UN side event on reducing under 5-child mortality ignores the elephant in the room

A side event organized jointly by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Permanent Mission of Ireland launched a new technical guidance document on ‘the application of a human rights based approach to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5’. The technical guidance is very timely in respect of babies between birth and age 5 however it ignores the elephant in the room, the approximately 45 million unborn babies aborted before birth every year.

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 called for the reduction of child mortality by 2/3 from the 1990 level. Figures presented at the side event say that the rate has halved from 90 deaths per 1000 live births to 46 in 2013, most of which (95%) occurs in Africa and Asia. The global rate of decrease is accelerating it was 1.2% in 1994-5 and has now reached 4%. Clearly there is still much to do.

The question that must be asked is why is the largest and most vulnerable group of children the approximately 45 million unborn babies who are slaughtered every year, ignored when preventable child mortality is under discussion?  Surely this is contrary to the provisions of the CRC and in point of fact represents a double standard. The unborn clearly come into the category of being under 5 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in its preamble says:

“The child by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”.

The real issues are usually avoided and the standard UN argument in support of ignoring the child before birth is that the CRC only applies from birth. This argument however does not stand up when the travaux preparatoire (the history of the negotiations) is considered. Poland being a communist country at the time of the negotiations proposed that the Convention would apply only from birth. This was rejected and the ensuing document is not limited to born children only.

It should also be noted that the personhood of the child before birth is implied in the CRC by referring to 'the child' before as well as after birth.

This resolution is an update of last years one on the same issue, which called for the preparation of technical guidance which was announced today.

The report tells us that most child mortality is due to a small number of diseases and conditions 43% occur among newborn babies from birth to 28 days and are mainly due to pre-term birth complications, birth asphyxia and trauma, and sepsis. After the first 28 days, until age of 5 years, the majority of deaths are attributable to infectious diseases such as pneumonia (22%), diarrhoeal diseases (15%), malaria (12%) and HIV/AIDS (3%).  The vast majority of conditions and diseases that lead to death among children under 5 years of age are preventable and treatable through cost-effective interventions.

UN Committee exceeds mandate in making recommendations to Russian Federation

The Russian Federation appeared before the Committee on the Rights of the Child on January 23^rd and 24^th for their combined 4^th and 5^th review of their level of compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The Russian delegation in presenting their 5-year review to the Committee on the Rights of the Child referred to the current demographic deficit in Russia, which has resulted in a fall in population of around 700,000 people

According to the report the total fertility rate sank as low 1.3 children per woman but with Government assistance has now climbed back to 1.7, which is still below the 2.1 replacement level. According to the report 1.4 million children were born in 2006 and this increased to 1.9 million in 2012.

A number of reports were submitted to the Committee by NGO’S complaining about the Russian laws protecting children from anti family propaganda.

One such report with the title Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Problem of Children from Vulnerable Groups compiled as a result of collaborative efforts of three Russian organizations: Anti-discrimination Centre Memorial, regional St. Petersburg organization 'Coming Out' and Russian LGBT Network.

EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN ANTI-GAY LAWS ON LGBT CHILDREN AND CHILDREN OF LGBT FAMILIES

As was partially noted in reports on rights of children with respect to sexual orientation and gender identity, submitted to the Committee in 2013 by the Coming Out LGBT organization (hereinafter “Coming Out Report”) and Russian LGBT Network, a range of laws were adopted within the last two years in Russia which restrict the rights of LGBT people, LGBT families and LGBT rights advocates. These laws are as follows:

· Law prohibiting “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, transgenderism among the underage” adopted in St.-Petersburg;

· Federal law prohibiting “propaganda of unconventional sexual relationship”30

· Law prohibiting adoption of Russian children by same sex couples from other countries;

There is no reference to any of these issues in the CRC nevertheless this committee once again exceeded its mandate by making recommendations that have no relevance to the Convention.

The Committee’s concluding observations were published on Feb 5^th and contain the following recommendations at paragraphs 24, 25 and 55 and 56 c. 

24. The Committee is also concerned at the recent developments in the legislation of the State party prohibiting “propaganda of unconventional sexual relationship”, generally with the intent of protecting children, which however encourages stigmatization of and discrimination against LGBTI persons, including children, and children of LGBTI families. The Committee is particularly concerned that vague definitions of propaganda leads to the targeting and ongoing persecution of the country’s LGBTI community, including abuse and violence, in particular against underage LGBTI rights activists.

25. The Committee recommends that the State party repeal its laws prohibiting propaganda of homosexuality and ensure that children who belong to LGBTI groups or children of LGBTI families are not subjected to any forms of discrimination by raising the awareness of the public on equality and non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Adolescent health

55. The Committee is concerned at the high incidence of suicides and large numbers of drug and alcohol addiction among adolescents in the State party. The Committee is also concerned about the reports of coercive treatment of transsexual and homosexual persons, in particular children, and attempt to diagnose transsexuality as psychiatric disease as well as the lack of sexual health information for LGBTI children.

56 (c) Put an end to the coercive treatment of transsexual and homosexual persons, in particular children, and to attempts to diagnose transsexuality as psychiatric disease as well as provide LGBTI children with easy access to necessary sexual health information.

Ideologically driven Committee on the Rights of the Child oversteps mandate

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The United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child significantly overstepped its mandate in presenting its non-binding concluding remarks and recommendations in respect of its recent consideration of the Holy See report.

This was particularly evident in its recommendations.

The Committee for example attacked the Catholic Church's teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality, under the guise of a critique of the Church's handling of child sex abuse cases. The report, among similar things, recommends that the Catholic Church: identifies 

• "circumstances under which access to abortion services can be permitted" (section 55)

• "overcome[s] all the barriers and taboos surrounding adolescent sexuality that hinder their access to sexual and reproductive information, including on family planning and contraceptives" (section 57a)

• "ensure[s] that sexual and reproductive health education and prevention of HIV/AIDS is part of the mandatory curriculum of Catholic schools" (section 57c) 

This Committee has once again overstepped its mandate by making demands well beyond the scope of the actual wording of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is nothing in the Convention, which requires the Catholic Church or any other body to facilitate abortion, contraception or homosexuality.

The Committee also failed to recognise the significant progress achieved by the Holy See in the area of the protection of children or to take cognizance of the actual submissions made by the Holy See both in writing and during its January appearance before the Committee

The Holy See Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Archbishop Tomasi responding to questions in respect of the Committee conclusions said:

‘I would say that there is a difficultly apparent in understanding the position of the Holy See that cannot certainly give up certain teachings that are part of their deep convictions and also an expression of freedom of religion and these are the values that in the tradition of the Catholic Church sustain the common good of society and therefore cannot be renounced, for example the committee asked for acceptance of abortion and this is a contradiction with the principle of life that the convention itself should support recommending that children be protected before and after birth.

If a child is eliminated or killed we can no longer talk about rights for this person, so there is a need to calmly and in detail analyzing the recommendations proposed by the committee and provide an accurate response to the committee itself, so that there will be no misunderstanding on where we stand and the reason why we take certain positions and I would add that the practical remedies for preventing cases of abuse of children in forms of laws or decisions of Episcopal Conferences of directives for the formation of seminarians constitute a package of measures that is very difficult, I think, to find other institutions or even other states that have done so much specifically for the protection of children. So, my sense is that we have to continue to refine, to enact provisions that protect children in all their necessities so that they may grow and become productive adults in society and their dignity be constantly respected.

And at the same time we have to keep in mind that even though there are so many millions, forty million cases of abuse a year regarding children and unfortunately some cases affect also Church personnel. We have to keep in mind that, we have to continue to combat this tragedy knowing that even a case of abuse of a child is a case too much.’

John Smeaton executive director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children SPUC commenting on the report  said;

'There is a great deal of hypocrisy in the committee's report. Under the cover of seeking to protect children against sexual abuse, the report promotes damage to children - the destruction of unborn children through abortion and the destruction of born children's innocence through the promotion of contraception and homosexuality.

The Holy See's representatives made clear to the committee last month, Catholic leaders are facing up to the shocking child abuse scandals within the Church. Pro-life and pro-family groups throughout the world must  - like SPUC - come to the UN to help the Holy See in its vital work of protecting, unborn children and the marriage-based family. This work is under constant attack by the Catholic Church's enemies, as manifested in the committee's report today.

Any pro-life/pro-family groups interested in lobbying at the UN are invited to contact me for help and advice regarding accreditation and related issues'