The United Nations passed a resolution to protect "womens rights defenders". While the resolution is being promoted as protecting people such as Malala Yousafzai, a Christian teenage girl who was shot in the head by Islamic militants, and Denis Mukwege, a doctor who was forced into exile for helping rape victims, one of the largest groups of people the resolution protects are those who campaign for abortion rights.
The UN taken as a group, is militantly pro abortion. Recently LifeNews.com reported that the UN's Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women comittee, produce a document in which it asks countries, unequivocally and categorically, to ensure
that “safe abortion services” become a part of “sexual and reproductive
health care” for women in war-torn areas. This is part of a larger campaign in which abortion is promoted as a universal human right.
UN women's rights resolution passed despite backlash
A Norwegian-led coalition, which has
prepared the resolution for months, had to delete language that
condemned "all forms of violence against women" to get the
text passed by consensus late Wednesday.
African nations, the Vatican, Iran,
Russia, China and conservative Muslim states had sought to weaken the
resolution passed by the assembly's human rights committee, diplomats
and activists said.
The campaign for women's rights
defenders has been given a huge boost in recent months by the likes
of Malala, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for
her battle for girls' education, and Denis Mukwege, the Democratic
Republic of Congo doctor briefly forced into exile for his work
helping rape victims.
Both had been named as Nobel Peace
Prize candidates this year.
The resolution calls on all states to
publicly condemn violence against women human rights defenders, amend
legislation that hinders them and give activists free access to UN
bodies.
"The international community has
sent a clear message. It’s unacceptable to criminalize, stigmatize
or curtail women's human rights defenders," said Geir Sjoberg,
the Norwegian government's lead negotiator on the resolution.
He added that the key aim now would be
to make sure governments are held to commitments made in the text.
"There is a great mismatch between
realities for brave women on the ground and what was agreed today.
The real work starts now,” Sjoberg added.
Fraught negotiations were held over the
text.
