ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 114, APRIL 2004

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Gender Reassignment?

To obtain “Letters of Accreditation” so that Endeavour Forum representatives could attend the  48th session of the UN's  Commission on the Status of  Women meeting in New York in March this year, I had to fax  to the UN  my list of  representatives.  The Letters of Accreditation were duly faxed back, but all the males were listed as "Ms", even though I had carefully typed their correct titles --  myself   as "Mrs"  and the men as "Mr". or "Dr".  Thus on the UN Letters of Accreditation,  Charles has become "Ms Charles Francis",  Dr. Joel Brind is "Ms Joel Brind"  and John Barich is "Ms John Barich".  I know that some names can be used for  either sex (Hillary comes to mind immediately) but who  ever heard of a woman named "Charles" or "John"?  Perhaps the UN is impatient with the  slow pace of  the development of a UN-ISEX society, and has decided to do a bit of gender reassignment itself.

UNESCO SEES THE LIGHT

In response to the concerns of the US government expressed  in a letter written by Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health & Human Services, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has promised to make substantial internal reforms to ensure that its publishing offices around the globe no longer produce documents endorsing abortion rights.  UNESCO's efforts to distance itself from one particular document (that recommends abortion on demand for all women and girls without restriction, the public financing of abortion, as well as the removal of all parental notification and consent laws) highlight the UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) participation in the production of this document, published in 2002 by UNESCO's Bangkok-based Regional Clearing House on Population Education and Communication. A UNESCO spokeswoman explicitly mentioned who was involved in the "co-publication" of the document:  "With regard to the specific document to which you have drawn particular attention, I would like to stress that this publication should be seen in the framework of a long-standing cooperation between UNFPA and our UNESCO Office in Bangkok."   This acknowledgement   may create further problems for UNFPA as it embarks on a public relations campaign aimed at restoring its US funding.

All credit to Austin Ruse and Doug Sylva of  the Catholic  Family & Human Rights Institute who have researched this issue thoroughly.

Men Without Jobs in Australia

The changing face of the job market is creating a group of men in our community who are in danger of becoming a separate underclass, living on the edges of society. An expert on labour issues believes the death of the manufacturing sector, the dramatic drop in  full-time work and a lack of post high school education is forcing at least one in five men aged  between 25 and 45 to opt out of the workforce, forever. National Institute of Labour Studies director Professor Sue Richardson said these men would  also stay single and not have families because they would never have the economic security to  put down roots. “They may not be very attractive marriage partners,” Professor Richardson said.  “These men  will drift to the margins of society, poor and lonely.  The job market is not generating jobs for these men.  There’s been a depressing lack of full-time work.  A man cannot support a family on a part-time wage” she said. One in five men aged 25-45 years, with no post-high school education, will never have a full-time job. One in three men aged 35 to 45 will be unemployed or unattached. In 1976, 93 per cent of the 35 to 45 age group had work.

Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family

NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN