The Pope Versus Condoms and the Pills
The Holy See, by having an observer status at the UN unlike many other religions, has made it possible for the Catholic Church to play active roles in many international conferences organized by the United Nations. During the last two decades of my work with the United Nations, I had seen delegations sent by the Vatican, energetically involved in the negotiations of Plans, Programmes or Platforms of Action of key UN Conferences since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the 1993 Vienna Conference on Human Rights, the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women which I was officially assigned to work in the preparatory process. The Church took high profile position at the 1995 Bejing Conference on Women to influence representatives of the governments, non-governmental organizations and the media by propagating the text of the encyclical “Humanae Vitae”, a conservative Church dogma created by Pope Paul VI in 1968 aiming to ban birth control. The Vatican delegation fought tooth and nails with many progressive NGOs and women’s groups when they promote the use of condoms and birth control pills in family planning programmes and campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS. According to “Humanae Vitae”, using artificial birth control such as the pills and condoms works against the Church’s concept of “marriage” which is to “foster love between partners in order to produce children”. All through the two-year process of preparations of the World Conference on Women, Vatican Spokesmen tried every means to influence the negotiated text of the Platform for Action, a document that the participants agreed to issue to the World when the Conference ended. They targeted for attack the agenda items on reproductive healths, reproductive rights, women’s rights and gender equality. Three months before opening of the Beijing World Conference on Women, Pope John Paul II sent a letter the Conference’s Secretary-General, Gertrude Mongella, to make a strong point that according to the Church’s outlook, “Women and men have been called by the Creator to live in profound communion with one another, with reciprocal knowledge and giving of self, acting together for the common good with the complementary characteristics that which is feminine and masculine. No response to women’s issues can ignore women’s role in the family or take lightly the fact that every new life is totally entrusted to the protection and care of the women carrying in it in her womb”. In the same letter the Pope continued to say that “in order to respect this natural order of things, it is necessary to counter the misconception that the role of motherhood is oppressive to women, and that a commitment to her family, particularly to her children, prevents a woman from reaching personal fulfillment, and women as a whole from having an influence in society”. On this subject, I recently read an article by John Allen Jr., the senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and the author of “The Rise of Benedict XVI, on the Pope vs. the Pill . I disagree with him when he said that Catholicism can and does change. For me, I see no evidence that the Church can change. It seems to me that Catholic Church authorities would rather look the other way than face the facts that, in following the Church’s teaching against the use of condoms and pills, youth around the world are dying every day because of HIV/AIDS, and millions of women are sinking deeper every day into a blackhole of poverty because of producing too many children to feed and care for.
Filed under United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (0)“Ruffling Feathers Is Part of the Job Of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights”
This is what Louis Arbor of Canada, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said before she left the office in June. Coming to this position from her previous job as Chief Prosecutor to the UN War Crimes Tribunal, she was known to have ruffled some feathers by taking a tough stance on the human rights record of some countries, especially those sitting on the Human Rights Council. Judge Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s nominee as the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, has just been confirmed by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly to begin her work in Geneva on the 1st of September. Qualification for this post, according to the General Assembly, is that a person has to be of high moral standing with personal integrety and possess expertise in the field of human rights and the general knowledge and understanding of diverse cultures necessary for impartial, objective, non-selective and effective performance of her duties. Judge Pillay will carry on her new job within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “Ruffling Feathers” is nothing new to her seeing from her background. She had many years of experience in fighting against Apartheid, domestic violence and other human right abuses in her country. She was put under South African Police surveillance when she successfully appealed to the provincial court which gave Mandela and his fellow inmates some very basic legal rights. Her new job as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will require more international diplomacy on the occasions that she will be called to defend victims of human rights abuses by their own government. She will be expected to make the existing human right machinery work in order to renew public confidence in the United Nations. As a global advocate for human rights, she has an important task to strengthen governmental and non-governmental institutions created for human rights education and training. The High Commissioner for Human Rights job is one of the most difficult jobs in the World with high expectations from all levels of society from local, regional and global. I want to join others in congratulating her for this important appointment and to wish her well in her important task of promoting values, beliefs and attitudes that encourage all individuals to uphold their own rights and those of others.
Filed under United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (0)Leger’s Paintings
I have been an admirer of Ferdinand Leger’s geometric paintings for a long time, including the two of his murals which had been installed in 1952 in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations headquarters in New York. Now, the Foundation Beyerler is hosting an exhibition of 80 of his paintings in Basel Switzerland, which will continue until the 7th of September. Thanks to the International Herald Tribune displaying of the slides show of some of his famous paintings, I can enjoy seeing “La femme en blue”, Les grands plongeurs noir”. and “Deux femmes tenant des fleurs” without having to travel to Switzerland myself. Ferdinand Leger was a French painter and a member of the Cubism and Tubism movement. He was born in the Argentan, Orne, Basse-Normandie, and at the young age of 25, began painting and producing numerous pieces of arts until at the age of 74 when he died in Gif-sur-Yvette, Essonne. To me Leger was one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century who had left valuable work for appreciation by the generations to come.
Filed under Art | Comment (0)Improving UN Performance for Gender Equality
In June, the United Nations General Assembly asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to prepare a second concept note detailing the range of institutional options for improving the UN’s performance in gender-related activities. This timely request gives an opportunity for the Secretariat to assess its own performance as to the success and failure in meeting memberstates’ expectation, and the UN’s capacity to meet global commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and the implementation of the Security Council Relolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. What lies behind this General Assembly’s request for a second concept paper was a disagreement among memberstates over the “UN Gender Architechture” recommendation of the 2006 High Level panel on System-wide Coherence, heavily lobbied by NGOs, which proposed a new UN entity on gender to be led by an Under-Secretary-General level post on gender and women’s rights. The Joint Coordinating Committee of the Group of 77 and Non-Aligned Movement, China and India do not support the creation of this new entity and high-level post proposal. I could not agree more with them. I see no need to spend our limited global resources in creating a new bureaucratic structure when the existing ones are already doing quite a good job. And in addition, in my judgement, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Committee are also doing an excellent job in monitoring the implementation of the treaties on women’s rights and the reviewing of country’s reports. As far as the UN leadership in this matter is concerned, the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, himself, and Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, have done their best to move the World’s action towards gender equality, and at the same time, have tried to improve UN capacities in assisting memberstates to fill their needs and the identified gaps. The UN Secretariat already has many competent senior level staff to work on this gender issues such as Ms. Rachel Mayanja, Assistant Secretary-General, Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, and Ms. Carolyn Hannan, Director, Division on the Advancement of women. These existing UN offices should be strengthened with more resources to increase their capacities to assist memberstates as and when needed. The responsibility for achieving gender equality really lies within the countries themselves.
Filed under Gender Issues, United Nations | Comment (0)1,226 Bird Species Threatened By Climate Change
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world oldest and largest global environmental network, is doing an excellent job of allerting the world about the negative impact of climate change to bird species. The 2008 IUCN Red List gives us useful intormation of the threathened species of birds owed to long-term drought, sudden extreme weather and loss of breeding habitats. Top Ten countries listed for threatened bird species are: Brazil, Indonesia, Peru, China, Philippines, Colombia, India, Ecuador, United States, and New Zealand. Just to take one example of the birds that have been uplisted from “Endangered” to “Critically Endangered”,
Spoon-billed Sandpiper. About 57% of their breeding habitat could be destroyed by 2070. An admirable work is being done in this area by an NGO, Bird Life International. Spoon-billed Sandpiper is now on their list of “Species Champions” of the Preventing Extinction Programme targetting 190 critically endangered birds that are on the 2008 IUCN Red List. Bird Life International finds
Species Champions who will fund the work of nominated ‘Species Guardians’ for each bird. Organizations and individuals best placed to carry out the conservation work necessary to prevent the loss of the bird species in all regions can join them in this very creative programme. Birds are under enormous pressure from Climate Change. This gigantic efforts by IUCN and Bird Life International are worthy of our support no matter where we live in the world.
Feminization of HIV/AIDS
The feminization of HIV epidemics has been steadily on the increase globally. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 75 per cent of young people infected by the disease are females. Experts cite the lack of information on how female adolescents can protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, and sexual coercion and violence, and lack of sex and health education as major problems. The International Women’s Tribune Centre’s Women Ink Program is doing an excellent job in raising an awareness on this issue globally. This month, the issue of a monthly e-mail bulletin issue #77 is focused on the intersection between gender and HIV/AIDS. A book on “You, Your Life, Your Dreams and “Get the Facts”, a flipchart are printed for adolescents are produced by the Family Care International. The book on HIV and AIDS, edited by Alice Welbourne and Joanna Hoare, gives useful information on the analysis of the key challenge by HIV/AIDS on gender perspective in Cambodia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Papua New Guinea, the positive action by HIV positive women themselves, and community support. Gender Equality & HIV and AIDS: A Challenge for Education Sector, edited by Sheila Aikman, Elaine Unterhaiter & Tania Boler, to be released in August, will help those working on gender issue and HIV/AIDS in the field of education. The book gives new guide on the education of boys against violence against girls, and on teachers against sexual abuse of girls.
Filed under Gender Issues, World Affairs | Comment (0)Illusion of Virginity
In France, people are debating over Islam and Virginity. They focus on the virginity repair operation provided by private clinics for a price of around $3000 per one semicircular cut plus 10 dissolving stitches. Young Muslim girls living in Europe are customers of the hymenoplasty service to restor their hymen before the wedding night. This “illusion of virginity” is important for the girls, who want to be married in a Muslim tradition, because Muslim men have a traditional expectation of “breaking the bride’s hymen” at first intercourse of the wedding night. After one such operation, a girl said that virginity is more important to her than life. To be married, Muslim girl has to go to the extreme of getting a “Certificates of Virginity” to proof to friends and families, especially the groom’s family. When done properly by a qualified cosmetic surgeons, hymen replacement cannot be detected and produce the expected vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. This effort by Muslim girls to recapture their virginity is sociological significant in the modern life of big cities, not only in Europe and North America, but also in other Islamic mediteranean countries where girls have freedom of movement and sexal encounter at early ages. But the marriage rituals are based on an archaic tradition of treating the female body (not the male body) as sexual object. Muslim societies do not expect the men to be a “virgin” on Wedding day. This kind of debate is long overdued, not just in France, but a in all Muslim states that have officially opted for a democratic, egalitarian society. There is a contradiction between what the states advocate in the economic and social field at the various United Nations gatherings, and the decisions made in the sexual- rights and reproductive health. The demand for Muslim women to put on veil or to be a virgin on the wedding night represents the denial of the economic dimension and human right to self-determination of the women. Right now there are several court cases in France on this issue of virginity repair operation. Several marriages had be annulled after the groom found out that the bride went through hymenoplasty operation. The debate in the French Parliament touches on subjects such as the ground for dissolution of a marriage, equality of the sexes, and the intrusion of religion into modern daily life. Muslim women have to liberate themselves from the “Virginity Myth” first before they could think of achieving the United Nations Millennium development goal of gender equality.
Filed under Gender Issues, United Nations | Comment (0)“The Horse” Exhibition
The excellent exhibition on horses’ lives, ongoing at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, has given me not only the information on the physical and biological evolution of the horse, but also, new knowledge on how horses have shaped the world for centuries. We entered the exhibit area hearing sound of thunderous galloping and images of wild horses running freely in their natural environment. Then we saw the Botai diorama of horses lives and the inter-relationship between humans and horses. These wonderful audio-visual presentation were from all the regions of the World, from ancient to the present time - the involvement of horses in war and in peace. The artistic decorations on the horse body and on the saddle, sowned by hand, for male and female riders are stunning. The paintings of horses by early artists from the cave to art galleries around the World are also beautiful and inspiring. We saw also how horses are trained and domesticated by humans. Seeing the physical fragility of horses’ legs, I am concerned about what humans are doing to these majestic creatures - using them for funs and games of hunting, of Mongolian horseback sport, polo and horse racing. We must be sure to protect the horses from being abused by humans, especiall in agressive and dangereous activities. For example, in horse-racing, the track can be made to fit more to the fragile legs of the horses etc. I want to congratulate all the people involved, including the collaborators: the Abu-Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, the Arab Emirates, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa, the Field Museum of Chicago and the San Diego Natural History Museum for creating this marvelous exhibition.
Filed under Art | Comment (0)Cartoons on Hilary’s Campaign
People’s perception is very important for candidates running for political office in a national election. Bad media images can result in loosing an election or nomination to political offices. Thus, the national and international press have a huge influence in creating positive or negative images of candidates. Political cartoonists and caricaturists have a lot of power in Internet and digital age. I have looked through some of the political cartoons on Hilary Clinton, campaigning for the Democrat Party nomination for the next President of the United States. Most of the cartoons on and about her did not give a positive image of her to the public. Just to give an example from the collection in Daryl Cagle”s International Cartoon Index. One cartoon shows Hilary planting seeds for questions.
The other cartoons show her being under fire
and in passing memories.
Other negative catoons, showing her holding a dog on-leach to bite Barak Obama.
The worse is the one of Bill Clinton having his hand under her skirt.
In contrast, I don’t see many cartoons of Barak Obama doing something funny with his wife Michelle. Both men and women have to struggle when they run for political office. Barak Obama has negative cartoons about being a “Black “ candidate, although I don’t think of him as representing “Black Americans” because he is half-white. He is a multi-racial/cultural person. In the same way, I don’t think Hilary represents American women. She does not even have any experience similar to majority of American women. Her experience is that of an elite graduate from a prestigious Wellesley University. She has a successful lawyer career, and a wife of President Bill Clinton. Last year in my Blog on Political Wives and Daughters, I said that if Hililary wins the election she is following the traditional woman’ s route - gaining political power through the prestige and network connections of the husband, or the father. Some people says that she has broken a glass-ceiling for other American women in politics. A role model. I don’t think she is a role model to other American women who struggle for achievement based on her own political connections and network. She is a role model only to other ambitious wives of male politicians. I have to admit that many people don’t want to see “women in national and international leadership positions”, but I don’t think Hilary gets negative press because of being a woman running for election. She has image problem because of peculiarity of her behavior, her marital connection to President Bill Clinton, and what she did when she was the “First Lady”.
“Responsibility to Protect”/ Nargis Cyclone Victims
To speed up global assistance for the victims of the Nargis Cyclone in Myanmar, the UN Secretary-General Ban Kee Moon will travel to the country this Wednesday. Diplomatic persuasion is the best way to handle the sensitive situation in Myanmar. Many people have rightly criticized the behavior of the Myanmar’s military leaders in their reluctant to allow foreign aid volunteers, or “the Good Samaritans” to come into the country to help with this gigantic emergency situation. But we must understand that there is pride involved here. Government officials want to show that they can handle the distribution of foods, tents, clothes and medicines to the people themselves with only the help of neighboring countries like India, Thailand and China. It is their right to decide to do things their way. I am certain that the United States Government would behave the same way in this kind of situation. Just imagine, a planeload of Chinese Buddhists and Indian Hindus insisted on flying into New Orleans to help the people directly during the Hurricane Katrina. I am quite certain that the US Government would not let them into the area without its permission. And yet, right now, we see the US and French navy ships sailing off the coast of the Irrawaddy delta. The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner ignited a firestorm around the United Nations by invoking the “Responsibility to Protect” principle to force the government of Myanmar to accept humanitarian aid. The “Responsibility to Protect” principle does not apply to “natural disaster” or as some people called “the Act of God”. Countries that accepted this principle of intervention by international community only when it applied to crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. We will have chaos if one country can barge into other countryon any emergency without the permission of national authority, no matter of what form of government the country has. Respect of International Law and country’s sovereignty are key elements of the United Nations Charter.
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