At
UN, Friday
Turns Saturday
on Sexual
Rights Fights,
CPD47
Surpasses 46
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
11-12 -- It
was just another
Friday night
at the UN,
this time a
fight over the
Commission on
Population and
Development.
Again, the
culture wars:
a dispute over
"sexual and
reproductive
health" and
rights.
It
was past 11
pm. The
Permanent
Representative
of Kenya, this
month's
chair of the
African Group,
said there
would be no sleight of
hand
solution.
He went into
Conference
Room A with
other
Permanent
Representatives,
including
those of
Norway and
then of
Cameroon, who
told Inner
City Press
that "in
African we
don't do
Programs of
Action, we do
Declarations."
It would be
another long
night.
In
Egypt's
delegation
again was
Mervat
Tallaway, of
which Inner
City
Press previously
reported when
she headed
ESCWA in
Beirut.
Others
noted the
irony that the
UN Population
Fund, UNFPA,
is headed by
Babatunde
Osotimehin of
Nigeria but
his country is
taking a
different
view. This
split was
contrasted,
for example,
with elsewhere
in the
UN system
Frenchman
Herve Ladsous
using
his post atop
UN
Peacekeeping
to serve
France.
"That's not
the UN," a
Permanent
Representative
said. But for
now it is.
Meanwhile
when
UNFPA's
Representative
in Sudan was
thrown out on
April 7, the
UN tried to
say nothing.
Inner City
Press wrote
about it, went
to the
noon briefing
and asked,
and only after
that got a
(non)
statement
from UNFPA.
What's next?
While as
increasingly
often in the
UN there was
little media
coverage, Inner
City Press and
another
reporter were
told they
could not enter
Conference
Room 1 through
its front
door. The Free UN Coalition for Access objected;
access was
gained.
During
the lull
several
Ambassadors
came to
speaking about
"the
Burundi
cable," here.
Some predicted
that the SRSG
might be
tossed out
even before
the UN's
mandate
expires at the
end of the
year.
Down
on the floor
of Conference
Room 1, a
delegate noted
that now CPD47
had surpassed
"last year
when we ended
at 13 minutes
after
midnight." And
there was no
end in sight.
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UN. Watch
this site.
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