Eighty-Five Nations Endorse U.N. Population Agenda - but Bush Admin

[cal04]

The United States has refused to join 85 other heads of state and government in signing a statement that endorsed a 10-year-old U.N. plan to ensure every woman's right to education, health care, and choice about having children.

President Bush's administration withheld its signature because the statement included a reference to "sexual rights."

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kelly Ryan wrote to organizers of the statement that that the United States was committed to the Cairo plan of 1994 and "to the empowerment of women and the need to promote women's fullest enjoyment of universal human rights."

"The United States is unable, however, to endorse the world leaders' statement," Ryan said, because it "includes the concept of 'sexual rights,' a term that has no agreed definition in the international community."Ryan did not elaborate on the Bush administration's objections to the phrase "sexual rights," but at past U.N. meetings U.S. representatives have spoken out against abortion, gay rights and what they see as the promotion of promiscuity by giving condoms to young people to prevent AIDS.


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBBXNE5A0E.html

[theHandpuppet]

1. It's times like this...

THAT I'M GLAD JOHN KERRY WILL BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT!!!

The alternative is too shameful to contemplate.

[w4rma]

2. But Powell **said** Saudi women should be able to vote! All talk, no

substance.

[tom_paine]

3. First off, the United States no longer exists

And Imperial Amerika is a tinpot Third-World Totalitarian Nation who's behavior in this matter has been entirely commensurate with other nations like it throughout history.

The United States? I have no idea what place you're talking about.

[cal04]

4. Women's Rights Endorsed by World Leaders

The statement was signed by leaders of 85 nations including the entire European Union, China, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan and more than a dozen African countries as well as 22 former world leaders, notably US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

But in a letter to organisers of the statement, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kelly Ryan said: “The United States is unable ... to endorse the world leaders statement on supporting the ICPD.

“The statement includes the concept of ‘sexual rights,’ a term that has no agreed definition in the international community, goes beyond what was agreed to at Cairo and is not a component of the ICPD.”

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3623284

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. This evening at choir practice, I talked to a nurse who works in an AIDS

prevention program. She said that they can't use Federal funds to talk about condoms, so they find all sorts of fudges to get around the prohibition.

This country is being run by a bunch of 19th century hypocrites.