International.

Ipas, an international reproductive rights organisation based in the United States, organised 50 organisations worldwide (including ARROW, the Network of Asia-Pacific Youth and Sisters in Islam) to sign a letter expressing support for Amnesty International's (AI) adoption of a policy on abortion. The letter was sent in March 2007 to Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International U.S.A. The draft policy under consideration by AI would establish its position on access to health care for the management of complications arising from abortion; on access to abortion in cases of rape, incest or risk to a woman's life; and on the removal of criminal penalties for those who seek or provide abortions. Ipas supports AI's adoption of a policy on abortion but believes a stronger policy in line with human rights principles would promote a woman's right to abortion unconditionally and without restrictions.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the African Union, and the United Nations Treaty Monitoring Committee have identified the human rights implications of unsafe abortion. Without access to safe services, nearly 70,000 women die and an estimated five million are hospitalised annually due to complications. The overwhelming burden of these deaths and injuries falls on poor women.

Source: Patty Skuster, Policy Associate. Ipas, USA. Tel.: [phone]. Email: [e-mail] Website: www.ipas.org

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: ARROW was likewise invited to provide a feminist and woman-centred analysis of the draft policy at the AI Malaysia Annual General Meeting on 15 April 2007 in Kuala Lumpur. AI has subsequently adopted the policy, incorporating selected aspects of abortion into its broader policy on sexual and reproductive rights. AI's 6/14/07 press release states that the policy "support(s) decriminalisation of abortion, to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion, and to defend women's access to abortion, within reasonable gestational limits, when their health or human rights are in danger."

Sex-selective abortion became one of the centrally-debated issues at the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which was held from 26 February to 9 March 2007 in New York City and was attended by 91 member states, 2,000 civil society groups, and an estimated 4,000 people. This year's theme, "the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and Violence against the Girl Child," ought to have been a perfectly "safe" issue, but rightwing groups used the forum to try to push for their anti-choice agenda. A resolution on sex-selective abortion was introduced by the United States and was supported by antichoice organisations. The resolution was seen by SRHR activists as a sly attempt to put language into international documents that can be used to limit women's access to abortion and other reproductive health services worldwide. (1)

Elisha Dunn-Georgio of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) explains: Media attention to practices in India and China where preference for male children has resulted in the use of ultrasounds to determine foetal sex has been a boon for the right-wing. Instead of focusing on the root societal causes of gender inequality that have given rise to disproportionate value placed on males, right-wing groups instead use this situation to try and assert arguments of foetal personhood and foetal rights....The presence of [these] groups at the U.N. is alarming to say the least. But more alarming perhaps is the growing influence they wield and their ability to have their ultraconservative voices heard when it comes to making policies on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) internationally. To argue against sex-selective abortion on a platform based on a "right to be born" is of course a sneaky right-wing way to whittle away at the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls. Boy preference and sex-selective abortion is without a doubt one form of discrimination against girls and women. But, as Yakin Erturk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, repeatedly pointed out at various presentations, this form of discrimination has the same root causes such as poverty, economics, and gender inequality that underlie all other forms of violence against women. And it is not until we address these issues that we will be able to truly meet the CSW objective of ending all discrimination and violence against the girl-child. (2)

United States Ambassador Patricia Brister, in explaining why the U.S. ended up having to withdraw the resolution due to lack of support, expressed the U.S. delegation's displeasure that the final Agreed Conclusions actually extended SRHR to girls by including "multiple references to programmes and activities to help girls understand their sexuality." (1)

In the end, the agreed CSW conclusions only had one reference to prenatal sex selection, as follows: "Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, which may have significant repercussions on society as a whole (14.9 h)." (3)

Sources: (1) SIECUS. March 2007. International Right Wing Watch (IRWW). (2) Dunn-Georgiou, Elisha. "Right-wingers at the Commission on the Status of Women." Available at: www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/03/06/ right-wingers-at-the-commission-on-the-status-of-women SIECUS, 1706 R Street, NW Washington, DC 20009. Tel.: [phone]. Fax.: [phone], (3) CSW Agreed Conclusions, available at: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/51sess.htm#outcomes