Womens' Rights at Stake

With Mr. Beard's chairmanship of a vital world health organization we should be concerned about his leadership. Already he has blocked the ability of women to have needed post-rape and sexual abuse  care  because of his penchant of putting his personal beliefs ahead of the women's needs.

It took years to put in place women's needs in countries where their rights had been diminished by becoming victims of war. In many of these countries rape and abuse is often used as a weapon of war and post rape and abuse cases required post trauma medical care. This required contraception and abortion education and medical services.

According to a recent report, our representative on the committee has been flaunting his personal agenda, but not the feelings of Canadians as a whole much, to the disdain of member countries who require these services and always looked to Canada as a strong supporter on women's issues.

On the world stage Canada has been a leader in aiding countries experiencing conflicts in Africa  and this role is now under close scrutiny by member nations. Canada's role in the area of controlling and treating HIV victims will surely be hampered as  well.

Although we as a country do not support the stand of our member on the world organization you can be sure the ultra right conservatives in the government see this as another move to making Canada look like a right wing entity and the fallout will come home to us through policies of the present government in the near future.

Our country should do everything possible to help the women of the world who require our aid by taking a positive leadership role such as the leadership of Stephen Lewis. He personally has taken on the leadership in supporting women's rights and is recognized as the world voice for needs in Africa.