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Summary: UNITED NATIONS, May 10 -- The 189-
nation U.N. General Assembly tonight
adopted a bitterly contested
document that charts the U.N.'s
strategy for confronting a range of
afflictions facing children, from
poverty to the recruitment of child
combatants and increasing HIV
infection rates.
By Colum Lynch
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, May 11, 2002; Page A22
UNITED NATIONS, May 10 -- The 189-nation U.N. General
Assembly tonight adopted a bitterly contested document that
charts the U.N.'s strategy for confronting a range of afflictions
facing children, from poverty to the recruitment of child
combatants and increasing HIV infection rates.
The pact followed months of acrimonious debate between the
United States, backed by several Islamic states and the Vatican,
and European, Latin American and Asian governments, over
abortion, the death penalty and the rights of adolescents to
obtain access to reproductive health care and sex education.
The accord was struck hours after the United States had reached
a compromise with the European Union over the most
contentious issue, a reference in the document, entitled 'A World
Fit for Children,' to the promotion of "reproductive health
services," a phrase that has been used in several previous U.N.
conferences, but that Bush administration officials said may be
interpreted to include abortions.
The deal involved eliminating the word "services" from the text
but adding a commitment to honor the outcomes of previous
conferences that contained a reference to the word. The 15-
member EU also agreed to add a reference to sexual abstinence
and to remove language that calls directly for the abolition of the
death penalty for children under the age of 18.
The United States, in turn, dropped a proposal to define the
family as a union "based on marriage between a man and
woman." Instead, the document recognizes "various forms of the
family."
The deal nearly unraveled after delegates from Latin America and
other industrialized nations outside of the European Union
stormed out of the closed-door negotiations when the
compromise was first presented by one of the chief negotiators,
Hans Heinrich Schumacher, of Germany. But they reluctantly
agreed to accept it despite concerns that it represented a retreat
from previous U.N. commitments.
"This document falls significantly short," said Gilbert Laurin of
Canada after the vote. He said women should have 'the right to
make informed choices about ones own sexual and reproductive
health.'
Carol Bellamy, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund
(UNICEF), which sponsored the three-day summit, said the 26-
page document would "promote healthy lives" for the world's 2
billion children, increase access to quality education and protect
children against violence, abuse, AIDS and other deadly diseases.
Major successes since the first World Summit of Children in 1990
include the near eradication of polio and the reduction in annual
deaths by nearly 3 million. But the United Nations said that more
than 11 million children die of preventable diseases, and more
than 6,000 children are infected each year by the virus that
causes AIDS.
"The biggest scandal, if not crime, is that we deny children
information, the right to know, and the support that would allow
them to grow up in a much safer world," said Peter Piot, the head
of the U.N. AIDS program.
The Bush administration came under intense fire from child rights
advocates who fear that the document has diluted the United
Nations' previous commitment to deliver sexual education and
reproductive health care to poor women and adolescents in the
developing world.
Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of
America, said the United States was seeking to "deny basic
information and basic health care services women need to lead
decent lives and make healthy responsible decisions. They are
giving them ideology instead. Well, ideology won't prevent HIV."
Richard Grenell, spokesman at the U.S. mission here, denied the
document would harm children. He said the "document
underscores the importance of protecting children from armed
conflict, child prostitution and child pornography and makes the
world safer for children," he said.
Association: The Washington Post