Nairobi, Kenya, Nov 14, 2019 / 05:35 pm (CNA).- On the sidelines of the Nairobi Summit, the US and 10 other nations delivered a joint statement Thursday indicating their commitment to women’s health, and their concern over the summit’s process and content.
The statement echoes concerns that the international gathering is too focused on “reproductive rights”.
“We are … concerned about the content of some of the key priorities of this Summit,” read the Nov. 14 joint statement from the US, Brazil, Belarus, Egypt, Haiti, Hungary, Libya, Poland, Senegal, St. Lucia, and Uganda.
“We do not support references in international documents to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which do not enjoy international consensus … In addition, the use of the term SRHR may be used to actively promote practices like abortion.”
The Nov. 12-14 Nairobi Summit is sponsored by the UN Population Fund and the governments of Kenya and Denmark, and it marks the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, which was held in Cairo.
Its program includes five themes, among which are “Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as a part of universal health coverage” and “Upholding the right to sexual and reproductive health care even in humanitarian and fragile contexts.”
The 11 nations opposed to the summit’s abortion focus recalled that the 1994 Cairo Conference “had as its stated objectives and actions to collectively address the critical challenges and interrelationships between population and sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development.”
In the past 25 years “many countries have made substantial progress in reducing death rates and increasing education and income levels, including by improving the educational and economic status of women. It is noteworthy that, as opposed to the population growth predictions included in the ICPD Program of Action, these predictions have not come to pass,” the joint statement noted.
“Indeed, in most regions of the world today, fertility is below population replacement rates. As a result, family planning should focus both on the voluntary achievement of pregnancy as well as the prevention of unwanted pregnancy.”
The 11 countries affirmed the “key foundational principles” of the Cairo Conference, saying, “We strongly support the holistic pursuit of the highest attainable outcomes of health, life, dignity, and well-being … this includes but is not limited to: reproductive concerns; maternal health; primary health care; voluntary and informed family planning; family strengthening; equal educational and economic opportunities for women and men.”
“We wish to emphasize that the agreement reached at Cairo remains a solid foundation for addressing new challenges within a consensus-driven process that gives each government equal opportunity to negotiate a broadly accepted document within the UN, reaffirming that health is a precondition for and an outcome and indicator of the realization of ICPD,” read the joint statement.
The nations said the Cairo Conference’s action program was “approved by consensus” because, in part, it “made clear that the conference did not create any new international human rights.”
The joint statement noted, “There is no international right to abortion; in fact, international law clearly states that ‘[e]veryone has the right to life’” and that the Cairo Conference said “that countries should ‘take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion, which in no case should be promoted as a method of family planning’ (ICPD 7.24) and to ‘reduce the recourse to abortion’.”
The 11 countries added that they “cannot support a sex education that fails to adequately engage parents and which promotes abortion as a method of family planning.”
They indicated that “we would have appreciated more transparency and inclusiveness in the preparation of the Conference, including regarding criteria for civil society participation. While the Cairo ICPD Program of Action was negotiated and implemented with and by the entire UN General Assembly membership, only a small handful of governments were consulted on the planning and modalities of the 2019 Nairobi Summit. Therefore, outcomes from this summit are not intergovernmentally negotiated, nor are they the result of a consensus process. As a result, they should not be considered normative.”
The countries said the Nairobi Summit “is centered on only certain aspects of the ICPD Program of Action and does not fully reflect all views and positions of the Member States … unless negotiated and adopted by consensus of all Member States, within the process and structure of an international body such as the UN General Assembly, no ICPD follow-on document has consensual weight or standing amongst governments.”
“We call upon Member States to maintain the original and legitimate 1994 ICPD principles … that explicitly retain important government statements and reservations that permitted consensus, to reiterate their reservations to the ICPD Program of Action as reflected in the conference’s report, and to focus our efforts, resources, and determination to fulfill the unfinished work of attaining sustainable development for every nation so as to promote the dignity of the human person and human flourishing.”
The objections of the 11 countries represented by the joint statement echoed concerns from the Holy See and from bishops in Kenya.
The Holy See is not partipating in the summit, saying that the organizers chose “to focus the conference on a few controversial and divisive issues that do not enjoy international consensus and that do not reflect accurately the broader population and development agenda outlined by the ICPD.”
“The ICPD and its encompassing Programme of Action within the international community’s broad development agenda should not be reduced to so-called ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ and ‘comprehensive sexuality education,’”, the Holy See stated.
Bishop Alfred Rotich, Bishop Emeritus of the Military Ordinariate of Kenya and chair of the Kenyan bishops’ family life office, told ACI Africa: “We find such a conference not good for us, (and) destroying the agenda for life.”
Archbishop Martin Kivuva of Mombasa described the summit’s agenda as “unacceptable according to our teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The US delivered a commitment statement at the summit Nov. 13, saying it is committed “to empowering women and girls to thrive, but this statement is only intended for the purposes of this reading and is not to be used as an endorsement of the commitments of this summit.”
The commitment statement added that the US “has been, and will be a prime advocate and will continue to invest in programs which empower women and girls to realize their full potential, reinforce their inherent dignity, promote and advance their equality, protect their inalienable rights, and support optimal health outcomes across their lifespans. Families, positive male figures, (including caring fathers), communities, and civil society, (including faith based organizations), play an important role in supporting women and girls to thrive.”
Dr. Frederick Wamalma, regional president of Pax Romana International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, told ACI Africa that the desire of many participants in the Nairobi Summit to have a decreasing rate of population growth in Africa is a fallacy.
“Africa needs to focus on population growth because we need to grow the population of working people, which is very important for us,” he said.
“If you go to some of the European countries, they don’t have the working age population. So, they have this larger population of old people who are no longer working. We don’t want to be caught up with what we’re seeing there,” Wamalma stated.
He added: “From a developing country point of view, population shouldn’t be a problem. What we need to be stressed with is being able to give these young people who are coming, joining the labour market the right skills to be able to be productive in the labour market.”
Wamalma stressed that African countries need clear “policies around education, policies around health, policies around labour market, policies around social protection.”
Rep. Chris Smith, a congressman from New Jersey, wrote in a Nov. 11 opinion piece at the Wall Street Journal that through the Nairobi Summit, “the governments of Kenya and Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund are attempting to hijack the U.N.’s global population and development work to support an extreme pro-abortion agenda.”
Smith, who attended the Cairo Conference, said the “conveners of the Nairobi Summit have blocked attendance by conservative organizations and excluded countries and stakeholders that disagree with their agenda from offering input on the substance and planning of the conference,” including the US.
He lamented that “key elements of the Cairo program are missing from the Nairobi Summit agenda,” noting that the ICPD recognized sex-selective abortion as a harmful practice.
“The Nairobi Summit isn’t a true reflection of ICPD but a gathering of like-minded individuals and organizations departing from the Cairo consensus as they promote a pro-abortion agenda while attempting to exploit Cairo’s name and reputation,” the congressman concluded.
To counter the agenda of the Nairobi Summit, the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum, with the backing of Kenya’s bishops, has organized a parallel convention to be held Nov. 11-14.
Magdalene Kahiu contributed to this report.
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Praise God for their fidelity. Perhaps they will begin to send us missionaries soon! Some hypothesize whether the first stop might be the Vatican?
What does cultural Marxism have in common with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Acts 16:31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Blessings
Nigeria, population 214 million 2021 with a large Catholic population, apparently the most severely persecuted subject to murderous attacks by Islamists has by far compared to large nations the highest percentage of regular Mass attendance. Likely to be the vanguard of Catholicism during spreading apostasy elsewhere in the Church.
Nigerians, persecuted by their neighbors as well as a Muslim government that does little to protect them live the life of the beatitudes preached by Christ. They don’t respond with like violence to the heinous murders, bombings of churches. Fulfilling the inspiring words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, “Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue” (Collatio 6 super Credo in Deum).
Like the early Roman Church they flourish by the blood of their martyrs and the radiance of their faith. They possess the fire of Christ’s love.
It should also be noted that these data show that it is the Vatican II Mass – not the old pre-Vatican II Mass – that is used by a major major majority! After all, of the world’s 225,000 parishes, the Tridentine Mass is celebrated in 1,700 only. Or of the 17,000 parishes in the U.S., only 700 have Masses using the 1962 Roman Missal.
Mr. Andrew,
What you say is correct, but does it signify in regard to Nigeria? The Mass in each culture looks a little different. What might benefit us in the West might not be as needed in Africa.
Worldwide in the major major majority, the Church uses the Roman Missal of 1969 (Vatican II) for the celebration of the Eucharist. Because of cultural traditions by way of inculturation, Masses have more or longer singing, and as in the case of many African countries, includes dancing to go with the singing. Surely the Vatican II Mass benefits us – again in the major major majority – in most of the Catholic World especially where Catholicism is booming like in Africa and Asia. In Europe and North America, there is a felt need for Eucharistic Revival not because of the effects of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II but because of the West’s general loss of the sense of the transcendent due to secularism resulting on most Westerners having what Charles Taylor called the “buffered selves,” meaning, no longer in touch with matters spiritual. BTW, the latest reliable figure of those who attend the old pre-Vatican II Mass (using the Roman Missal of 1962) in the U.S. number around 100,000 only. In the around 700 American parishes, that translates into around 140 Catholics in each of these. Tiny tiny minority!
Self-reporting would not be the most obvious approach to getting a scientifically valid measurement, particularly when the #2 country on the list, Kenya, typically ranks near the bottom in global rankings for honesty and corruption, and Nigeria often doesn’t even show up at all. Far better would have been to correlate data on baptisms and deaths and perhaps self-reported religious affiliation to determine the number of Catholics, and comparison of those numbers with measurements of actual church attendance.
God bless Nigeria.
And yet almost all Catholic positions of top Catholic Church Power come from the nations with the lowest Mass attendance and levels of morality. I think what we, the pew Catholics, should demand from Pope Francis, out of his ‘Synod on Synodality’, is that our present Top Power Catholic leadership positions be immediately replaced by Catholics from nations who actually know how to get Christ’s Will done.
Quick Takes:
1. It is very interesting that South America is all over the place; with Columbia and Ecuador looking strong, and Argentina looking pretty bad; the Bergoglio model is moribund. Do recall the Bishops from Brazil, Kräutler & Basso, who ran the Amazon Synod were pushing for married priest and ecoworship, poor Brazil; … pathetic bishops… real losers.
2. Per-capita income is inversely correlated to Mass attendance; but there is another factor also, which is Family size. Those countries with Catholics who dont use the Pill, such as Nigeria, will have higher Mass attendance. Those who value fertility are more likely to value the Mass.
3. Where is China? just kidding.
4. It’s the real losers, such as Germany, that are pushing the “Synodal Way”. I vote that the Nigerians take control of the Synodal Process, and let’s Make the Church Catholic Again! Go Nigeria!
One glaring error in this type of data analysis is how many people who identify as Catholic are really Catholic. Essentially the denominator in this data set ie total number of Catholics, I think is vastly overstated. There is a need to get real and recognize that the number of Catholics that we like to state is just plain wrong. Many have left the Church are just not coming back, although there may be few who return on there death bed.
To think that people in Africa, Asia or South America go to mass in bigger numbers than those in North America, Europe, and Australia because they are economically poorer is erroneous or elitist. Studies after studies of this phenomenon tell a different reason. Those who go to Mass in bigger numbers do so not because of economic reasons but because of the deeper and stronger (and alive!) sense of the transcendent and spiritual they still hold. Meanwhile n continents and countries where Mass attendance have dropped, these studies point to the people’s loss of the sense of the transcendent and the spiritual. For Catholics in the West, it must be noted, this loss is not because of the liturgical reforms of Vatican II or the misleadership of the Church’s top hierarchs but because of the more general (not only among Catholics, but in and of all churches and religions) rise of secularism which brought about this loss of the sense of the transcendent and the spiritual. This results in majority of Westerners having “buffered selves” (meaning, not in touch with spiritual matters) according to the Canadian Catholic sociologist-philosopher Charles Taylor in “A Secular Age.”
I’d agree mostly Andrew, but material things can become idols and a replacement for the transcendent. That’s a danger everywhere when folks become more affluent.
I met a woman from the Netherlands a few years ago who told me that the reason so few Catholics there were attending Mass there was not out of a lack of devotion, but a dire shortage of priests. Perhaps there’s more to this than meets the eye.