Amelia and Luis Belchior
Aids orphans make statement at UN Commission on Population.
Luis...
Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates, it is an honor and a privilege to be here. I would like to speak on behalf of some of the 14 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who like me and my brother and sister were orphaned by HIV and AIDS.
My parents did not have to die. AIDS is a 100 % preventable disease. We know how to stop it and it is quite easy to do. People just need to channel sexual activity into a faithful lifetime union in marriage. It is that simple. My parents died because our culture taught them that they did not need to be faithful to each other in marriage.
In my country you can see buses with a picture of a soccer ball with the words, “Play safe, use a condom” as if sex were a game like soccer. Let me tell you that in Africa, at least in Mozambique sex is no game, it can end in death. I lost my brother to AIDS as well. My guess is, most of you have never had to watch a parent or a sibling die a slow painful death due to HIV and AIDS. If you had, you might get a different perspective about how we ought to solve the AIDS pandemic.
My sister and brother and I have been in the U.S. now for three years and this is my second time at the UN and I am very worried about the policies being negotiated here regarding human sexuality, youth, and HIV and AIDS. I have sat through negotiations where I have witnessed the developing countries trying to force a sexual rights agenda on the African countries.
I have watched as delegates have been pushing for language promoting “comprehensive education on human sexuality.” And it makes me really angry to see what they are doing because I have learned that this kind of “sexuality” education that is being pushed actually encourages youth to experiment with their sexuality and to engage in promiscuous behavior. I hope you are concerned that many developed countries are trying to tell the African countries that youth have a “right” to this kind of education.
Now does that make sense to you? -- To encourage youth to have sex, especially in countries experiencing AIDS pandemics? It sounds like a death sentence to me and it was a death sentence for three of my family members.
To tell you the truth, I find this all insane and I am angered by what I see being promoted at this conference under the guise of “human rights”.
I invite everyone in this room to join me in fighting to ensure that “comprehensive education on human sexuality” is removed from the draft CPD document.
Now I’ll turn the time to my sister Amelia.
Did you know that last year at the Commission on the Status of Women a booklet published by International Planned Parenthood Federation and directed toward youth living with HIV and AIDS was distributed to youth?
Did you know that this booklet claimed to teach youth about their “sexual and reproductive rights” and claimed these rights are recognized by the world as “human rights.” ?
It states that the booklet is “here to support your sexual pleasure.” It tells HIV-infected youth they can have sex in numerous ways too graphic to repeat in a forum such as this. And if it is too graphic to be repeated here, why was this distributed at the UN?
You see this booklet entitled, “Healthy, Happy, and Hot” promotes sexual pleasure through masturbation, with people of the same sex and even while intoxicated with alcohol.
But what upsets me the most is that this booklet actually tells HIV-infected youth that laws requiring them to disclose their status with their sexual partners violate their human rights.
It is outrageous that this “Healthy, Happy, and Hot” booklet was distributed to youth at the United Nations.
It is wrong for UN agencies to promote sexuality education programs that encourage youth to prematurely engage in sexual activity to obtain sexual pleasure, but it is unconscionable that HIV-infected youth are being encouraged to have sex with anyone they want, any way they want without disclosing their status.
What are we doing here?
My brother Luis and I belong to a show choir called “Light Entertainment” Company. We have about 60 youth from 13 different schools. We sing and dance and just came back from the tour. The youth involved in it have chosen to delay sexual activity until marriage.
Why is it that the draft document being negotiated right now has over 80 references to some form of the word sexual many of them calling for “sexual rights? Isn’t there more to development than having sex?
Why are the developing countries being pressured right now by the developed nations in the very document being negotiated at this conference to accept this kind of “comprehensive education on human sexuality” that will prematurely sexualize their children and put them at risk of death among other things, all under the guise of HIV/AIDS education and the empowerment of women and girls.
Why is it that the developed world is trying to export their radical sexual ideologies under the deceptive banner of “sexual rights” or “sexual health and rights” or “information regarding sexual health and rights” or “services and information on reproductive health and rights” or any of the many and multiple references loaded in the document in a deliberate effort to pressure countries to accept these references sometimes late into the night without interpretation in their own languages.
Why is the international community not respecting the sovereign rights and religious and cultural values called for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and countless other UN consensus documents to maintain their values that uphold the institution of the family?
How is it that the UN has strayed from its original purpose and now deliberations at conferences such as these are obsessed with discussions on sexuality and sexual rights, issues that should be left up to nations to decide for themselves?
Why is it that the issue of abortion also disguised under multiple euphemistic terms is being forced on developing nations against their will? How is it that the term “reproductive health” or “reproductive health services” or “reproductive rights” is now being used by governments with big pockets to promote the legalization of abortion in countries that are opposed to abortion because they believe it is taking the life of a human being?
All of this push for sexual rights undermines the institution of the family which the Universal declaration of Human Rights clearly states is “the natural and fundamental group unit of society” which is “entitled to protection by society and the State.”
We call upon UN Member States, UN agencies, NGOs and all entities within the UN system to respect the rights, religions and cultural values of all UN Member States in their work at the United Nations and to cease the promotion of abortion, sexual rights and comprehensive education on human sexuality instead of basic sex education.
Thank you.
Luis...
Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates, it is an honor and a privilege to be here. I would like to speak on behalf of some of the 14 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who like me and my brother and sister were orphaned by HIV and AIDS.
My parents did not have to die. AIDS is a 100 % preventable disease. We know how to stop it and it is quite easy to do. People just need to channel sexual activity into a faithful lifetime union in marriage. It is that simple. My parents died because our culture taught them that they did not need to be faithful to each other in marriage.
In my country you can see buses with a picture of a soccer ball with the words, “Play safe, use a condom” as if sex were a game like soccer. Let me tell you that in Africa, at least in Mozambique sex is no game, it can end in death. I lost my brother to AIDS as well. My guess is, most of you have never had to watch a parent or a sibling die a slow painful death due to HIV and AIDS. If you had, you might get a different perspective about how we ought to solve the AIDS pandemic.
My sister and brother and I have been in the U.S. now for three years and this is my second time at the UN and I am very worried about the policies being negotiated here regarding human sexuality, youth, and HIV and AIDS. I have sat through negotiations where I have witnessed the developing countries trying to force a sexual rights agenda on the African countries.
I have watched as delegates have been pushing for language promoting “comprehensive education on human sexuality.” And it makes me really angry to see what they are doing because I have learned that this kind of “sexuality” education that is being pushed actually encourages youth to experiment with their sexuality and to engage in promiscuous behavior. I hope you are concerned that many developed countries are trying to tell the African countries that youth have a “right” to this kind of education.
Now does that make sense to you? -- To encourage youth to have sex, especially in countries experiencing AIDS pandemics? It sounds like a death sentence to me and it was a death sentence for three of my family members.
To tell you the truth, I find this all insane and I am angered by what I see being promoted at this conference under the guise of “human rights”.
I invite everyone in this room to join me in fighting to ensure that “comprehensive education on human sexuality” is removed from the draft CPD document.
Now I’ll turn the time to my sister Amelia.
Did you know that last year at the Commission on the Status of Women a booklet published by International Planned Parenthood Federation and directed toward youth living with HIV and AIDS was distributed to youth?
Did you know that this booklet claimed to teach youth about their “sexual and reproductive rights” and claimed these rights are recognized by the world as “human rights.” ?
It states that the booklet is “here to support your sexual pleasure.” It tells HIV-infected youth they can have sex in numerous ways too graphic to repeat in a forum such as this. And if it is too graphic to be repeated here, why was this distributed at the UN?
You see this booklet entitled, “Healthy, Happy, and Hot” promotes sexual pleasure through masturbation, with people of the same sex and even while intoxicated with alcohol.
But what upsets me the most is that this booklet actually tells HIV-infected youth that laws requiring them to disclose their status with their sexual partners violate their human rights.
It is outrageous that this “Healthy, Happy, and Hot” booklet was distributed to youth at the United Nations.
It is wrong for UN agencies to promote sexuality education programs that encourage youth to prematurely engage in sexual activity to obtain sexual pleasure, but it is unconscionable that HIV-infected youth are being encouraged to have sex with anyone they want, any way they want without disclosing their status.
What are we doing here?
My brother Luis and I belong to a show choir called “Light Entertainment” Company. We have about 60 youth from 13 different schools. We sing and dance and just came back from the tour. The youth involved in it have chosen to delay sexual activity until marriage.
Why is it that the draft document being negotiated right now has over 80 references to some form of the word sexual many of them calling for “sexual rights? Isn’t there more to development than having sex?
Why are the developing countries being pressured right now by the developed nations in the very document being negotiated at this conference to accept this kind of “comprehensive education on human sexuality” that will prematurely sexualize their children and put them at risk of death among other things, all under the guise of HIV/AIDS education and the empowerment of women and girls.
Why is it that the developed world is trying to export their radical sexual ideologies under the deceptive banner of “sexual rights” or “sexual health and rights” or “information regarding sexual health and rights” or “services and information on reproductive health and rights” or any of the many and multiple references loaded in the document in a deliberate effort to pressure countries to accept these references sometimes late into the night without interpretation in their own languages.
Why is the international community not respecting the sovereign rights and religious and cultural values called for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and countless other UN consensus documents to maintain their values that uphold the institution of the family?
How is it that the UN has strayed from its original purpose and now deliberations at conferences such as these are obsessed with discussions on sexuality and sexual rights, issues that should be left up to nations to decide for themselves?
Why is it that the issue of abortion also disguised under multiple euphemistic terms is being forced on developing nations against their will? How is it that the term “reproductive health” or “reproductive health services” or “reproductive rights” is now being used by governments with big pockets to promote the legalization of abortion in countries that are opposed to abortion because they believe it is taking the life of a human being?
All of this push for sexual rights undermines the institution of the family which the Universal declaration of Human Rights clearly states is “the natural and fundamental group unit of society” which is “entitled to protection by society and the State.”
We call upon UN Member States, UN agencies, NGOs and all entities within the UN system to respect the rights, religions and cultural values of all UN Member States in their work at the United Nations and to cease the promotion of abortion, sexual rights and comprehensive education on human sexuality instead of basic sex education.
Thank you.
