The United Nations (UN) was created in 1945 to maintain peace among the nations as one of its main aims. Today, diplomatic efforts seem worthless in the face of the current war between Russia and Ukraine.
The UN has six main bodies. The Security Council and the General Assembly are the most relevant among those. The Security Council’s primary responsibility is to maintain peace and security. It is comprised of 15 members, five of which are permanent members because they are the founding members of the UN, and the other ten are member nations who serve two-year rotations.
The five permanent members of the Security Council are China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Currently, Russia is the chair of the Security Council. These permanent members are granted a special privilege – called the veto right. Any of these five countries have the power to veto or defeat any decision of the council if they disagree with it.
Last Friday, Albania and the U.S., current members of the Security Council, attempted to pass a resolution “intended to end the Russian Federation’s military offensive against that neighboring State.” Eleven countries voted in favor. China, India, and the United Emirates abstained. Unfortunately, Russia exercised its right as a permanent member and vetoed the resolution.
Although the UN had not achieved its primary objective, the end of the war, the UN Secretary-General called on the nations not to give up. He issued assurances that the UN would keep increasing its efforts to restore peace.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine ambassador called on the nations to break off diplomatic relations with Russia. It was a call that did not resonate with many countries due to their dependence on Russia. Russia is the primary provider of natural gas for Europe and many other nations. For example, Finland depends on Russia for 94% of gas, Germany 49%, and Italy 46%.
In this regard, the situation for the U.S. is not much different than in Europe. Although the U.S. is one of the leading oil and energy producers in the world, its production is insufficient to supply the whole country. Therefore, the U.S. imports oil from Canada, Mexico, and Russia (its third-highest supplier.)
If the U.S. wants to maintain its sovereignty and its leadership worldwide, it must not be coerced into silence.
Concerned Women for America will keep raising its voice and advocating to defend our independence and fight to protect our national sovereignty while safeguarding our nation’s freedom.
CWA’s Vice President for International Affairs, Dr. Shea Garrison, teamed up with Emilie Kao, director of the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation on an opinion piece published in The Washington Times.
“Billions of people around the world exercised their religious freedom during Holy Week, but a new United Nations report threatens to undermine both this freedom and women’s rights.
The report of Ahmed Shaheed, the U.N. expert responsible for protecting religious freedom, advances a “progressive” agenda of abortion and new “rights” based on membership in sexual identity groups. It seems the U.N. is willing to trample the rights of the vulnerable and undermine the credibility of universal human rights to promote the values of a small number of wealthy countries — a travesty the Trump administration should oppose.
The report to the infamous U.N. Human Rights Council undermines the empowerment of women and girls by lumping their concerns together with novel claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It includes a controversial interpretation of “gender equality” that promotes acceptance of transgender ideology and the concept of multiple, fluid, “gender identities.””
United Nations headquarters in New York City, USA
CWA’s Dr. Shea Garrison, the organization’s Vice President of International Affairs, writes a new opinion piece featured this week in The Washington Times.
“The Trump administration led the fight for human rights at the U.N. General Assembly last week, calling out China for forced internment of more than 1 million Uighurs in “training camps” to be “re-educated” and “saved” from their culture, language and faith.
According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, China is the perpetrator of “the worst human rights crises of our time.” China denies this, touting itself a defender of human rights by providing “development, health, nutrition, and housing” — its own “approach” to human rights that has nothing to do with individual freedoms.
China’s approach is not surprising given that international human rights advocacy is so “watered down” by political agenda that it’s hard to tell the difference between protecting God-given natural rights and government entitlements.
To help rectify this, Mr. Pompeo recently announced the U.S. Commission on Unalienable Rights to ground U.S. foreign policy on human rights in America’s founding principles of individual dignity and freedom. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, as well as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), are guides for the commission.”
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Last week the 74th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) met in New York City. President Trump, Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo and HHS Secretary Azar gave magnificent speeches, including on the issues of religious freedom, the value of family and life, the importance of nationalism, and economic empowerment.
CWA was at UNGA representing your voice through the media, at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and with foreign delegations. Our CEO and President Penny Nance was honored to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as part of a small group of evangelical leaders, to discuss religious freedom in Egypt as well as the important issue of women’s rights and wellbeing.
The group thanked President el-Sisi for his work in Egypt to improve religious tolerance and equality for Christians, such as building Nativity of the Christ Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the region, and it is next to a mosque of equal size to symbolize tolerance and equality), rebuilding Christian churches demolished by the Muslim Brotherhood, and reforming religion textbooks for schools to increase tolerance and understanding between Muslims and Christians, as well as remove any extremist sections.
In addition, Penny thanked him for highlighting the necessity of education and training for women and girls in Egypt, as well as reducing barriers to their wellbeing such as domestic violence and harmful cultural practices.
President el-Sisi’s speech in March for this year’s Egyptian Women’s Day outlined seven points of engagement his administration plans to take on behalf of women. He has committed to address issues including women’s access to the marketplace, education, the problem of illegal underage marriage, gender-based violence and harassment, and to improve divorce laws so they do not put women and children in an “inadequate” situation.
CWA is grateful for increased leadership roles in Egypt for women; however, as women struggle for equal justice and opportunities in Egypt, there is still more work to be done. President el-Sisi appointed the first two female governors ever in Egypt, the second one being a Christian. Manal Awad Mikhail is the first Christian woman in Egypt ever to be governor. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, appointed by Sisi in June 2018, has selected a historic number of eight women to his cabinet. There is also an effort to increase women’s position and rank in the judicial system with 16 female judges being promoted to higher level positions.
President el-Sisi has also strived to decrease female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). While FGM/C has been illegal in Egypt for over 10 years, since 2008, it is still widely practiced. This is a stubborn cultural issue with over half of Egyptians, both men and women, in support of the practice. Egypt’s National Council of Women, religious leaders, Islamic scholars, and the government are working with President el-Sisi to delink FGM/C from religious practices saying it is religiously forbidden.
President el-Sisi made FGM/C a criminal act in 2016, going a step further than the 2008 law, prior to his coming to power, that made it illegal. His criminalizing FGM/C is a bold move on a sensitive issue with deep cultural roots.
The number of girls in Egypt undergoing FGM has declined some over the last 12-15 years, but the number who experience this harmful cultural practice is still shocking:
- The number decreased from 97% cut in 2005 to 92% in 2015 of ever-married women ages 15-49 (a woman qualifies as “ever-married” if she has been married at any time in her life, even if she currently is not married)
- There was more improvement in girls ages 0 to 17 , according to a secondary analysis (analysis of data already collected for a different purpose) of the data, with a drop from 69% in 2005 to 55% in 2015(14% decrease) of girls who go through or are likely to go through FGM/C before turning 18.
In his Egyptians Women’s Day speech, President el-Sisi acknowledged that underage marriage is an act of violence towards girls and hinders their education. The legal age of marriage in Egypt is 18; however, 22% of girls are married before 18, and 15% are married before the age of 16. Some of these are “temporary marriages” to visiting foreigners, mostly from the Gulf states. These temporary marriages are often a cover for prostitution.
CWA also thanked President el-Sisi for Egypt joining the U.S. and 19 other nations in a joint statement calling on the UN to stop using abortion-related terms in UN resolutions, negotiations, and other documents. Terms like “sexual reproductive health” (SRH) or “sexual reproductive rights” are ambiguous abortion-related terms which mask the promotion of legalized abortion. Here is an excerpt from the joint statement read by Secretary Azar:
We believe that health of women, men, children and adolescents supports and improves the overall health of our families and communities, and that the family is the foundational institution of society and thus should be supported and strengthened…
We do not support references to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights in U.N. documents, because they can undermine the critical role of the family and promote practices, like abortion, in circumstances that do not enjoy international consensus and which can be misinterpreted by U.N. agencies.
Such terms do not adequately take into account the key role of the family in health and education, nor the sovereign right of nations to implement health policies according to their national context. There is no international right to an abortion and these terms should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.
CWA was glad to be your voice as Penny met with President el-Sisi of Egypt. She thanked him for his steps to increase opportunities and rights for women and girls, as well as religious freedom for Christians. We encouraged him to continue his progress on these issues and hope to be helpful in the future.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 63) came to an end this week at the United Nations in New York City. News reports warn that the U.S. seeks to decrease the rights of women and girls by taking away an international “right” to abortion in UN resolutions. Based mainly on propaganda from far-left political interest groups, this information is inaccurate and misleading.
The U.S. has long been a leader in policies and aid supporting the expansion of women’s rights around the world. Under the Trump administration alone, major initiatives have been launched in three sectors where the advancement of female equality is sorely needed increasing economic empowerment and entrepreneurship, increasing diplomatic and security participation and decreasing the technological or “digital divide” of women and girls. Research shows that women and girls face inequalities in all of these areas and initiatives like this can elevate women by targeting the main challenges they face. In addition, these initiatives reflect the strategic objectives of gender empowerment goals.
In contrast, the promotion of a so-called “right to abortion” that dominates liberal narratives at the UN does none of these. … [Read More Online at The Hill]
This week, government delegates and non-governmental organizations from all over the world met in NYC at the United Nations for the 63rd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63).
Concerned Women for America (CWA) sponsored a side-event panel on Friday, March 15, with the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) titled, “Putting Women and Girls Back at the Center of Gender Equality Policies.” The event focused on the importance of promoting the empowerment of women and girls with effective and holistic, culturally appropriate, family-centered measurements.
Our Dr. Shea Garrison, VP of International Affairs at CWA, spoke about “Focused Economic Empowerment” and used her own research and experience training women entrepreneurs around the world to recommend well-rounded strategies and measurements that most effectively empower women and their families.
Also on the panel was Dr. Rebecca Oas from C-Fam, Emilie Kao from the Heritage Foundation, and Sharon Slater from Family Watch International.
