Sexual Rights

    

UNITED NATIONS - The United States has refused to join 85 other heads of state and government in signing a statement that endorsed a 10-year-old U.N. plan to ensure every woman's right to education, health care, and choice about having children.

President Bush's administration withheld its signature because the statement included a reference to "sexual rights."
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The 1994 Cairo program, signed by 179 countries, including the United States, says women have the "right to make decisions concerning reproduction, free of discrimination, coercion and violence as expressed in human rights documents."

The support statement notes that in 1994 "the world's governments and civil society committed to an action plan to ensure universal access to reproductive health information and services, uphold fundamental human rights including sexual and reproductive rights, alleviate poverty, secure gender equality, and protect the environment."
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The Cairo support statement was signed by leaders of 85 nations including the entire European Union, China, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan and more than a dozen African countries as well as 22 former world leaders, notably Presidents Carter and Clinton.

The Bush administration responded only on Tuesday to organizers who had asked for the president's support.

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