In Belize, Global “Gay” Movement’s Legal Roadshow Comes to Town
Ten years ago, the late, great American jurist Robert Bork wrote a short book entitled Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges. He described how the “American disease” of judicial legislating—activists using constitutional courts “to outflank majorities and nullify their votes” on controversial social issues—was becoming a global phenomenon. Among other examples, Bork noted a [...]
Family Denied Asylum in US, They Should Have Said They Were Gay
The AP reports on a US Apeals Court decision to leave a family of homeschoolers at the mercy of the German Government, even though the Court found that the US Constitution forbids the state from prohibiting homeschooling. The family faces impossible fines and loss of custody of their children if they are returned to Germany. They should [...]
Global Abortion Lobby Stuck at the Rubicon. A Hobbit is Sneaking By…
“Though Shalt not pass!” Last week at the Commmission of the Status of Women, nations that cherish traitional values were able to halt the advance of the global abortion lobby towards abortion as a human right. Despite attempting to do so for over 40 yrs, nations and groups that want abortion to be a human [...]
Groups Ask U.S. to Back Off Demand for Abortion at UN
Over 20 groups are asking U.S. Secretary of State to end the U.S. obstruction over abortion at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Here is the letter sent today: Dear Secretary Kerry, This week the United States has an opportunity to advance international efforts to prevent violence against women and girls through the [...]
Monitoring the Monitors
As reported in last week’s Friday Fax, Alliance Defending Freedom took the floor recently at a General Assembly forum on how to reform United Nations Treaty Bodies, calling on the Treaty Bodies not to usurp functions that do not rightfully belong to them. These treaty monitoring bodies, also called “Compliance Committees,” are generally empowered to [...]
Had the woman been a man… Comments on the ECHR ruling of X and others v. Austria on homosexual adoption and the abandonment of natural law.
Director of the ECLJ. The Court establishes that the impossibility of second-parent adoption in a same-sex relationship is discriminatory when such adoption is possible for unmarried heterosexual couples, although the exclusion of the biological parent. The reasoning may be thus summarised: If the woman had been a man, the adoption would have been possible, so it [...]
Pro-Life Organizations Engage Human Rights Council
Several pro-life and pro-family organizations have submitted statements to the Advisory Committee to the Human Rights Council to ask that universal values shared by all civilizations and cultures, including the right to life of unborn children and the natural family as the fundamental unit of society, are not forgotten in the quest to promote and protect [...]
Freedom of Speech and LGBT Rights: Many Traditions Don’t Agree With Homosexuality
In recent years same-sex marriage proponents and groups claiming a host of new international LGBT rights have been able to make even international law somewhat interesting. It is no secret that International law is not terribly exciting – reading the minutes of a meeting of the UN International Law Commission or an international human rights body is [...]
The Culture of Death, the Dictatorship of Relativism and the Inter-American Court
Late yesterday the Inter-American Court of Human Rights released a lengthy opinion (Murillo et al. v. Costa Rica, dated November 28, 2012) holding that Costa Rica’s law which protects life at its earliest stages by prohibiting in vitro fertilization violates the American Convention on Human Rights. In so doing, the Court turned the Convention, which protects [...]
URGENT: Sign up for UNFPA’s Global Youth Forum!
CALL FOR YOUTH TO SIGN UP! Are you between the ages of 14-25? Do you know someone that age? Then you must register, and tell other to do the same, as a delegate at the UNFPA’s Global Youth Forum that will take next week in Bali, between December 3-6. The Forum is being sponsored by [...]
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Still Divide UN General Assembly
Yesterday afternoon the United Nations General Assembly adopted its biannual resolution on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. Once again, the third committee proceedings at which the resolution was adopted, by 108 votes to 1, with 65 abstentions, were mired in controversy over “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SOGI). An attempt by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [...]
Human Rights Official Riles Up UN Delegates, Fire Alarm Goes Off
Yesterday was UN Day. A day to celebrate the accomplishments of the world’s only universal international organization, and the progress of the world’s nations towards a brighter more peaceful future. But UN delegates at the third committee meeting of the 67th plenary session of the General Assembly were more concerned with highlighting overreaching by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. [...]
“Sovereignty or Submission” Wins ISI Award
Our hearty congratulations to John Fonte. The Hudson Institute scholar’s latest book, “Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others?” has been awarded Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s (ISI) Paolucci-Bagehot book award for 2012. Here is Susan Yoshihara’s review of the book in the Friday Fax: Book Review: Sovereignty or Submission? By Susan [...]
Top human rights office trying to criminalize pro-life groups?
A reporter just asked me to comment on a story suggesting that 2012 OHCHR technical guidance on maternal mortality seeks to criminalize pro-life organizations. While the OHCHR may well approve such an outcome, this aim is not clear in the text of the document. Here are the pertinent paragraphs of the technical guidance: 22. States should protect against interference with [...]
Dutch Abortion Ship Heads to Muslim Country
The Dutch abortion boat that has made more headlines than trips is headed to its first Muslim country. Its pro-abortion organizer Rebecca Gomperts has decided that now, in the midst of violent protests blamed on an anti-Islamic video, is the time to insult a majority-Muslim country. Women on Waves chugs its dilapidated ship just outside [...]
Involuntary sterilization of the disabled
One positive outcome of the latest gathering of states parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is that it highlighted the abuses of government population programs, namely, forced sterilization. In 1996, Maria Mamerita Mestanza Chavez, a 33-year-old Peruvian mother of seven, was threatened with imprisonment if she did not comply with [...]
48 Hours for Religious Freedom: September 22-23, 2012
Join people around the globe on the weekend of September 22-23, 2012, in raising awareness about the persecuted Church in Iran. Stand with the persecuted. « 48 Hours for Religious Freedom » is a worldwide gathering of people of faith to raise international awareness about religious discrimination and persecution so that, together, we can stand against discrimination [...]
No Need to Ratify New UN Treaty
Yesterday Wendy Wright and I spent our lunch hour at the new state of the art US Mission to the UN at 45th St and 1st Ave. We attended a side event hosted by the US delegation to the UN on Disability Rights. The side event was held because of the ongoing Conference of States Parties [...]
Human Rights Roulette: What it Means to Ratify a New UN Treaty
The United Nations Convention on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities is certainly a nobly inspired document, but it creates more problems than it solves. The Senate thankfully has not been able to vote on the ratification of the new treaty, this week, in time for the summer recess. But sooner, rather than later, and possibly as soon [...]
Abortion Advocates Introduce Outline to Advance Contraceptive Services as a Human Right
A one day conference meant to be a lead-up to the UK Family Planning Summit in London reporting the findings of a series of Family Planning studies by Lancet medical journal included an announcement by one researcher proclaiming that national and international law mandated by human rights requires all states implement family planning programs. Paul [...]