News
For Immediate Release
Global Justice Center sees victory in response from the United States to Norway's Recommendation.
April 5, 2011
The Global Justice Center recently filed a shadow report challenging the US restrictions with the Human Rights Council (HRC) for the 2010 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the US. Citing this GJC report, Norway questioned the US at the UPR and became the first country to formally recommend that the US "remov[e] blanket abortion restrictions on humanitarian aid covering medical care given women and girls who are raped and impregnated in situations of armed conflict" (Recommendation 228).
On March 18, 2011, the US responded that the US could not remove the blanket abortion restrictions on humanitarian aid because of "currently applicable restrictions."
We interpret this cryptic, yet revealing response, as a positive movement on the part of the US which allows for lifting the restrictions via a Presidential Executive Order.
We believe this State Department response, the first "crack" in the Helms restrictions in some 37 years, is a subtle but clear milestone in our global campaign to ensure victims of rape in conflict receive full medical care, including abortions.
GJC President Janet Benshoof says "The "no abortion" policy, attached to all US humanitarian aid for victims of rape in armed conflicts, is both deadly and illegal. Recent actions by the Administration on this ban make clear that now is the time to pressure President Obama to bring the U.S. in compliance with the Geneva Conventions by lifting this ban."
(Click here to view or download a PDF of the Global Justice Center's Legal Update.)