Pubblichiamo l'intervento pronunciato il 1° marzo dalla signora Ellen Lukas, della Delegazione della Santa Sede, alla 43ª Sessione della Commissione dell'Onu sullo status delle donne.

Madame Chairperson:

My Delegation is pleased to join in the discussion of Women's Health and Institutional Mechanisms to Advance Women, the two critical areas of concern from the Beijing Platform of Action being studied at this session of the Commission on the Status of Women. My Delegation is also looking forward to participating in the work of the Commission acting as preparatory committee for the Special Session of the General Assembly: 'Women 2000', which will begin two weeks from now.

Women and health

The Church has a long history of involvement in women's health care. For centuries, Catholic institutions have dedicated themselves to bringing health care to mainly poor women, often in places where no other health care institutions are available. It is an issue of which the Holy See is very much concerned. By the most recent count available, the Church today supplies a worldwide network of 985 national Catholic organizations dedicated to the promotion and distribution of financial resources for social and spiritual development. It maintains 54,742 day care centers caring for 2.3 million girls. The Church supports 100,231 health care institutions worldwide, including hospitals, crisis pregnancy centers, shelters for battered women, leprosaria, nursing homes for the elderly, centres for the seriously disabled, orphanages for girls and boys, and homes for destitute and dying women and men. In August 1995, before Beijing, Pope John Paul II committed Catholic institutions to make further efforts to assist the advancement of women and girls.

At the Beijing Conference, however, unhappily, the Holy See was forced to express a general reservation to the Health Section of the Plan of Action, in great part because of the Section's ambiguous language in treating matters relating to sexual health. The Holy See was also troubled that in discussing women's health, the Plan of Action emphasized reproductive health to the detriment of other very pressing health problems suffered by women and girls. This, generally recognized as decimating the female populations of developing countries.

Today, four years after Beijing, this situation is very much the same. Tuberculosis, tropical diseases and AIDS are still the great killers of women as well as men in poor countries, with infectious diseases taking 17.3 million lives a year in the developing world alone. Much more should be done than is now being done to reduce this toll, and the remedies are often simple. For example, Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF, recently told the UN Coordinating Committee on Health that the annual toll of deaths connected with pregnancy and delivery could be greatly reduced by promoting better nutrition and by distribution of Vitamin A.

The Holy See is happy to associate itself with all authentic initiatives to improve women's health. It supports a woman's right to a healthy pregnancy, to deliver her children in a clean, safe environment, with adequate professional help, to decide responsibly with her husband on the number of their children. The Church has approved Natural Family Planning, which is highly effective when used properly. It also supports all serious efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality. It strongly supports initiatives to protect women from violence and abuse. It is interested in solving the specific health problems of older women.

When the Women 2000 Special Session meets next year, the Holy See is hopeful that the Session will give due consideration to these goals for improving women's health, especially in the developing world.

Institutional mechanisms

to advance women

As to the second topic of this week's discussion: Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women, the Holy See is convinced of the importance of establishing such machinery to assist women in overcoming the historical biases and socially embedded prejudices which are obstacles to their advancement.

The Holy See gives this enterprise its support as long as governments establishing these mechanisms do not allow themselves to become captives of groups advancing a too-narrow view of woman's interests. The Holy See supports these mechanisms as long as they do not exclude the concerns of aged or other women who can no longer contribute to the economy. The Holy See strongly supports this enterprise as long as governments work to advance woman's true good and dignity and support her in her family role as well as in her wage-earning role.

The Holy See does so because of its interest in justice as well because of its mission 'to defend the human dignity which belongs to every person', as Pope John Paul II stated in the Apostolic Exhortation he delivered in Mexico City in January of this year, adding that the Church "denounces discrimination, sexual abuse and male domination as actions contrary to God's plan" (Ecclesia in America, Mexico City, 22 January 1999).

In the same document, Pope John Paul spoke of his esteem for the specific contribution of women to the progress of humanity, and of the contribution which women have made to material and cultural development. "Without this contribution" he said, "we would miss the enrichment which only the 'feminine genius' can bring to the life of the Church and to society... To fail to recognize this would be an historic injustice".