Volume 2, Number 21

March 19, 1999

UN Double Standard Favors Western Nations Against Developing World

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM)  UN diplomats from the developing world (G-77) increasingly complain of a double standard that favors the rich nations. They cite two general areas of unfairness. The first is linguistic, as many UN documents are written and debated in English, frequently without translation. The G-77's second complaint is procedural; they maintain that rules binding them are often not applied to the U.S., Canada and the European Union. The recently concluded Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) session provided a case in point.

     Such UN commissions generally negotiate a set of "agreed upon conclusions." These are frequently provided to diplomats only at the last minute, ensuring the documents are not translated from English. Moreover, portions of these documents are negotiated separately in small groups away from the general session. Consequently, poorer understaffed Missions either cannot cover these negotiations at all, or are forced to negotiate controversial topics in a foreign language.

     Another hurdle for the G-77 is that the most controversial topics are generally saved for the final days of the conference. This ensures long sessions into the night, always without UN translators. In the case of the CSW, the most controversial section on "women and health" asked governments to endorse the new Optional Protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which recommends governments liberalize their abortion laws. Many pro-family G-77 nations adamantly oppose this.

     At the same time, there was a general agreement at the CSW that the conclusions of the small, last minute negotiating sessions would not be revisited by the general session. When the G-77 tried to change only one word in the "women and health" section, the German chairman of the general session, supported vociferously by the powerful EU, tersely instructed the G-77 nations that they must abide by the agreement. Within a few minutes, however, the EU and the German chair insisted that a whole section, written mostly by the G-77, be re-negotiated. This procedural double standard forced the CSW debate to extend its final Friday session until after 5:30 a.m. the following morning.

     In their own meetings, radical feminist NGO lobbyists have openly laughed at the difficulties confronting G-77 diplomats. In fact, radical social activists at the UN count on this confusion to intrude their extreme agendas into documents. And, veteran UN observers report, the radicals think it is funny that diplomats from sovereign states agree to documents that they do not understand.

     Final Prepcom of Cairo+5 on Population and Development Convenes Monday in New York

     UN Member States convene the final preparatory committee meeting of the Cairo+5 review process on next Wednesday morning. This prepcom will produce a document to be presented to a Special Session of the UNG General Assembly from June 30 - July 2. Pro-family lobbyists expect an intense fight on questions of "reproductive rights," which is code for, among other things, abortion on demand. 

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