Posted on 02/04/2005 6:44:40 AM PST by NYer
NEW YORK, February 3, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the United Nations, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is pushing the government of Samoa to legalize abortion and force more women out of their traditional family roles and into work and political life.
CEDAW issued a press release January 24, in which it complained that, despite having set up a Ministry for Women’s Affairs, the role of married women in Samoan society was too traditional and mostly oriented towards family life. It said not enough women run for political office, and that abortion is still illegal despite attempts to bring the country up to date.
The report said, “The daily lives of the majority of Samoan women were regulated by customary law and practices that were based on female subordination and stereotypical gender roles.” The committee experts said that despite the necessity of respect for Samoan cultural values, “it was important to struggle against the ‘entrenched prerogatives of the patriarch.’”
Traditional Samoan life is oriented around the extended family. This has provided care and a social safety net for women, children and the elderly. Since the government adopted the CEDAW convention in 1992, however, the incursions into that traditional way of life by the push to get women out of the home and into the workforce have begun to destabilize Samoan society.
In order to meet the goal of westernizing and modernizing the Samoan way of life, the report says, “Samoa needed to target measures at both women and men to combat deeply entrenched stereotypical attitudes.” The report praised the partial progress made towards CEDAW’s restructuring goals. “Other changes in the economic, social and political lives of women in Samoa include increased participation in paid employment, an increasing number in management positions, decreased fertility and a reduction in family size.”
The Samoan representatives said the country’s ban on abortion “had not kept up with the real situation.” Ms. Heather Latu said that babies are being abandoned at birth and that women are seeking “the services of backstreet abortionists.” Latu said “last year, Samoa’s Chief Justice had issued a directive that the Government consider the issue of abortion. The discussions on the issue were about to begin.”
Read CEDAW press release:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/wom1481.doc...
Traditinal values in action ping!
This crap will destroy the culture of Samoa. So much for respecting the cultures of indigenous people. The leftists continue to be hypocritical pigs.
I was going to ping you, until I realized you posted the article :)
God help Samoa, and God help these do-gooders for sticking their noses in. While I personally don't know many Samoans, there is a thriving community in Carson, Ca., and surrounding areas. They are doing quite well, thank you very much, and they don't take crap.
They only respect the culture of those who agree with them. Anybody else gets the choice: convert or perish.
Besides, I thought that Samoa was supposed to be this tropical paradise where nobody had any "hangups" about sex. If Margaret Mead was right, Samoa ought to be way ahead of the curve, by UN standards.
I believe that the Samoans will be fine. Many of them are Mormon.
Glad to hear that! The UN has tried this tactic with several other small nations, most 'unsuccessfully' ;-D.
No, Margaret Mead was duped! The Samoan teenagers who told her all those wild stories were just lying to her, for fun.
Anyone who knows Samoa knows that the women have at least as much if not more influence in the society than men. They know what they are doing. Plus, they are large and not to be messed with.
Exactly, they whine and whine about "colonialism" and all its ills ... yet they are cultural colonialists without apology.
Nah, not the UN
they would never do anything evil, would they?
more population control and sustainable development?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335656/posts?page=196#196
At least one of those girls later affirmed, on the record, that the whole thing was made up.
All this has been known at least since 1983. Guess you missed the implicit <sarcasm> tag in my post. (I nearly always have one.)
These leftist want to ruin the few moral societies left on our planet. What's even worse is that they're doing it with OUR money. Screw the UN...
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