U.S. "Non-Negotiable" Demands Roundly Rejected; United States Sole Holdout Against Consensus At Bangkok Conference

12/13/2002

From: Kirsten Sherk of Planned Parenthood, 202-973-4864 Karyn Beach of Population Action International, 202-557-3419 Sally Ethelston of Population Action International, 66-9-682-0693 (Bangkok)

BANGKOK, Thailand, Dec. 14 -- The following is a statement by Valerie DeFillipo, senior director, Global Partners and International Initiatives, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Terri Bartlett, Vice President for Public Policy, Population Action International:

As the third day of the Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference ended, representatives of two leading U.S. organizations observing the process issued the following statement:

After three days of playing procedural games the United States delegation finally put their bottom line demands on the table - and met with unanimous opposition. Among their demands:

-- No reference to "services" in relationship to reproductive health; -- No reference to "unsafe" before "abortion"; -- No new texts, regardless of the shortcomings of the current draft; -- Including "natural family planning" under areas of required research; -- A special footnote -- its content as yet undisclosed -- expressing just the U.S. position.

But, after three long days of procedural stalling, the United States has not had its way. The draft Plan of Action is now scheduled to go from the drafting committee back to the plenary tomorrow, with every objection to language in the document coming from one source, the United States.

Frustration with the tactics of the United States had been steadily mounting and is clearly expressed in formal statements from concurrent meetings being held in Bangkok. The first to conclude was that organized by the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians for Population and Development.

The Asian Forum statement read, in part, "We further pledge to counter with all possible vigour any move by any country to dilute the population agenda.... We, therefore, would like to express our dismay and disappointment with the recent standpoint taken by the United States with regards to the ICPD."

The Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. stated, "Thus we reiterate our concern over the US position on three counts: one, the attempt of the US government to impose its own policies over other nations through a process that violates democracy and the use of threat to exhibit its power in relation to international agreements and commitments; two its declaration of war against women's health...; and three, the grave impact it would place on a nation such as the Philippines...."

The Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development expressed "our astonishment at the fact that one country, in this case the USA ... should wish to impose its ideological position upon the rest of the countries in the region and obstruct progress and debate on an issue of such critical importance as population and development in the Asia Pacific region."

As American NGOs observing this process, we could not agree more.