23-Jun-2000 -- EWTN Pro-Family News
UNFPA Executive Director Nafis Sadik is reported to have wept prior to delivering her speech to the Special Session of the UN General Assembly at the end of Beijing+5 on June 9. Sadik is said to have been very angry at the losses suffered by radical feminists in the new Beijing+5 document. A governmental delegate standing nearby described Sadik as weeping as she angrily edited what was supposed to have been a victory speech.
"I had hoped to deliver a different sort of statement today, pointing out all the progress that has been made by women and on behalf of women since we met five years ago in Beijing," Sadik's angry remarks began. "I had hoped to be able to join in congratulating all the participants in this process for your work to consolidate the movement towards equality and justice for all the world's people. Unfortunately, it seems that this Special Session is still unable to agree on language concerning some of the most basic human rights as they affect women."
Sadik's most vociferous criticism came on the question of abortion wherein she charged her opponents with wanting "death, disease and suffering " for women. Sadik specifically cited her support of a paragraph in the new document that would have increased "access" to abortion and mandated that medical personnel learn the abortion procedure even if it violated their consciences. This paragraph was soundly defeated a few hours after Sadik's speech.
At times Sadik's talk was laced with sarcasm. "What is the objection to health services for women? Is it only men who should have health services?" Conservative delegates pointed out that the term "services" is a code word for abortion.
Sadik touched on one of the most hotly contested ideas at the conference when she mentioned national sovereignty. "Lest any doubt remain, these negotiations are based firstly on the sovereignty of nations, and secondly on countries' acceptance of human rights. Nothing in the document can in any way infringe countries' sovereign right to make their own laws, within the framework of human rights..." Many nations complain that non-binding UN documents invade their national sovereignty when they are used as binding instruments by UN agencies. Sadik and her radical feminist allies always oppose language that explicitly favors national sovereignty. Critics also believe that Sadik's idea of "human rights" is also code for population control and the spread of abortion.
Sadik closed by accusing her opponents of using ideology to divide the conference. Sadik frequently insists that she and her agency are non-ideological. She also insists that her agency only follows the direction of the UN as decided by sovereign states in intergovernmental negotiations. Her critics point out that Sadik's anger on the night of June 9 demonstrates that she and her agency are among the most ideological agencies in the UN system.
Sadik's anger may be explained by the fact that she is soon to leave the UN after many years. She may have viewed Beijing+5 as her swan song. Assistant Secretary General Angela King called Beijing+5 a victory. Nafis Sadik disagrees.
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