Western Envoys to Global Population Meeting Push Compromise

As delegates gathered amid tight security for today’s opening of a U.N. conference on world population, U.S. and European envoys attempted Sunday to defuse Vatican and Islamic objections to a draft plan that deals with abortion and other sensitive issues.

Compromise proposals being circulated centered on controversial language dealing with definitions of “reproductive rights” and the family; sex education and family-planning services for teen-agers, and abortion.

These issues, while constituting less than 10% of the U.N. draft, have emerged as the major stumbling block to consensus at the International Conference on Population and Development, which is aimed at forging a strategy to stabilize population at a level considered environmentally sustainable.

“The outstanding questions are important, but they should not be allowed to overshadow the great progress we have made,” said Nafis Sadik, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund and secretary general of the conference.

In private meetings this weekend, U.S. officials urged nonaligned nations to accept compromise language drafted over the summer by the European Union, participants said. U.S. officials expressed optimism that the proposal would emerge as the vehicle for breaking the logjam because it enjoys support from a broad spectrum of countries, ranging from socially conservative Ireland to the liberal Scandinavian nations.

At the same time, advocates of the compromise acknowledged they still must overcome stiff resistance from the Vatican and Islamic countries, where religious authorities have criticized the document as condoning homosexuality and extramarital sex.

Egypt is said to be seeking support from Iran in removing language that many Islamic leaders see as condoning homosexuality, in particular a sentence urging an end to discrimination against “other unions” besides traditional marriage. Caribbean nations sought to include the phrase to cover common-law marriages, which are a tradition in those countries, according to a member of the U.S. delegation.

One of the most controversial passages, on reproductive health, has been attacked by conservative Catholics and Islamists as advocating a universal right to abortion.

The compromise seeks to preempt that criticism by stating that policy on reproductive matters “is the sovereign right of each nation, consistent with the national laws and in conformity with international human-rights standards.”