C-FAM
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004

In a speech delivered to the Fulbright Conference on Health as Foreign Policy, held in Berlin in November, Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), said that the Bush administration "supports and promotes only those civil society organizations that share and promote its own fundamentalist Christian ideology, and its correspondingly rigid conservative world view."

She also likened the Bush administration to a "strict father whose sole objective is to maximize military and political strength and overall wealth."

For instance, Germain criticizes, "NGOs receiving HIV/AIDS funding must certify that they are against prostitution and its legalization." According to Germain, the "organizations that are best positioned to reach those in the sex trade area also commonly active in efforts to de-stigmatize and legalize sex work."

Germain also worries about condom access, even though massive condom distribution in Africa has failed to reduce HIV infection.

According to Germain, "Because faith-based groups that are against condom use - most often Roman Catholic and conservative Protestant groups - are by far the largest health service providers across sub-Saharan Africa and in Haiti, they will likely get most of the $8 billion allocated for HIV/AIDS treatment under the Global AIDS initiative. Imagine what this will do to condom access - and also what it will do for their ability to help the Bush administration impose its ideology on these countries and their citizens."

Germain concludes, "The ideology of the White House extends far beyond abortion politics. It endangers condoms use and family planning, sexuality education, the human rights of women, religious tolerance, and even freedom of speech."

In response to this burgeoning "fundamentalist ideological hegemony," Germain urges the European Union to gain an even more dominant role at the U.N.

Germain states, "Europeans can take a firm stance in support of sexual and reproductive health and rights, as donors to and as executive board members of U.N. agencies, the World Bank, the Global Fund, and other international bodies." Germain also argues that the EU "can ensure that the Bush administration does not choose the next head of UNICEF or other pivotal U.N. agencies."

Finally, Germain tells the EU that it can control civil society activity at the U.N., stating "you can work in the Economic and Social Council and other for a across the U.N. to require that NGOs formally engaged with the U.N. uphold fundamental human rights."

This appears to mean that only pro-abortion NGOs should be represented.

Copyright - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

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