how best to improve the situation of children and families." Southwick urged that the new document should emphasize "the vital role the family plays in the upbringing of children." Even the use of the singular "family" instead of the plural "families" indicates a major shift in US thinking. In UN conferences, "family" means the traditional family while "families" signals the idea of homosexual couplings.

     Southwick also criticized the draft document that governmental delegates are supposed to be negotiating this week. He said the document falls short of the goals stated on Monday by the President of the General Assembly that it be "concise, innovative, action-oriented, and time-bound. "The draft document in its current form falls short of that objective," said Southwick. He called the draft document, which was written by a small number of states with the guidance of UNICEF, a "confusing mix of political and legal actions, with ill-defined major goals."

     Both governmental delegates and lobbyists cheered at the conclusion of Southwick's remarks.

     US criticism of the document clearly contradicts UNCEF executive director Carol Bellamy's wish that the document not be negotiated at all. In a memo intercepted by pro-family lobbyists, UNICEF urged delegates that the document be accepted unchanged. A senior diplomat from an influential delegation laughed at the idea that the nations of the world would be called to a UN meeting "only to hear UNICEF lectures" and not to negotiate.

     Pro-family lobbyists continued their criticism of UNICEF attempts to keep them out. A number of pro-family lobbyists said they were "harassed" by UNICEF personnel on Monday when they attempted to receive their credentials. Tracie Bare of the National Right to Life Committee said a hostile UNICEF employee charged that her accreditation application was not in order and demanded to know if she really represented National Right to Life. A pro-family journalist was told she could not get credentials because she did not have a national press badge [There is no such thing in the United States, something UN officials know].

     It is expected the document will be negotiated at the next meeting, which starts on June 11.

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