bush says nah, America will pass

.......With the notable exception of U.S. President George W. Bush, more than 250 global leaders, including former President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reaffirmed their commitment to a ten-year-old UN plan to ensure the rights of women around the world.

.........In a letter to the organizers, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kelly Ryan said Washington was committed to “goals and objectives” of the ICPD, but that it was “unable” to endorse the statement. “The statement includes the concept of ‘sexual rights,’ a term that has no agreed definition in the international community, goes beyond what was agreed to at Cairo, and is not a component of the ICPD,” the letter asserted.
The United States, which helped draft and strongly supported the Cairo plan of action, as well as the UN women s conference in Beijing in 1995, abruptly changed course after Bush became president six years later.


........As one of his first acts in office, Bush also reinstated the so-called “global gag rule” first decreed by former President Ronald Reagan.