No Agreed Definition

What is wrong with this man? In yet another non-global effort George Bush decides that he cannot sign a statement endorsing a U.N. plan (adopted 10 years ago mind you) to ensure women's rights around the world. What, exactly, needs to be defined in "sexual rights?" A woman's right not to be raped? A woman's right not to have her body ripped apart by having multiple children? A right to protect herself from the raging effect of AIDS? This is just beyond ridiculous!

More than 250 global leaders in all fields including 85 heads of state and government — have signed a statement endorsing a U.N. plan adopted 10 years ago to ensure every woman's right to education, health care, and to make choices about childbearing. But President George W. Bush's administration refused to sign because the statement mentions "sexual rights."

It notes that in 1994 "the world's governments and civil society committed to an action plan to ensure universal access to reproductive health information and services, uphold fundamental human rights including sexual and reproductive rights, alleviate poverty, secure gender equality, and protect the environment."

While progress has been made, the statement says the world is facing an exponential increase in HIV/AIDS, a growing gap between rich and poor, persistently high death rates related to pregnancy and childbirth, and inadequate access to family planning services. It calls on the international community to fund and implement the goals of the conference, known as the ICPD.

[...]

The Bush administration responded only on Tuesday to organizers who had asked for the president's support.

In a letter to organizers of the statement, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kelly Ryan reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to "the goals and objectives" of the Cairo conference 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 on supporting the ICPD," Ryan said. "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."

Technically, the State Department is correct. The Cairo program of action states that women have the "right to make decisions concerning reproduction, free of discrimination, coercion and violence as expressed in human rights documents." But it doesn't specifically mention "sexual rights."

Sexual rights were specifically mentioned a year later, however, in the platform of action adopted by over 180 countries including the United States at the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing.

That platform, which the United States also took a leading role in drafting, states: "The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence."

At a news conference, Wirth and Obaid were asked whether the U.N. General Assembly was holding a commemoration of the Cairo platform on Thursday — not a review as it did five years ago — because of opposition to some provisions by the Bush administration, the Vatican and some Islamic states.

The Vatican, some Islamic states (Gee, I wonder what life is like for women in those states) and the Bush administration united against womens' sexual rights. You see the kinds of things Bush wants to get global about!