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UN
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During the final session of the Committee of the Whole, Chair Anwarul K. Chowdhury receives praise for a job well done and a standing ovation . . . |
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UNFPA
Executive Director Nafis Sadik stated that the POA was and continues
to be a historic document and added that what has been achieved
in the ICPD+5 process surpasses that. She added that she was "elated"
at being able to leave this meeting with the tools to help "fulfill
our promises and goals."
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Delegates continued informal consultations on abortion for most of the day and into the evening and, in the eleventh hour, reached consensus . . . . |
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Chair Chowdhury and Brazilian Elza Berquo discuss Brazil's proposal, Brazilian proposal, which called for review of laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortion, and urging health systems to train and equip health service providers and take other measures to seek to ensure that abortion is safe and accessible in circumstances where abortion is not against the law.
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The Holy See with Morocco and Yemen said the Brazilian proposal contradicted the Cairo consensus and constituted a renegotiation of POA language |
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Brazil tries to find a middle ground, discussing Brazil's proposal with those who opposed it The EU and the US consult with Brazil |
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| After Chair Chowdhury suspended the meeting to conduct informal informal consultations in an effort to find an acceptable compromise, the resulting text replaced 45(e) with three new paragraphs. The first and second paragraphs were a reproduction of, respectively, POA paragraphs 8.25 and 7.24. The third stated that health systems should train and equip health service providers and take other measures to ensure that such abortion is safe, and additional measures should be taken to safeguard women's health. Following objections to elements in the third paragraph, Chair Chowdhury once again suspended the meeting. Pakistan then presented a new proposal of the third paragraph, which specifies that training and equipping health service providers should be "in circumstances where abortion is not against the law" and that the objective was to ensure that abortion is safe "and accessible." Consensus emerged around this proposal, and the entire text was accepted as amended. Reservations were expressed on the inclusion of "accessible" (Argentina, Nicaragua and the Holy See) and on the absence of provision for the right of conscience of health service providers (the Holy See) |  |
| UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan meets with UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors . . . |
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UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan meets with UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors Safia El-Emary, Warie Dirie and Jamal Soliman (left to right) |
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Secretary-general Kofi Annan met with UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors and UNFPA Executive Director Nafis Sadik Waris Dirie gives Secretary-general Annan her book Desert Rose on female genital mutilation |
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Kofi Annan meets with Nobutaka
Machimura, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan
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| UNFPA sponsored panel discussion on "Protecting Social Sector Investment in Development: Gender, Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights" |
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Lok Chumteav Mu Sochour, Minister of Women's and Veteran's Affairs of Cambodia, Kader Cisse, Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development of the UK and Riz Khan, moderator and CNN host of "Q and A" |
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Mervat Tallawy, Minister of Insurance and Social Affairs, Egypt Poul Nielson, Minister for Development Cooperation, Denmark |
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Lok Chumteav Mu Sochour Riz Khan |
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The Committee of the
Whole heard statements from heads of UN agencies. . .
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Carol Bellamy, Executive
Director of UNICEF
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Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General
of the World Health Organization
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Peter Piot, Executive Director
of the Joint UN Prgramme on HIV/AIDS
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