Iulia-Elena Cazian
(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / New York, 12.04.2024).- A coalition of Western governments, including the United States and the European Union pushed hard at the just-concluded UN Climate Conference (COP29) for the inclusion of gender ideology in the final document. A coalition of traditional governments stopped them.
Diplomats and political leaders from nearly every country gathered with the goal of increasing financial contributions to fight the controversial topic of “climate change.” The conference considered a set of agreements, one of which addressed the intersection of gender and climate.
Western governments and feminist activists, on a quest to further an agenda that promotes gender diversity and widespread access to abortion, hoped for a progressive text on gender. Despite their pressure, the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and Egypt, among other socially conservative countries, rejected the inclusion of controversial language in the final agreement.
The mainstream media referred to traditional countries as “blocking discussions over women’s rights,” while the government of Colombia called the Vatican’s stances “unacceptable.”
The initial draft included language on empowering “women in all their diversity” defined by the WHO as referring to “women who are heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex…women who are or have been involved in sex work…”
Advocating for an “ambitious gender action plan” in the context of COP29, the EU said it “recognizes the importance of including women and men, and girls and boys in all their diversity […] in climate action.” Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others, joined the statement.
The EU also proposed a paragraph that would reference gender as a special category of vulnerability to be attended to in the context of climate disruptions. Socially conservative countries, aware of the progressive interpretation of “gender rights” within the UN system, opposed the paragraph altogether. During an exchange with BBC, the delegate from the Holy See clarified that their opposition stems from their stance on transgenderism.
Women Deliver, a global ‘women’s rights’ advocacy group pushing for widespread access to abortion, said COP29 would be an opportunity to “make sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and the needs of adolescent girls central to every climate discussion and policy decision.”
At a COP29 side event on gender-based violence, Women Deliver said that they understand SRHR to include comprehensive sexuality education and abortion services, implying that denial of such services could amount to a form of gender-based violence.
In 2016, the US described gender based violence as “an umbrella term for any harmful threat or act directed at an individual or group based on actual or perceived biological sex, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, and/or lack of adherence to varying socially constructed norms around masculinity and femininity.”
More recently, the Biden administration expressed support for a treaty that could render misgendering a crime against humanity through the concept of “gender-based persecution.”
In this context, many progressive groups hoped the final text would retain the provision on gender based violence. Nonetheless, the final text agreed by consensus did not feature “women in all their diversity”, “gender-based violence”, and gender as a special category of vulnerability.
UN Women called for “a clear push for gender-responsive climate finance that is accessible to women-led grassroots organizations and feminist groups…”
The COP29 final agreement on climate finance, which committed developed countries to transfer at least $300 billion per year for climate funding for developing countries, did not include the word “gender.”
Thank you for reading our content. If you would like to receive ZENIT’s daily e-mail news, you can subscribe for free through this link.
