Radical Right Goes Abroad
Radical Right Goes Abroad
Four years after President Bush reinstated the Global Gag Rule, a policy that severely restricts funding for any non-governmental organization that performs abortions or advocates for a woman’s right to choose, the administration is back on the attack against allowing reproductive rights to be available to all women. The United States delegation to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is demanding that the platform “make clear that abortion is not a fundamental right.” The same delegate, Ellen Sauerbrey, then proceeded to blame NGOs, the groups actually doing the tough work on the ground, for “trying to distort the issue.” But, in fact, she and other conservative activists have long stood as a barricade to the quest for basic human rights:
• At a U.N. Commission on the Status of Women meeting in 2003, the United States joined with Iran, Egypt, Sudan, and other countries notorious for human rights abuses to raise objections against a platform that was committed “to strengthen legislation to end domestic violence and sexual exploitation and trafficking of women [as well as] educate governments on how to promote and protect women’s human rights.” This block was the “first-ever diplomatic failure” in the meeting body’s history.
• In 2004, Janice Crouse, one of the acting U.S. delegates to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, wrote, “Radical feminists typically use the phrase made famous by now-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) at the United Nations’ Beijing Women’s Conference in the mid-1990s, when she said: ‘Women’s rights are human rights.’ That mantra carries the special agenda of the radical feminists — abortion, lesbianism and quotas.”
• In that same year, Ellen Sauerbrey, current delegate to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, harshly critiqued the committee that oversees the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Also known as the Treaty for the Rights of Women, the United States is the only industrialized nation that has yet to sign on. Sauerbrey continued on to champion maternity and assert, “Marriage — defined as the voluntary union of a man and a woman — has been linked to procreation and the rearing of children from the dawn of time.” These remarks were delivered at an event held by a group stemmed from The Rockford Institute, a “paleo-conservative” organization which the Southern Poverty Law Center has linked to hate groups, and whose founder is described as a “neo-Confederate.”
It is upsetting that our country continues to allow such voices to speak for us on an international stage. More so, it is embarrassing that a nation that claims to champion human rights continues to find itself on the wrong side of the debate when it comes to ensuring the guarantee of women’s rights. At a time when more than one in 10 maternal deaths is due to unsafe abortion procedures, we should be fighting hard to ensure that the right to choose is a safe and viable option for every woman, both at home and abroad.
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As a rule, the higher the status of women, the more democratic, tolerant, and stronger economically the country was! It still holds true today. Worse, there are places that women are considered property in this 21st century!
Iraq just counted the beans of an “election” and is getting ready to form a government and draft a constitution. Reading the tea leaves, the situation doesn’t look promising. Democracy is good, but if it’s not directly connected to freedom and minority rights then it’s just a hollow word.
Some people may argue that if this is what the Iraqis want, they should have it! I’ve also heard something about “cultural relativism,” and that most Iraqi women prefer the “traditional ways.”
The clerics, mullahs and other religious Iraqis want Islamic law, the strict Sharia, to be the law of the land. Which brings us to the question of the status of women under Sharia. If it comes to be, it will mean that women won’t have equal rights; they won’t have the rights enjoyed by men, period! From the moment you define rights based on gender and/or race, you are a bigot, and, basically, not a very good person in my book. Under Sharia law, a man can beat his wife, though “not too badly,” something we can understand, along Gonzales’s line: it’s not torture if there is no organ failure or death!
I’m not trying to turn this into a discussion about religion, but religious beliefs, right or wrong, do guide the actions of many in Iraq today. As long as any religion is used against freedom, democracy and human rights, I fervently oppose it. In addition, I reject the notion of cultural relativism, when it infringes upon fundamental human rights. Should we accept human sacrifices because it’s part of a culture? How about religious child prostitution?
The Bill of Rights makes our Constitution a great living document and clearly defines those rights that cannot be taken away by the government. Those rights are under attack in our country. Yet, those values are universal, and indeed they are liberal values: live your life they way you see appropriate for yourself, but let me do the same. The pursuit of happiness means different things to different people, and it’s OK! As long as I’m not harming anyone else, let me be. The problem with the American Taliban and all other religious fundamentalists is that they don’t want you to do what they don’t approve of.
To be fair to the Iraqi sexist bigots, our American Taliban has a neaderthalian quality in its views regarding women. But, what do you expect from people who argue that women’s lib is such a bad thing that it helped God make a decision to allow the attacks of 911. Did you know that “feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians?” That’s right, we’ve got them here as well, and our Taliban are much worse because they should know better than those who haven’t had any experience with democracy, human rights & individual liberties!
Iraq as a member of the UN and, thus, is under the obligation to uphold human rights; it has also signed the Treaty for the Rights of Women. Of course many countries have singed the same documents only to blatantly disregard them. But, we should keep the spotlight on them. The US and the world community have leverage on Iraq. After Bush changed the purpose of the mission from WMD to democracy, he should now press for Iraq to respect the UN charter and its treaties. It’s the least he can do. And, while at it, he should tell his Republican Senator Lugar to let the Treaty come to a vote. As of the Fall of 2004, a total 179 countries (but not the US) have ratified this treaty for the rights of women!
To quote from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..”
Similarly with your friends, show me your women and I’ll tell you who you are!
March 1st, 2005 at 2:46 pmWhy should a single dollar of taxes be spent on ANY NGO? By what right?
March 1st, 2005 at 2:46 pmWelcome to George Bush’s America.
MPH – do you really think that? Please expand your statement and be specific.
March 1st, 2005 at 3:30 pmI am simply asking – by what right does an NGO have to my wealth? How is that the proper role of the State to redistribute wealth to NGOs?
I am fully in favor of a woman’s right to abortion, here and abroad – but I have no desire to fund them…and if I did, I would contribute to the cause freely. For the State to force people to contribute to such causes is certainly unconstitutional and undoubtedly immoral.
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