CEDAW is the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women.
The unelected radical feminists who constitute the UN CEDAW Committee, responding to the Sri Lankan Government’s eight periodic submission, while citing the UN’s controversial Sustainable Development Goals and alluding to the euphemism of “universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services”, recommended the following to Sri Lanka:
(a) Amend legislation to legalize abortion not only in cases in which the life of the pregnant woman is threatened, but also in all cases of rape, incest and severe fetal impairment, and to decriminalize abortion in all other cases;
(b) Remove barriers to women’s access to safe abortion services, such as the requirement of a judicial inquiry as to whether there should be a medical termination of the pregnancy and the need for a medical certificate authorizing an abortion;
Sri Lanka has complied, and responded with the “Women Empowerment” bill which was gazetted on the 7th March, 2024. This bill has as an objective “to introduce mechanisms to give effect to obligations undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka, in relation of women, in terms of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women” – that is, CEDAW.
The “Women Empowerment” bill defines “women’s rights” as meaning “the rights of women to equality and non-discrimination as enumerated in Article 12 of the Constitution and the goals described in Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women” - that is, CEDAW.
The UN’s Human Rights Council likewise instructed Sri Lanka in April 2023 to liberalise abortion.
The authoritative decisions handed down from unelected bureaucrats in committees of the UN to the sovereign state of Sri Lanka, even include instructions regarding how the nation’s Constitution is to be changed, in addition to directions on liberalizing LGBTQ+, and the promotion of “substantive equality” – that is the mandating of the privilege of quotas for various groups of people, into positions of power and influence.
Learn about how agencies of the United Nations drive law reform in nations, that lead to the proliferation of abortion: https://www.heritage.org/life/report/no-abortion-not-human-right.
An excerpt from Grace Melton’s above-referenced report : “The vice chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls argued that sexual and reproductive health services, including access to safe and legal abortion, are essential and must remain a key component of the UN’s priorities.”
This is not the first time that attempts were made to legalise abortion in Sri Lanka by the back-door, through CEDAW:
Why we don’t speak of men and women anymore. What is “gender”?
“Equality” is achieved in radical feminism, when women have the right to kill their children, so that they can be equal to men, who cannot carry a child in pregnancy.
“Discrimination” will be the prohibition on a mother to kill her own child. A doctor with sound principles, who refuses to abort a mother’s child, will be guilty of “violence against women”.
Learn about the other “gender” bill:
Descent into Lunacy
Consequent to endeavours and successes in banning nitrogenous fertilisers, establishing “climate change” universities, liberalising sodomy and LGBTQ+, decreasing the age of consent to 14 and thereby legalising paedophilia – all in obedience to the directions emanating from agencies of the United Nations and its patrons, the latest Sri Lankan move toward…
What are the origins of the private member’s bill to liberalise sodomy? Read here.
Sri Lanka already has a constitution guaranteeing equality before the law to men and women. There exist common-sense laws treating violence and discrimination. There is no need to incorporate provisions of supranational conventions into national law. There is no need to enact legislation with vague references to foreign instruments, constituted of euphemistic expressions and unrealistic terms.
Consider the depth to which Germany has fallen: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-parliament-passes-law-allowing-minors-to-change-their-legal-gender-once-a-year/ . But of course, “gender” is a whim, and changes when you say it does.
The Sri Lanka-CEDAW Women Empowerment bill is a sham. Let us see through it, and become informed of what it’s purpose is. This neo-colonialist anti-woman and anti-family bill needs to be defeated.
Of course Pulse.lk got it wrong, while MP Sarath Weerasekera asked some pertinent questions: