Open Letter from the Child Rights Caucus to the Honorable Tommy Thompson, US Secretary of Health and Human Services and the United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children

May 9, 2002

As non-governmental organizations from the United States and around the world that are devoted to promoting and protecting the rights of children, we are deeply disappointed in the position that the United States has taken during the negotiations on the outcome document for the Special Session related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, sexual and reproductive health education and services, and the death penalty. These positions neither reflect the reality of children’s lives, nor the international framework of children’s rights that has developed over the last twelve years. By rigidly maintaining its positions on these issues, the United States is putting the success of this Special Session in jeopardy.

We welcome the United States’ support of the Optional Protocols to the Convention, and its ratification of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. However, the US’ attempt to sideline the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the outcome document is an attack against the global consensus on the human rights of children that has built over the last twelve years. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not only the most comprehensive international legal standard for children, but also the most rapidly and widely ratified treaty in history. It is the logical starting point and centerpiece of any international plan of action for children. Although not a state party, the United States should acknowledge the Convention’s international significance as the global standard for children’s rights.

The U.S.’ position of promoting abstinence as the primary strategy for dealing with adolescent sexuality is both naïve and inappropriate. For the millions of girls who marry before age 18 or who are forced into sexual relationships, abstinence is not an option, and lack of access to appropriate education and services can be life-threatening. At previous international conferences, governments including the United States agreed that adolescents have the right to sexual and reproductive health education, information and services. This right must be reaffirmed.

We regret that the United States is one of a very few countries that continues to use the death penalty for offenses committed before the age of eighteen. We welcome the fact that some U.S. states are ending this practice, as have the vast majority of countries around the world. The international community has nearly universally condemned the use of capital punishment against juvenile offenders. This norm should be acknowledged in the outcome document.

The Outcome Document of this U. N. Special Session on children has the potential to have strong influence on government policies and children’s lives worldwide. Like all other countries, the United States may register reservations on particular paragraphs of the outcome document. We implore the United States government to use the recognized U.N. process for reservations and not to further impede the progress of nations on the Outcome Document.

The Child Rights Caucus encompasses hundreds of national and international non-governmental organizations from around the world that are committed to promoting and protecting the rights of children.

Letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson from the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy

April 23, 2002

The Honorable Colin Powell
United States Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Facsimile: 202-647-2283

The Honorable Tommy Thompson
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
United States Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20201
Facsimile: 202-690-7203

RE: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN

Dear Secretary Powell and Secretary Thompson:

The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP)¹ appreciates your continued commitment to the promotion and protection of international human rights, including the rights of children. The upcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children (UNGASS) is a unique opportunity for the U.S. government to affirm its commitment to improving the lives of children.

International human rights instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention), and previous UN conferences, like the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), affirm that young people, like adults, have a human right to access reproductive and sexual health services and information. As adolescents begin to mature physically and emotionally, the majority of them become sexually active, often despite contrary cultural and religious mores. When governmental policies fail to take account of this reality, adolescents suffer grave consequences to their health and well being. Many contract sexually transmissible infections (STIs), like HIV, or become pregnant simply because they lacked basic, reliable information about and access to reproductive health services, such as dual-protection contraception. The preventable deaths, health problems, termination of education, and other consequences constitute violations of adolescents’ human rights. Governments have a duty to promote, protect and ensure the human rights of all their citizens, including adolescents, in all spheres of their lives.

While we recognize that it is challenging for governments to put the best interests of politically-powerless adolescents above those of adults who oppose adolescent access to reproductive and sexual health information and services, it is nonetheless a violation of their human rights for governments to fail to do so. CRLP and the Child and Law Foundation of Zimbabwe will release a report during the UNGASS (attached hereto) that conveys the human rights violations that occur in Zimbabwe when legal, social, and policy barriers impede adolescent access to methods of dual protection from unwanted pregnancy and STIs as well as relevant reproductive and sexual health information.

Service providers in Zimbabwe refuse to provide condoms and other contraception without parental consent in part because of inconsistent laws and policies. Adolescents’ right to privacy and confidentiality in seeking information and services are virtually non-existent in Zimbabwe. Some government policies promote "abstinence only." This occurs despite the fact that the vast majority of adolescents in Zimbabwe become sexually active prior to marriage, specifically between the ages of 12 and 17. Adolescent girls suffer the greatest violations due to cultural stereotypes and gender discrimination, as well as biological factors. Close to 40% of female adolescents in Zimbabwe are already mothers by the time they are 19 years old. Adolescent girls’ heightened susceptibility to STIs is illustrated by the fact that HIV prevalence among 15-24 year old females in 1999 was estimated to be between 23 to 26%, whereas for males of the same age group it was 10 to 13%. UNAIDS reports that one clinical study revealed that 30% of 15-19-year-old pregnant adolescents in Zimbabwe were HIV-positive. The lack of a clear governmental policy requiring the provision of full, appropriate information and services that could save the lives, health and wellbeing of adolescents is startling.

Although our report focuses on Zimbabwe, high rates of STIs and pregnancy among adolescents in many countries indicate the urgent need to address these issues in the Children’s Summit Outcome Document. We are concerned that language in the document related to the reproductive rights of adolescents remains unresolved, and we urge the delegation to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the agreements of the ICPD, its five-year implementation review, and last year’s Declaration of Commitment of the UNGASS on HIV/AIDS. The United States' leadership was instrumental in reaching those agreements to ensure a safe and secure future for the world's children. Its leadership now is needed to ensure that the Outcome Document reflects the realities of the lives of adolescents at risk for STIs and unwanted pregnancy, and that it affirms broad respect for children’s human rights.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if we can provide you with any further information and assistance.

Very truly yours,

Kathy Hall Martinez Acting Director, International Program

Julia Ernst International Legislative Counsel

cc: Members of Congress

1 For purposes of disclosure, CRLP is involved in a lawsuit challenging the "global gag rule," known as CRLP v. Bush, against President George Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios.

Letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell from a Coalition of NGOs

April 22, 2002

The Honorable Colin Powell
United States Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Facsimile: 202-647-2283

RE: UNITED STATES POSITION AT THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN

Dear Secretary Powell:

With respect, we write to express concern about the US position on key aspects of the outcome document for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children. The United States is deviating significantly from agreements reached over the past eight years by the world's nations.

The United States stands virtually alone in objecting to the inclusion of "reproductive health services," a phrase repeatedly used in international agreements and clearly defined as including counseling, information, education and services for family planning, prenatal care, safe delivery and post natal care, the treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and in circumstances where it is not against the law, safe abortion services. Further, the United States stands nearly alone in rejecting previous consensus documents on sexuality education and is only promoting abstinence until marriage, to the exclusion of information on any other proven, effective and necessary ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and unintended pregnancies.

We urge the United States to reaffirm the rights of adolescents to full and accurate information and education regarding sexuality and reproductive health, including information about condom use and contraception, as well as abstinence. This is what most American parents want for their children, as studies have shown. We urge the United States to reaffirm the need to provide reproductive health services for adolescents, particularly in light of pressing realities they face.

This age group is at highest risk of new HIV infections. They are also at very high risk of sexual violence and abuse, other sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted pregnancy. Finally, in many countries the vast majority of sexually active adolescent girls are married, commonly to older men, and face exceptionally high risk of maternal death and morbidity as well as disease without full access to reproductive health information and services.

We are happy to provide any assistance or information you might need in reshaping the US negotiation position to protect the health, lives and rights of young people. We thank you for your consideration and look forward to seeing our government reassert its leadership in negotiating a constructive outcome that will protect the rights and improve the well being of all children.

Sincerely,

Advocates for Youth
American College of Nurse-Midwives
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP)
Catholics for a Free Choice
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
Center for Women Policy Studies
Centre for Development and Population Activities
Choice USA
Equality Now
Executive Council Committee on the Status of Women of the Episcopal Church
Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America International Center for Research on Women
International Women’s Health Coalition
Ipas
Margaret Sanger Center International at Planned Parenthood of New York City
Marie Stopes International
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League
National Abortion Federation
National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health (NPWH)
National Coalition of Women’s Organizations
National Council of Jewish Women
National Latina Health Organization
National Women’s Political Caucus
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
Orphans and Vulnerable Children's Task Force
Partners of the Americas
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)
The Alan Guttmacher Institute
The Center for Women's Global Leadership
The Population Institute
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
U.S. Committee for the United Nations Population Fund
Voters For Choice
Women's Business Development Center
Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)
Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University

Letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell from Members of Congress

April 30, 2002

The Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
VIA FACSIMILE

Dear Mr. Secretary,

We are a short time away from the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children (Children’s Summit) that will be held in New York City May 5, 2002- May 10, 2002. This summit will have a profound impact on the reproductive rights and sexual health of young people around the world. The global community is confronted with serious health problems that severely affect our youth, such as HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy, and nations must work together to help address these issues. We hope that you will join with us in protecting children -- both in our own country and around the world -- by demonstrating the United States’ commitment to work with other nations towards effective solutions, and by supporting a Summit outcome that will improve the health and lives of children globally.

The world now contains one billion young people, a majority of whom face a future rife with poverty, violence and health epidemics. Decisions regarding their reproductive health will shape the quality of life on this planet for generations to come. Adolescent reproductive health has a significant impact upon the economic and educational opportunities of young people. Furthermore, the lack of comprehensive reproductive health information and services can be harmful, if not deadly. In many cases, adolescent girls in particular are subject to coercion, discrimination and violence, profoundly impacting their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The facts are appalling and call for sufficient resources to implement immediate, effective remedies. More than 1.8 million adolescents in Latin America and 4.5 million in sub-Saharan Africa give birth each year. Young women ages 15-19 are twice as likely to die from pregnancy- related causes as women in their early twenties. Worldwide, young people ages 10-24 account for 2.6 million new HIV infections each year -- five new infections every minute and 7,000 every day. The United Nations estimates that 11.8 million young people are living with HIV/AIDS, 62 percent of which are adolescent girls. An estimated 130 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), and two million per year are at risk. Millions of children in the United States and worldwide face rape and sexual violence. We are deeply troubled by this harsh reality, which jeopardizes the lives of millions of young people. Adolescents have the right to sexual and reproductive health information and services in order to reduce their vulnerability to these problems.

During the 1994 International Conference on Populations and Development (ICPD), the world community, including the United States, reached consensus in support of reproductive health services for adolescents. The ICPD Programme of Action affirms "the rights of adolescents to reproductive health education, information and care" (ICPD, para 7.46); and calls on countries to "safeguard the rights of adolescents to privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent" (ICPD, para 7.45). It also recognizes the rights and duties of parents and guardians "to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capabilities of the adolescent, appropriate direction and guidance in sexual and reproductive matters" (ICPD, para 7.45). Furthermore, in 1999 at the five year review of ICPD, the United States reaffirmed that governments should provide adolescents with "appropriate, specific, user friendly and accessible services to address effectively their reproductive and sexual health needs, including reproductive health education, information, counseling and health promotion strategies" (ICPD+5, para.73(a)).

In light of the United States’ agreement to protect adolescents’ reproductive health and rights at these international conferences, the U.S. should continue this commitment throughout the Children’s Summit. We strongly encourage you to uphold these principles in order to ensure a brighter tomorrow for the world’s children.

Sincerely,

Louise M. Slaughter, Member of Congress

James Greenwood, Member of Congress

Connie Morella, Member of Congress

Diana DeGette, Member of Congress

Return to the main UN Special Session on Children page