New S*exual Colonialism in UN Treaty on Development

Western countries added a poison pill to a new binding international treaty on the right to development. The poison pill is related to abortion. The treaty would become the first to include an obligation related to “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.”

The purpose of the new treaty is to affirm the sovereignty of developing countries and their right to pursue their economic and social development without interference from former colonial powers.

The irony is that the new language is considered by many to be the New Colonialism; abortion rights, homosexual/transgender rights, and sexual rights for children. All these issues are Western impositions on the mostly more traditional countries of the Global South.

Many developing countries may think that terms related to reproductive health in international policy are harmless or can be interpreted in a benign way at the national level. Longtime experts say they are wrong and that these governments fail to realize the reality in adding the phrase to a new binding agreement.

The confusion surrounding the treaty arises from the fact that these terms have been part of non-binding international agreements for many years.

The powerful Western governments see these phrases one way while the developing world see them in another way. Given that the West has all the money, it is assured that these phrases do not mean maternal health, family planning, and HIV/AIDs prevention but rather the plethora of sexual rights promoted by the West.

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