Cairo + 10
Press Release Women’s Media Team
At ECLAC/ RIF-FIRE

In San Juan, Puerto Rico this week, the United States found itself isolated, outnumbered and crawling on its knees to seek to join the consensus of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region to confirm the Cairo Program of Action and the Santiago Declaration on Population and Development.  Under the Bush administration, the U.S. has aggressively applied the same unilateral approach it uses in foreign and military policy in the arena of reproductive and sexual health and rights.  In meetings for Cairo+10 in Asia, Africa and the United Nations CPD, the U.S. tried to bully other countries into repudiating the ICPD agenda, especially its emphasis on sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and adolescents.  This pattern continued at the ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean) meeting in San Juan.

But other countries are becoming fed up with U.S. posturing in international forums; they are strongly saying NO to blackmail and YES to the Cairo and Beijing commitments, including a human rights and social justice approach to sexuality and reproduction.  In San Juan, the U.S. found itself the loser because of four important factors:

• Failures and loss of credibility in the war in Iraq –The images of torture and sexual atrocities by U.S. agents in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons undermine U.S. moral claims where sexuality is concerned.  In this context, the U.S. more than ever must appear to be consensual in the eyes of the world.  Yet with upcoming elections, the Bush administration must also placate its right-wing Christian base by taking a hard line on abortion and sexual rights of adolescents—so it is caught in a double bind.  
  
  

• Strong traditions of social rights and public responsibility for social needs in the Latin American and Caribbean region – Unlike the U.S., where capitalist profits and privatization in all areas of life prevail, the LAC countries are committed to social justice in relation to health care, elderly care, child care, nutrition, and other basic economic and social rights.  They see these values as integral to the Cairo agenda and its promise to eradicate poverty and make health care accessible to all, especially women and children.    
  
  

• Defense of national sovereignty and integrity against U.S. pressures – Small countries, especially those in Central America, feel vulnerable to economic and political pressures.  The U.S. continues to remind other countries that it is the biggest bilateral donor in the world.  Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority have refused to give in to U.S. pressure.  One after another have asserted their support for sexual and reproductive rights and full reaffirmation of Cairo and Cairo+5.  Insulted and angered by U.S. bullying, they say, no more. 
  
  

•  Strong presence of women’s, youth and indigenous NGOs and democratic parliamentarians from all over the region – Representatives of civil society—including from over 120 women’s organizations—and over 20 LAC parliamentarians, have given strong support to country delegations to move forward on the Cairo consensus.  A group of 104 U.S. Congressional representatives from both parties sent a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell urging that the U.S. remain true to Cairo.  This participation reflects the increasing voice of civil society groups in UN meetings, both regional and global.  The world and its workings are multilateral and complex, whatever the Bush administration might wish. –end-