I have been attending CPDs for around 15 years , but for the last 3 years they have deteriorated , from our perspective. This has coincided with the used of a final Chairman's text that is forced on everyone at the last minute , with a take it or leave it attitude. There is paranoia among delegates at the thought of no document. No document may mean no development money.
The starting document , on adolescents and youth , was released on 28 March. This document was not too egregious , but still had nine mentions of Reproductive Heath , one of reproductive Choices , two on abortion , no mention of mothers , fathers , parents or jobs for young people. There were five references to marriage , all of them negative. This was a bad starting document and we know it would get worse.
Negotiations started on Thursday 19 April , the day I arrived in New York. NGOs are now barred from the negotiating room , so we cannot see at first hand the intimidation , threatening and coercions , I mean the negotiations !
Over the next few days there were eleven drafts , the final one coming out on Thursday 26 April at 6.50pm. Now remember the conference must finish the next day around 6pm. This last negotiated document had two hundred and four ( 204 ) reproductive references , of these 126 were reproductive health and 18 of reproductive rights. Any self respecting abortion activist would be able to squeeze out a right to abortion from all of these.. Then there were 46 places for abortion , 16 for mothers , 4 for fathers . And of course that minute minority in society got 6 sexual orientations and 6 gender identities. There were 35 mentions of marriage , all negative. There was no way there would be any consensus , even though negotiations went on past midnight. Everyone knew this but they all had to play the game. We were told that a chairman's text would be produced at 11am the next day , Friday 27 April.
However the text was not available until 1.30pm.
The plenary was meant to start at 3pm. It finally got going at 3.40pm. The chair , from Indonesia , then spent a lot of time explaining how his text was not perfect , " the perfect being the enemy of the good" etc. Then many countries spoke up , many not happy. Only the Holy See was sensible in their comments. The meeting was suspended at 5pm for delegates to be browbeaten into submission ( I mean consult ) and return at 5.30pm.
At 7.35pm the meeting restarted without interpretation , the Algerian delegate complained , and then at the end of the meeting the Benin ambassador complained in French , which was a bit silly as most people could not understand French.
Then the reservations and interpretive statements were read out. Uganda spoke up for parents right to control their children's education and also made a reference to their national laws. The pro-lifers clapped very loudly after this. Kenya supported sexual and reproductive health and rights . The pro-abort NGOs clapped after this. Algeria , for the African group thanked the Chairman. The USA then told everyone that financing for development was not appropriate for this meeting. So there was no money on offer from them . The new Ambassador from Malta , gave a great pro-life intervention and asked for his statement to be included in the record. Guatemala spoke up for the role of the family. Hungary said they now protect life from conception and that " in no case shall abortion be used as a method of family planning". Tunisia mentioned cultural and religious practices. China liked the text , said it was balanced and they liked the reproductive health wording. Belgium spoke for the " like minded group " , these were European countries , including the UK. He claimed there was important progress on reproductive health and reproductive rights. Also he liked the youth representatives who were at the meeting. Poland bravely gave a good pro-life intervention , and did not want abortion promoted. Brazil praised the UN and said he had " Hope in this organisation". Russia spoke up for the rights of parents , especially regarding sex education. Egypt , speaking for 21 countries mentioned their previous reservation to the original Cairo meeting , but it was a weak statement. Chile said they protected life from conception , and had no abortion. We clapped after this. Costa Rica supported sexual and reproductive health. The delegate from Indonesia let their youth delegates speak who had had a precious experience and spoke of " our rights ". Poor deluded young lady. New Zealand said that sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights would advance young peoples lives.
Last and by no means least came the Holy See , in my view the conscience of the world at UN meeting. Fr. Bene bravely re-iterated the prior right of parents to educate their children. He said that the UNESCO guidelines on comprehensive sexuality education promoted immoral and reckless behaviour . That abortion was never safe as it killed the unborn child and injures the mother. He said that mothers and unborn children were very dear to him. Then he said that youth can be as young as 10 years of age. Lastly he admonished the meeting for neglecting to concentrate on development and jobs for young people. All the pro-life people clapped to hard that their hand hurt.
The meeting officially closed at 8.10pm. And so the term consensus language has completely lost all of its meaning. There was no true consensus as this meeting. How on earth can there be agreement , and consensus with all of the above reservations.
Opposite is a picture of myslef , looking at the camera , Pat Buckley my colleague from Dublin and Tim Hermann from C-Fam. Picture taken at 3:15pm on Friday27 April
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