Inter Press Service - December 18, 2002
Marwaan Macan-Markar

This triumph stood out this week at the end of a regional conference on population, after an overwhelming majority of Asia-Pacific governments refused to accept a view Washington was attempting to force out of the gathering.

Their resolve was strengthened further when amid heated debates in the conference, the U.S. delegation called for a recorded vote on two issues in the final document that it had consistently objected to during the Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference, which ran from Dec. 11-17.

The call for a vote was unprecedented, say U.N. officials, since these conferences often work to reach consensus. The controversial issues at hand were the document's language on "reproductive rights and reproductive health" and "adolescent reproductive health"'.

Over 30 countries voted in favour of the language on these two issues, and the United States cast the lone dissenting vote. Two countries, Nepal and Sri Lanka, abstained.

The U.S. delegation also ended up endorsing other sections of the conference's 20-page plan of action for the Asia-Pacific that it had, till Monday evening, raised objections to. Their objections included sections on the regional policy towards HIV/AIDS and gender equality.

Given the political squabbles that surrounded the conference, Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said the final outcome is an impressive achievement. "I'm fully satisfied," she said.

Likewise, she said, the plan of action to shape reproductive health policies in the region was "not watered down," she added. Thus, the Asian countries "have endorsed the (International Conference on Population and Development) ICPD", she said, referring to policies agreed upon at the Cairo conference in 1994.

Meantime, the broader implications of Asian governments and activists' triumphs here excite both official delegates and women's rights and reproductive health rights activists.

"It is significant, for it means we can collectively say no to U.S. attempts to shape our region's policy," said a South Asian government delegate. "It will force the U.S. government to pause and take stock of why this happened."

"Given the way the U.S. participated during the negotiations, it was clear they were determined to influence us," he added. "I don't think they expected to come up against this unified Asian position."

According to Sandra Kabir, the outcome of this conference could inspire other regions to resist moves by the administration of President George W Bush to rewrite global commitments on reproductive health services and rights.

"There will be repercussions from this," said Kabir, senior programme advisor at the International Council on Management of Population Programmes, a Kuala Lumpur-based non-governmental organisation (NGO). "The Asia-Pacific governments have shown other groupings that you can stand up to the U.S."

"The U.S. came in overconfident and arrogant with the intention of making their point, but they misjudged the Asian reality badly," she added.

Washington did not secure support even from the region's Muslim countries, which time and again have seen eye to eye with the United States on reproductive health policies.

Even Iran, which earlier this year supported Washington's objections to reproductive health services during the annual session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), joined its Asian counterparts this time.

The Bangkok meeting was the first in a series of regional meetings that are seeking to affirm and advance the programme of action that came out of ICPD.

In Cairo, 179 countries, including the United Sates, endorsed landmark population polices, which secured universal support for gender equality and reproductive health services and rights.

The Cairo programme of action guaranteed women services to ensure safe motherhood, to enjoy the benefits of voluntary family planning, to have protection from gender-based violence and be helped to address sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

The global debate at that time grew after some groups, including church-based ones, interpreted reproductive health services as encouraging early sexual activity and promiscuity, or abortion.

But activists fear that the Cairo principles are under threat from the Bush administration's effort to push policies being urged by a conservative constituency in the United States.

In January last year, Bush satisfied this constituency by declaring a funding freeze for organisations that provide family planning services, including advice on abortions and counselling on parenthood, to women in the developing world.

In July this year, Washington decided to withhold 34 million U.S. dollars in contributions to UNFPA, saying that the funds were being diverted to fund abortions.

This tough stance by the U.S. government on reproductive health policies - particularly any activity it suspects of being partial to abortions - was at the heart of Washington's drive to sway things its way at the Bangkok meeting.

According to Eugene Dewey, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration who led his government's delegation at the meeting here, the Bush administration "supports the sanctity of life from conception to natural death".

A Filipino activist revealed that Washington exerted pressure on Asian governments to fall in line with its view at the Bangkok meeting. "Our Philippine delegation received extreme pressure from back home, as well as inside the negotiation room, to come to the side of the U.S. delegation," Gladys Malayang of the Manila-based Women's Health Care Foundation said in a statement.

Yet a U.S. activist feels that this week's events will not stop the Washington juggernaut from its mission to secure international support for its views on reproductive health.

"This defeat will not stop them," said Sally Ethelston of the Washington D.C.-based Population Action International. "They want it their way or no way." (END/IPS/AP/NA/PR/DV/IP/MMM/JS/02) .

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