Non-Aligned Movement Meeting in Egpyt this Week to discuss UN Reform
The Ministerial Coordinating Bureau of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is meeting in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt this week in preparation for the 16th annual NAM Summit Conference to be held in Tehran in November later this year. The coordinating bureau has announced that it will discuss the following: A review international law; promotion [...]
The Problem with Climate Scientists, Politicans and Car Salesmen…
… Is that none of them know what they are talking about most of the time, and when they do, they are usually lying. It’s a well documented fact. Politicians are among the least trusted professionals (if we can call them that) together with lobbyists and car sales people, according to the most recent Gallup [...]
Not “Rights” vs. “Freedom” – Reclaiming the Universal Declaration from the Left (and Defending It from the Right)
The latest issue of the New Criterion contains an article by Andrew C. McCarthy, entitled “Future Tense, VIII: Enter Totalitarian Democracy: On the Difficulties of Making Law in the Modern World.” Both the article and the author have much to recommend them, and the danger of transnationalist elites imposing anti-democratic social policy McCarthy warns against [...]
How Much “Green” Does it Take to Make the Green Economy? G77 Derailing the Green Agenda at the UN
Are you wondering how many businesses have to become “green” before the dream of the “green economy” becomes a reality? It seems like everything has to be green nowadays, whether its green jobs, green energy, or green skills. Now there is even green dry cleaning. Duh! If you feel like this is going to far, [...]
Maternal Mortality Hijacked by Abortion Advocates
An inaugural conference on “Global Health, Gender and Human Rights” was recently held at American University Washington Center for Law (WCL) and co-sponsored by PAHO/WHO and Royal Norwegian Embassy in Guatemala, which promoted the use of international human rights treaties as tools to “improve health policies” including advancing legalized abortion under the guise of reducing [...]
Gay Marriage is Not a Human Right. Says European Court of Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights does not require member states’ governments to grant same-sex couples access to marriage. The European Court of Human Rights repeated this ruling in the case of Gas and Dubois v. France, a judgment decided last week in Strasburg involving a french lesbian couple in a civil union. The lesbian [...]
Sovereignty in Action: Beating Back Beaurocratic Inertia at the UN
Sovereignty is a word that isn’t used within the UN superstructure, its bureaucracies, thousands of documents, reports and resolutions and frankly even UN member states. The UN system always tries to work towards achieving consensus, and to merely mention that each and every individual state has a the power and sovereign prerogative to undo consensus [...]
The End of the MDGs?
This morning the Secretary General, and Rebeca Grynspan, Associate Administrator of UNDP, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser on the MDGs, held a press conference to report on the progress towards achieving the MDG’s. The SG described Sachs and Grynspan as his “top development experts and senior advisers.” They cited a report issued this week [...]
US Ratification of CEDAW Focus at World Bank Event
To commemorate International Women’s Day the World Bank in collaboration with the Nordic Trust Fund, the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the UN Foundation, hosted an event on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and women’s rights to focus on the success of CEDAW in advancing gender equality in [...]
From Russia with Love: 126 non-governmental Organisations in Russia and Ukraine condemn UN attempts to manufacure false “human rights”
On 24 November 2011, representatives from 126 non-governmental organisations in Russia and Ukraine have adopted an impressive statement called the Saint-Petersburg-Resolution, calling the UN and its various organisations to order. The Resolution, which in unconpromising language condemns the “anti-family tendencies prevailing in the UN and various of its committees”, is built on the model of [...]
No…Ratifying CEDAW is not about unisex bathrooms and ending Mothers’ Day
I just read an op-ed by Linda Tarr-Whelan, calling for the U.S. to ratify CEDAW. Whelan is a former U.S. ambassador to U.N. Commission on the Status of Women during the Clinton administration. Whelan used a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, who said America must be “the best possible mirror of democracy” since “the people of [...]
Regulating “Hate Speech” Part II –the Yogyakarta Agenda Advances at the Expense of Fundamental Freedoms at UN Conference in Chile
In a previous posting I called attention to red flags over free speech raised at the first Expert Workshop on the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred, sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Indeed, the entire project, ostensibly intended to aid the Human Rights Committee as it drafts a “General Comment” outlining [...]
PIERO TOZZI speaks at Human Life International’s Second International Congress for Truth and Life in Brazil
Here is an interview from the Catholic News Agency of C-FAM’s senior fellow Piero Tozzi. He was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, speaking at a Human Life international Conference. He told those in attendance that “there is no such thing in international law as a ‘right to abortion.’ This is a concept that is completely fabricated [...]
The ECtHR decision in the case of S.H. and others v. Austria – some further considerations
By a previous post readers ofthis blog have been informed of the recent decision by a Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of S.H. and others vs. Austria. This judgment reverses an earlier Chamber judgment of that Court that would have turned access to “herologous” IVF techniques (i.e. assisted [...]
Meaning, Relativism, Pickled Herring, Tyranny…
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s [...]
The 50th Session of the CEDAW Committee is Concluded
The 50th Session of the CEDAW Committee conluded last week in Geneva. The Committee issued its Final Observations to Chad, Côte d’ Ivoire, Kuwait, Lesotho, Mauritius, Montenegro, Oman, Paraguay. The obligations the Committee has been imposing on the countries reporting to CEDAW during the 50th session include: access to abortion and mandatory sexual education at [...]
UN Special Rapporteur says Criminal Laws and Legal Restrictions on Abortion are a Violation of the Right to Health
Anand Grover, the Special Rapporteur on the ‘right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’ appeared before the third committee yesterday and presented a report addressing criminal laws and other restrictions on abortion and their effect on reproductive rights . The report asserts that “Criminal laws penalizing and restricting induced [...]
CEDAW Pushes Radical Abortion Agenda on Costa Rica
The CEDAW Committee Continues to Misrepresent the Convention on Discrimination Against Women and continues to impose its reproductive rights agenda on signatories.
Columbus Day Shenanigans at the UN
Costa Rica Sued By Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
According to an article at Jurist, Costa Rica is being sued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights over their IVF ban. Costa Rica has effectively upheld its ban on in-vitro fertilization in the face of pressure from the Commission and abortion advocacy organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights. Read the Jurist article here. [...]