This is What Winning an Election Will Do

Madam Chair,

I am honored to be here today to express the renewed and deep commitment of the United States Government to the goals and aspirations of the ICPD Program of Action. President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and Ambassador Rice as well as the United States Congress, have already acted strongly to support women’s and young people’s health, human rights, and empowerment; global partnership; and the wider development agenda embraced by the Program of Action.

These opening lines of the U.S. government’s official statement, so calmly delivered March 31 by Margaret J. Pollack, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and Head of the United States Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, belied the sea change they represent in U.S. relationship with the United Nations in general and in particular with the global consensus reached at the ICPD in Cairo fifteen years ago that women’s human rights and health, including reproductive rights and health, are central to global economic development, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and global security.

Pollack, a career civil servant who has worked in the State Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations referred to herself in an interview with me last week as “the lantern in the cave” simply delivering the current administration’s message that the U.S. is going “back to the future”–i.e., the one when Bill Clinton was president–in our policies and leadership for women’s rights globally.

The statement was delivered the same day that the U.S. declared its desire to be seated on the U.N Human Rights Council, and shortly before President and Mrs. Obama jetted off for London to see the Queen–oh, and to attend the G-20 meeting, followed by other European stops where the still young administration is being greeted with much excitement and renewed good will for America. Everyone seems particularly pleased to have an American president who can string a complete sentence together and actually values global diplomacy. Novel idea, no?

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All in all, this week has illustrated what a difference an election makes, and we dare not let that thought escape our consciousness: without a doubt anti-choice and other right-wing groups that are already mobilizing to take us back to their preferred future.

I served on the U.S. government delegation to the Cairo + 5 conference a decade ago, when country representatives from the 190 or so nation members of the the U.N. gathered to evaluate progress toward the Cairo consensus. We had our challenges to be sure, but could not have then anticipated the trench warfare and sock in the gut to women’s progress that eight years of George W. Bush’s administration would bring. So when I read our nation’s “new” statement, tears of joy welled up in my eyes.

There are many powerful nuances, such as saying the US will “work in partnership” and acknowledging the expertise of others, which the arrogant Bushies rarely did. A few other salient points:

Abstinence-only sex education has been Kung-Fu kicked aside. Condoms for HIV/AIDS prevention are in–or hopefully, on–again.

The phrase “universal access to sexual and reproductive health and the protection and promotion of reproductive rights” definitely ushers in a sigh of relief moment, since to the dismay of most of the rest of the world, the U.S. hadn’t uttered them in eight long years..

“We also support the ICPD understanding that the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women must be protected, so that women can make their own health and fertility decisions, which helps to ensure healthy, productive families and communities as well as sustainable, prosperous, and stable societies.” Clear, unequivocal. (The statement doesn’t address abortion specifically however-that’s clearly one of the areas where we need to advance beyond Cairo.)

Human rights for all regardless of sexual orientation are asserted, as are “linkages between HIV/AIDS and voluntary family planning programs.” and CEDAW ratification as a priority. I didn’t expect they would tie all these together and the sexual orientation inclusion was a surprise to me though might not be to others more inside.

But let me stop interpreting. Pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, sit down, put your feet up, and take a few minutes to savor reading the full statement. Then remind yourself why it’s important to be actively engaged in the political process today and every day.