International Group Pressures Nicaragua to Change Old Attitudes

[Vilma]

Radical International Group Blackmailing Nicaragua
NewsMax.com
Monday, Sept. 25, 2000
The radical United Nations Population Fund is trying to blackmail heavily Catholic and staunchly pro-life Nicaragua to change its policies opposing abortion and homosexuality.
The rogue U.N. group is withholding $11 million in aid allegedly because Nicaragua refused to accept definitions of "gender" and "reproductive rights" which even the U.N. has consistently rejected. The definitions classified "gender" as a "social construct" and as a "right closely associated to health and reproductive rights."

In recent years, the "social construct" definition of gender has been promoted by homosexual and feminist activists as a term that includes homosexuality and bisexuality as legitimate, "socially constructed" sexual identities. However, no U.N. meeting has ever accepted the activists' definitions of "gender," "reproductive rights" or "reproductive health."

The genesis of the dispute arose from Nicaragua’s attempt to obtain reductions of its crushing international debt following the 1998 hurricane that devastated the country and forced it to seek to have its heavy debt burden restructured by the World Bank.

A so-called "Consultation Council" was created by the bank that included representatives of such debtor nations as the United States, Japan and Western European countries, along with the Nicaraguan government and representatives of other Nicaraguan institutions, including the Catholic Church. Catholics constitute 89 percent of the country's 4.35 million inhabitants.

According to the U.S.-based weekly National Catholic Register, the council recommended a number of economic reforms but also added provisions concerning "gender rights" and "reproductive health," provisions having absolutely nothing to do with the nation’s economy or its economic well-being.

"In July 1999, the donor countries made a set of proposals, mostly aimed at shrinking Nicaragua's bureaucracy, reducing spending, increasing revenues and strengthening democracy, as conditions for providing financial assistance," the Register reported.

"But in November, Nicaraguan pro-life organizations learned that the "Program of Reform and Modernization of the Public Sector" drafted by the government and the donor countries included projects to implement "gender rights" and "reproductive health" initiatives, as those terms are interpreted by feminist and pro-abortion organizations," according to the Register.

The initiatives, the register reported, had been included by "a German volunteer consultant appointed by the donor countries to the reform and modernization committee."

"We were immediately alarmed because this approach was totally at odds not only with the Nicaraguan culture, but even with the U.N. world conferences, where this terminology has never been accepted in a definitive way," said Elida Solórzano, director of family development for the ministry of family affairs.

Solórzano said the donor countries were trying to use their aid money to push "a type of language that was heatedly debated at both meetings, but always rejected by the Nicaraguan delegations and never accepted by consensus."

Earlier this year, a threat by donor countries to make aid contingent on policy changes by the pro-life Nicaragua government resulted in the forced resignation of the minister of family affairs, Max Padilla.

The donor countries' pressuring has also been linked to the reported withholding of $11 million in aid from the U.N. Population Fund, according to the Register.

Padilla responded to pro-lifers' concerns by creating a commission, composed mainly of pro-life experts, to reach Nicaraguan definitions of "gender" and "health rights." Its conclusions were sent to the reform and modernization committee last Feb. 12.

On March 1, Padilla received an "urgent fax" signed by diplomatic representatives of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Holland and the Central American coordinator of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

According to the Rome-based Zenit news agency, the letter stated, "We are surprised to learn of the changes the Ministry of the Family is contemplating to introduce regarding gender policy, which until now was based on the International commitments subscribed by Nicaragua."

It added, "As you know, our cooperation in general has a clear focus on gender and is based on the definitions agreed at the International Conferences."

The letter also demanded that Padilla's ministry "confirm to us Nicaragua's ratification of the Beijing Conference agreements."

"The letter sparked a wave of outrage not only within (the ministry of family affairs), but also within the chancery and other government levels," said a high-ranking Nicaraguan government official who asked to remain anonymous. "We felt they were acting like conquistadors."

Alex Marshall, a spokesman for the Population Fund, said he was unaware of the withholding of any funding to Nicaragua.

However, a Feb. 25 article in the Honduran newspaper La Prensa reported that Thomas Jiménez, the U.N. Population Fund's representative to Nicaragua, had announced aid to Nicaragua would be halted over "discrepancies" in the country's family planning programs.

Although Padilla was forced to resign his job, the government of Nicaragua is now considering the abolition of legislative provisions that permit abortion when the health or life of the mother is thought to be at risk. As well, a national March for Life was held in Nicaragua Aug. 31, led by President Alemán and his wife.

But Padilla predicted that the outside pressure on Nicaragua to abandon its pro-life policies would continue. Said Padilla, "Anti-life forces are moving and pulling strings in the same secretive, manipulative way as they do in the International arena. I hope we can raise public awareness before we suffer the consequences."

[Martha_05]

I am a FIRM believer of CHOICE. I believe that no religion or law should tell an individual what to do with her or his body. I want "BIG BROTHER" to stay OUT of my body,OUT of my panties and out of my house!

[gringo]

just because we do things different doesn't mean we're wrong, I agree with abortion, but I don't agree with homosexuality so what? change polices I'll still do what I think it's right for me and los mios!!!!
International helpers think they can change everything with money, can they change the future of a young girl that was raped and got pregnant??? will they give her money, a job? or perhaps psychotherapy?Now my question, what they are going to do about it? make up another policy agains or pro something, that's that only thing they're good for, make up needs we don't have and than a policy...
Saludos
Monte

Let me clarify the mixing of the terms gender and homosexuality that you are implying in the article you presented. Gender has been recognized as social constructed by academia. In fact, scholarly research has an extensive collection dealing with the social construction of gender. It is true that feminist studies initiated this research, but now this research comes from an array of interdisciplinary fields from other areas such as economics, anthropology, geography and so on. Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize winner on economics has also contributed enormously to this collection, and his research has been used by United Nations and other developing agencies.

Groups opposing women’s rights purposely mix these terms, gender and homosexuality, in order to defame gender studies. Extremist religious groups such as the taliban, for instance, denied women’s rights and this led that women did not have access as men have to education, justice system, work, expression, own assets and so on. Then, gender studies deal with the relations between women and men in a specific society, and do not include categories such as homosexuality. In gender studies, the categories of women and men are studied as different categories because they represent different realities.

One of the areas of gender studies has been focused on education, given that education is the premise to advance in life. Women in general have less years of education than men, and this affect their status. The social construction of gender is reflected on how parents encourage the education of their sons, but not of their daughters. Fortunately, in my personal experience my parents encouraged all his sons and daughters to pursue education goals. However, this is just an exception to the norm.

In the case of Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, gender studies and programmes take relevance given Nicaragua’s extreme poverty. In order to fight against poverty, women represent the most vulnerable group along with their children, or what in US has been called the feminization of poverty. The transmission of poverty from one generation to another generation is becoming a relevant point of research, and that is why women need to be treated as a special group. The steep increase on cases of pregnancy among teenagers in the past years in Nicaragua has alarmed experts in the development field. Nicaragua has the highest rate of pregnancy among teenagers of the entire Central American region. The reason of this increase is what experts are trying to find out.

In conclusion, gender studies does not deal with homosexuality as has been implied in that article, and if you want to have more information about that United Nations have specific bodies that deal with women’s issues from a gender focus. Furthermore, if you access any database from any university in the United States you will find more information that you ask for. I hope this explanation serves you well.

Traduccion al español

Dejame clarificarte la mezcla de los terminos de genero y homosexualidad que sugiere el articulo que presentas. Genero como una construccion social es reconocida por Academicos. En efecto, investigaciones sobre el tema de genero son numerosas. Si es cierto que las primeras investigaciones fueron hechas por feministas, pero en la actualidad diferentes disciplinas como economia, antropologia, geografia solo para mencionar algunas estan usando la categoria de genero. Amartya Sen, ganador del premio nobel de Economia en 1998 tiene una extensa coleccion sobre el tema. Las Naciones Unidas y otros organismos de desarrollo internacional se han basado en esas investigaciones para incluir genero en sus programas de ayuda.

Grupos que se oponen a los derechos de las mujeres deliberadamente mezclan estos terminos con el proposito de denigrar los estudios de genero. Grupos religiosos extremistas como el taliban en Afganistan, por ejemplo, le han negado derechos humanos a las mujeres por el solo hecho de ser mujeres. Mujeres bajo ese regimen no tenian acceso a educacion, sistema judicial, al trabajo, expression, a poseer bienes, etc. Estudios de genero, entonces estudian las relaciones entre hombres y mujeres en una sociedad especifica y no incluyen grupos homosexuales. Las categories de hombres y mujeres son estudiadas aparte debido a que tienen realidades distintas.

Una de las areas de estudio de genero es educacion debido a que es por el accesso a educacion que las personas avanzan en la vida (como norma ). En general, mujeres tienen menos años de educacion que los hombres y esto afecta su posicion en la sociedad. La construcion social de genero es reflejada en como los padres educan a sus hijos. Por lo general padres obligan a los hijos varones a estudiar, pero no a las hijas mujeres. Afortunadamente, en mi caso personal mis padres nos impulsaron a estudiar a mis hermanos y hermanas por igual. Sin embargo, esto no es la norma y esto ha sido comprobado por tantas investigaciones.

En el caso de Nicaragua que es el Segundo pais mas pobre del hemisferio occidental, estudios y programas de genero toman relevancia. En la lucha contra la pobreza, las mujeres con sus hijos representan el grupo mas vulnerable, en Estados Unidos este fenomeno se llama la feminizacion de la pobreza. Uno de los puntos focales de investigacion es como se transmite la pobreza de una generacion a la otra y es por eso que el grupo de mujeres se trata como una categoria especial. El desproporcionado incremento en embarazos de niñas menores de 20 años en los ultimos años en Nicaragua tiene alarmado a expertos en el campo de desarrollo internacional. Nicaragua tiene el porcentaje mas alto de embarazo de menores en toda la region centroamericana y es por eso que expertos estan investigando las causas de este incremento.

Genero no estudia homosexualidad como ha sido sugerido por su articulo, y si quiere mas informacion sobre estudios de genero las Naciones Unidas tiene organismos especificos que se concentran en problemas de mujeres con foco en genero, desarrollo sostenido, etc. Pero la mas amplia informacion la puede obtener a traves de las base de datos de cualquier universidad en los Estados Unidos. Espero que esta informacion le sirva bien!

Saludes,

[Balvarez]

Que es l que se esta discutiendo aqui? Aver cual es el tema..Feminismo, homesexualismo...aver?

[gerryruth]

[Bumszegmeds]

The US donates heavily to the UN. At question here is aid money. If Nicaragua wants the aid money, they should accept the conditions under which it was donated, and extend some basic human rights to their population. If the population of Nicaragua believes that it is more important to discriminate against homosexuals, then they must not really need/want the aid money that bad. The economic implications are far greater than this article lets on. First gay/lesbian tourists, and their friends from the US, Europe , Australia, New Zealand, ect. will be very reluctant to travel to an intolerant country and spend loads of money there. Especialy if they would not feel safe/ acepted. Second, and more important, a nation's GDP per capita can only increase when it's population increase is held in check. Allowing the option of abortion is one way of keeping population growth in check. Most wealthy nations have very slow population growth, so they can afford more equipment per worker. These type of conditions aren't radical by any means, nations in the Brittish comonwealth must allow homosexuals to marry before they can recieve aid from England, Australia, or New Zealand. If the UN is seen as donating to groups that are intolerant of portions of their populations, then wealthy nations will stop donating money. Then, there won't be any aid, or even a UN to complain about! Remember they are not requiring anyone to become gay, or have an abortion. They simply want some gurantees that their money will not be used to promote hatred. Just because the average Americans & Europeans make more money than the average Nicaraguans does not mean that we are rich. The International aid money we donate throughout the world costs working families a lot.