FULL TEXT: Statement of Archbishop Tomasi to UN Rights Council
Please find, below, the full text of the Statement of the Permanent Observer of the
Holy See to the United Nations and Specialized Agencies in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano
Tomasi, delivered Thursday, Sept 15th, 2011.
Statement by His Excellency Silvano
M. Tomasi Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Specialized
Agencies in Geneva at the 18th Session of the Human Rights Council -
Item 3 - “Practices in adopting a human rights-based approach to eliminate preventable
maternal mortality and human rights” September 15, 2011
Madam President,
The
delegation of the Holy See has reviewed with careful attention the Report on “Practices
in adopting a human rights-based approach to eliminate preventable maternal mortality
and human rights,” the 2010 Resolution 15/17 of the Human Rights Council on “Preventable
maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights: follow-up to Council resolution
11/8” as well as the Resolution 11/8 . The latter resolution expressed “grave concern
at the unacceptably high global rate of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity”,
recognized this phenomenon as a “health, development and human rights challenge,”
and encouraged States and other relevant stakeholders, including national human rights
institutions and non-governmental organizations, to give “increased attention and
resources to preventable maternal mortality and morbidity” in the context of the
engagement to protect human rights.
Despite such strongly articulated commitments,
however, the international community must recognize, with deep regret, that it has
made insufficient progress in preventing some 350,000 deaths that occur annually during
pregnancy and childbirth. Thus my Delegation believes it necessary to affirm, once
again, that “every woman is equal in dignity to man, and a full member of the human
family, within which she has a distinctive place and vocation that is complementary
to but in no way less valuable than man’s”.
My Delegation is pleased to note
three of the “common features of good and effective practices to reduce maternal mortality
and morbidity” to which attention was called by the report being discussed today:
1) Broad social and legal changes to enhance women’s status by promoting equality
between men and women, elimination of early age marriage and the consequent promotion
of delay in onset of sexual activities, improvement of social, economic, health, and
nutritional status of women and girls, and elimination of such harmful practices
as female genital mutilation and domestic violence; 2) Strengthening health systems
and primary health care to improve access to, and use of, skilled birth attendants
and emergency obstetric care for complications; and 3) Improving monitoring and evaluation
of State obligations to ensure the accountability of all actors and to implement policies.
The
Catholic Church maintains an extensive network of health services in all parts of
the world and, in particular, offers outreach to poor and rural communities that often
are excluded from access to government-sponsored services. Some Catholic organizations
have developed specialized services for fistula repair, provide holistic treatment
and societal re-integration of the victims of domestic violence, and promote integral
development and education of women and girls. Moreover, Catholic organizations are
active in advocacy, on global, regional, national, and local levels, for policies
and practices that protect the rights of women and girls. Thus my Delegation wishes
to assure you, Madam President, of its strong support for the above-mentioned elements
of good practice.
With regard to two other elements proposed by the report
as so-called “features of good practice” to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality
– that is “increasing access to contraception and family planning” and addressing
so-called “unsafe abortion for women”, the Holy See wishes to express its strong disagreement.
My delegation believes that “… particular attention should be given to securing for
husband and wife the liberty to decide responsibly, free from all social or legal
coercion, the number of children they will have and the spacing of their births. It
should be the intent of governments or other agencies to decide for couples but, rather,
to create the social conditions which will enable them to make appropriate decisions
in the light of their responsibilities to God, to themselves, and to the society of
which they are part, and to the objective moral order.” We believe, moreover, that
“abortion, which destroys existing human life, … is never an acceptable method of
family planning, as was recognized by consensus at the Mexico City United Nations
International Conference on Population (1984).” Thus we find it totally unacceptable
for so-called “safe abortion” to be promoted by the Report being discussed during
the current Session of the Human Rights Council or, perhaps even more significantly,
by the United National Global Strategy for Women’s and Children Health, launched
by the UN Secretary General in September 2010.
Madam President, the above-cited
concerns are substantiated by evidence-based data. The World Health Organization (WHO)
has demonstrated that women in Africa die primarily from five major causes: hypertensive
diseases, obstructed labour, haemorrhage, sepsis and infection, and HIV-related diseases.
The interventions known to address such medical crises include training and employment
of skilled birth attendants, provision of antibiotics and uterotonic medications,
and improvement of blood banking. My Delegation finds totally unacceptable any attempts
to divert much-needed financial resources from these effective and life-saving interventions
to increased programmes of contraception and abortion, which aim at limiting procreation
of new life or at destroying the life of a child.
In conclusion, the Holy See
Delegation expresses the firm hope that the international community will succeed in
reducing maternal morbidity and mortality by promoting effective interventions that
are based on deep and abiding values as well as on scientific and medical knowledge
and that are respectful of the sacredness of life from conception to natural death,
for “[t]he presence of a mother within the family is so important for the stability
and growth of this fundamental cell of society, that it should be recognized, commended
and supported in every possible way.”