The Holy See stated that terms related to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights and services must not include abortion, that “gender” should be understood as male and female, and that language regarding the control of sexuality was intended to refer to “responsible sexuality within marriage.”
Libya’s representative underlined the need to respect States’ sovereignty, regretting the deletion of two sovereignty-related paragraphs and emphasized with regard to gender that her delegation recognizes men and women only.
Brazil said that terminology such as “sexual and reproductive health and rights” should not be interpreted as promoting abortion.
Egypt called out the tactic of holding negotiations outside normal business hours to exhaust smaller delegations and complained about the lack of transparency with regard to the removal of text under discussion.
Iran called for full respect for religious and cultural values.
The Russian Federation’s representative raised concerns about ambiguous terms and regretted that maternity protection and family support did not make it into the final draft. She also called out countries for pushing the controversial and contested concept of “multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.”
Sudan’s representative disassociated from terms including “sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
Nicaragua disassociated from all sexual and reproductive rights language that can be interpreted as supporting and promoting abortion, stating that everyone has the right to life from the moment of conception.
Iraq expressed regret at the lack of clearer references to the family and to the strong role of mothers, especially during COVID, and disassociated from the controversial references to “multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.” Their representative also insisted that the mentions of the review conferences in the text only referenced negotiated agreements adopted by the General Assembly.
Saudi Arabia complained that many controversial references were kept in the text and clarified that “gender” refers to “man” and “woman” in her country.
