WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

RELIGIOUS NGO'S AT THE UNITED NATIONS - STUDY

Lobbying for Faith & Family

http://www.norad.no/no/resultater/publikasjoner/norads-rapportserie/publikasjon?key=401801

http://awid.org/Library/Lobbying-for-Faith-and-Family-A-Study-of-Religious-NGOs-at-the-United-Nations?utm_source=Facing+Fundamentalisms+CF+Newsletter+-+Apr%2FMay2013&utm_campaign=FacingFundamentalisms&utm_medium=email

Direct Link to Full 38=Page 2013 Report:

Lobbying for Faith and Family.pdf

Religious organisations are a relatively small minority of NGOs at the United Nations (UN).Still, they are able to make themselves clearly heard and seen.

This study focuses on religiously motivated lobbying groups fighting against sexual andreproductive health and rights (SRHR) policies at the UN. While health policy is usuallyframed as a part of the secular political domain, it touches upon combustible religiousvalues and engages powerful alliances across religious divides. Catholics and Mormons;Christians and Muslims; Russian Orthodox and American fundamentalists find commonground on traditional values and against SRHR issues at the UN.

The conservative religious lobbies comprise constellations of different organizations withvarious religious affiliations. However, conservative Christian actors constitute aparticularly influential bloc wedded to a distinctly conservative social agenda and motivatedby pre-modern ideas about gender issues, family politics and women's health. Theyrepresent a key factor in the resistance to SRHR, and work ceaselessly to contest, obstructand delay the development of relevant UN agendas. Their influence does not reflect theirnumber but is largely due to a striking ability to build alliances across religious boundariesas well as elicit the support of religious communities around the world.