Sadly, the UN system has become contaminated with a far-left radical liberalism that is grounded in the sexual revolution and aggressive gender ideology that has no limits, especially within the education system. This was on full display over the past two weeks when the Commission on the Status of Women held its 67th Session at UN Headquarters in New York.
Whilst the agenda had many positive items on education, gender equality and the use of technology to support women and girls globally, the Biden Administration and EU countries tried once again to hijack the outcome to add radical “comprehensive sexuality education” to the annual Agreed Conclusions. The level of disagreement and objections by traditional countries, especially across Africa and parts of South America, was such that it was unclear if Agreed Conclusions could be reached at all. The angry debate went on until 4.00am on Saturday morning when many delegations had already left the gathering.
Western diplomats conceded defeat and complained that the agreement did not include references to “comprehensive sexuality education” and “sexual rights”. The strong push for “comprehensive sexuality education”, which is being foisted on African countries was reminiscent of the negotiations when President Obama was in the White House. The Commission was much less controversial during the Trump administration. This year, the European Union and the U.S. government were aligned once more in aggressively promoting the Western sexual agenda.
Comprehensive sexuality education, or CSE, was devised by Planned Parenthood which is the largest abortion provider in the U.S. and has been adopted by Western countries in various formats that promote sexual autonomy for children, as young as early primary school, and to undermine parental authority. The programme has been well documented as exposing children and young people to high risk sexual behaviours – (https://www.comprehensivesexualityeducation.org/. A former manager at Planned Parenthood, who left her job on converting to being pro-life, described CSE as the “business plan” of the organisation to ensure continuity and growth in the abortion industry.
Currently, our own National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is proposing a version of the programme for Irish primary and secondary schools. How that body has ignored parents’ views from its public consultation is typical of how CSE has been foisted on other countries. The intervention of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Minister Simon Harris challenging the views of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association is reminiscent of that trio’s behaviour leading up to the referendum to facilitate the legalisation of abortion in 2018. Unlucky for them, the position of the CPSMA was strongly supported by the Irish Muslim Council.
Several delegations at the CSW gathering of 7,000 feminists expressed their reservations on the controversial terms remaining in the agreement knowing they will be interpreted to advance abortion, euthanasia, birth control, and radical gender ideology. Statements to this effect were made by Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guyana on behalf of Caribbean countries, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Oman on behalf of Gulf countries, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and the Holy See.
The level of dissatisfaction with some of the vague language used was evident in the statement issued by the Malaysian delegation at the conclusion of the event. It read: “Malaysia does not recognise these terminologies as agreed language or consensual concepts within the United Nations as they are inconsistent with our national position. They remain vague and open to ambiguous interpretations that are not shared by all countries. We will continue to object to the introduction of such terminologies and references as we have done so judiciously for the past few sessions of the Commission as well as in other UN fora.
“Malaysia wishes to state that the implementation of these Agreed Conclusions would be in line with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which takes into account national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as national laws and that the formulation of strategies, policies, programmes and development priorities is the sovereign responsibility of States. We request that this statement be made part of the official records of the meeting” the statement concluded pointing to the lack of consensus achieved.
The Western disappointment was represented in the remarks of Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. when the event concluded: “While we are deeply disappointed that the Agreed Conclusions did not include new language on comprehensive sexuality education, especially given its relevance to the priority theme, as well as references to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and could have included a direct reference on sexual orientation and gender identity, we acknowledge the importance of existing and new references to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and added references to diverse conditions and situations of women and girls.”
Her remarks illustrate how Western countries use every UN forum to advance the progressive agenda of comprehensive sexuality education, abortion, radical gender ideology and euthanasia. Ireland is very much part of this Western diplomatic and NGO offensive, and it is left to poor African and South American nations with their limited resources to push back against this well-funded and powerful offensive to change cultural norms and to create new human rights that are not universally agreed like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was in 1948.
