4 July 2005

H.E. Mr Tarald O. Brautaset
Ambassador to the Court of St James's
Royal Norwegian Embassy
25 Belgrave Square
London
SW1X 8QD

Dear Mr Brautaset,

I am very concerned with the activities of the Norwegian government at the United Nations recently.  According to an organisation called C-FAM, the Norwegian government together with Canada and Finland, partially funded a meeting of NGO's to lobby for abortion rights to be included in the UN's Millennium Development Goals, the goals of the 'Make Poverty History' campaign.

At present the MDGs do not include 'abortion rights'.  However, the UN's Millennium Project Report calls for abortion to be included in the MDGs.  The Report claims that 'safe abortion' and 'abortion rights' are necessary to achieve the MDGs.  According to
C-FAM's Friday Fax for February 11, 2005, the Millennium Report will be the basis of the review of the MDGs at the Millennium Summit + 5 to be held in New York in September 2005.

C-FAM's Friday Fax for June 24, 2005, entitled: UN Excludes Pro-Life Groups from Important UN Meeting, claims that pro-life groups - most with official UN status - were not allowed to participate in the meeting with the UN General Assembly while hundreds of UN-picked international lobby groups were allowed to attend and that the meeting 'consisted of repeated and unopposed calls for more access to abortion and homosexual rights through the Millennium Development Goals'.

I am sure you are aware of the international campaign by charities and others in Britain to 'make poverty history'. ⁽¹⁾  However, we need to remind ourselves that the 'right to life' is the fundamental right upon which all other rights are based.  The right to food, education, health care, clean water or housing for instance, are meaningless if there is no 'right to life'.  To make poverty history we have to realise that 'the nations with legalised abortion are the poorest of nations.  The great destroyer of peace in the world today is the crime against the innocent unborn child'. ⁽²⁾

In an abortion a tiny human life is torn apart and thrown away.  Since the 1967 Abortion Act, six million two hundred thousand (6,200,000) ⁽³⁾ children have been killed by abortion in Britain alone.  Every week in Britain, 3,500 children are deliberately killed by surgical abortion and an untold number of tiny human lives are killed because they were unable to implant in their mother's womb as a consequence of their mothers taking the Pill or the 'morning after pill' (otherwise known as 'emergency contraception').  Still further tiny human lives are killed during IVF and human embryo experimentation, including human cloning and embryonic stem cell research.  In fact in February 2005 the United Nations banned human cloning. ⁽⁴⁾  In the United States, since abortion became legal in 1973, forty five million (45,000,000) children have been killed by abortion.

Abortion violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child which states that, '...the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.'

United for Life believes that any nation, charity, organisation or individual which supports, advocates or carries out abortion violates the human rights of the unborn, violates the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We therefore raise our objection to Norway's participation in this human rights abuse by its recent activities at the UN.

I await your earliest reply.

Yours sincerely

Chris Mason
Co-ordinator
United for Life
www.unitedforlife.com

Enc

References

1. BBC News, 3 Feb 2005, Mandela calls for poverty action
2. International campaigner for the world's poor and Nobel Peace prize winner - Mother Teresa
3. UK national abortion statistics
4. MichNews.com   Also see c-fam.org

United for Life
Chris Mason
22 Moreton Close
Bishop's Cleeve
Cheltenham
GL52 8AW

15 July 2005

Dear Mr Mason

The Embassy has received your letter of 4 July in which you expressed concern that Norway had partially funded a meeting of NGO's to lobby for abortion rights to be included in the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

I have discussed the matter with the Department for International Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.  Based on the information provided in your letter, it has not been possible for them to establish which NGOs you are referring to.

In order for us to be able to provide you with a more detailed answer to your letter, we would greatly appreciate it if you could provide us with some more details regarding the meeting and the group of NGOs that you are referring to.

Yours sincerely

Rut Kruger Giverin
First Secretary

29th July 2005

Mr Rut Kruger Giverin
First Secretary
Royal Norwegian Embassy
25 Belgrave Square
London
SW1X 8QD

Dear Mr Giverin

Thank you for your letter of 15 July 2005 in reply to my letter raising concerns that Norway had partially funded a meeting of NGOs to lobby for abortion rights to be included in the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

You asked me to provide details regarding the meeting and the group of NGOs to which we refer.  I enclose a copy of the press release of the UN General Assembly which gives details of the meeting.  On the web http://www.un-ngls.org/GA-hearings you will find listed all the NGOs which attended.  This list can be accessed by clicking on the four coloured bars provided.

The un-ngls webpage sited above also provides the document entitled: Advanced/Unedited Summary of the Hearings -21 July 2005.  This document records that 'reproductive health' and 'reproductive rights', which is UN speak for access to abortion, were called for inclusion in the UN's Millennium Development Goals in paragraphs 11, 22, 23 and 29 of the Summary, and claims that the UN Millennium Goals cannot be achieved unless access to reproductive health and rights are included.

I also enclose a copy of C-FAM's Friday Fax of July 8, 2005 Volume 8, Number 29, which states that the US Ambassador, Anne Patterson, expressed the US Government's strong concerns about the lack of diversity in the consultations since left wing NGO's seemed to be handpicked to make speeches to the general Assembly.

I trust this provides you with the information you require.

I await your earliest reply.

Yours sincerely

Chris Mason (Mr)
Co-ordinator
United for Life
www.unitedforlife.com

Enc

18 August 2005

Dear Mr Mason

Thank you for your letter of 29 July in reply to the Embassy's letter of 15 July.

The meeting that you refer to is the informal interactive Hearing of the United nations General assembly, which was held on 23-24 June this year, and where representatives for non-governmental organizations with ECOSOC consultative status were invited.

The meeting was organised in accordance with a decision taken by consensus by the United Nations General assembly on 15 April (Resolution A/RES/59/291).  Annex III to this resolution relates to the procedures regarding the organization of the meeting, including invitations.  In paragraph 3 to this annex it is stated that "The President of the General Assembly will determine the list of invited participants and the exact format and organization of the hearings, in consultation with Member States and representatives of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, civil society organizations and the private sector."

In accordance with this procedure, a draft list of invitees was circulated among UN Member States for comments before it was finalised.  We are not aware that any objections to this list were made on behalf of UN Member States during this consultation process.

Norway contributed financially to the organization of the meeting as part of our efforts to promote wider participation by NGOs in the work of the UN.

Yours sincerely

Rut Kruger Giverin
First Secretary