Statement by Kathy Hall Martinez, Acting Director of the International Program, Center for Reproductive Rights

"The Bush administration is obstructing and manipulating the ongoing negotiations at the UNGASS on Children. It is disgraceful and unconscionable for the United States to ignore the stark realities in countries like Zimbabwe, where as many as 30% of pregnant adolescent girls have tested positive for HIV, because they've been denied information and services on reproductive health. They're also being barraged by the same kinds of "abstinence only" messages that the Bush administration is peddling in the United States. The U.S. is bullying its allies and relying on a small cadre of "friends" such as the Vatican and ultra-conservative countries like Sudan and Iran to support its extreme positions.

"The Bush administration continues to attack and undermine the nearly universal consensus that children and adolescents are people with human rights, fighting to keep references to the Convention on the Rights of the Child out of the outcome document. They are particularly obsessed with blocking references to adolescents’ established human right to reproductive health services, information and education. Nothing the U.S. can do at these negotiations will take that right away. Adolescent girls from around the world are in New York for the UNGASS this week to affirm that they have a right to have a say in their future and to be treated with dignity and respect. How will the Bush administration answer those adolescent girls from Mali, Bolivia, and Nepal who are at risk for unwanted pregnancy and HIV and whose chances to live and thrive the administration has traded away to the extreme right wing in our country?"

Statement by the International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition (ISRRC)

US Delegation undermines commitments to improving health, jeopardizing the lives of more than 2 billion children and adolescents

May 10 -- The U.S. has railroaded key negotiations at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children; deploying its chief strategist, John Klink, the Vatican's former top gun at the United Nations. Employing a strategy of lies, threats, and intimidation, the US has strong-armed other countries into falling in line with the U.S. campaign to deny young people's rights to sexual and reproductive health information and services that can save their lives.

The US tactics have weakened rights, removed commitments to improving health, consequently jeopardizing the lives of more than 2 billion children and adolescents -- a third of the world's citizens. These young people-millions of whom are already married and millions of whom are at risk of sexual exploitation, must have their rights respected and promoted.

Working hand-in-glove with conservative extremists, the US has constantly and consistently undermined efforts to achieve consensus at this United Nations meeting. While the US preaches and promotes democratic participation around the globe, it is abusing its power and alienating traditional allies by compromising the health of adolescents in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Using its power as a big donor country, the US has silenced other countries that provide their young people with sexual and reproductive education and services.

The US has threatened any progress towards an agreement that can impact government policies and programs and most importantly children's lives around the world.

The ISRRC includes the following organizations:

Action Canada for Population and Development (ACPD)
Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC)
Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)
Center for Reproductive Rights
Family Care International (FCI)
Ipas
International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC)
Latin American and Caribbean Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights
Network of Asia-Pacific Youth (NAPY)
Youth Coalition for ICPD