On April 13, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations gave a statement at the end of the 51st Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), which was dedicated to “Sustainable Cities, Human Mobility and International Migration.”

In its intervention, the Holy See expressed its disappointment that the Commission failed to achieve an outcome document that would contribute to the amelioration of the status of migrants, something that occurred, it said, because of persistent failure to respect the “redline” conditions (positions that could never under any circumstances be agreed to) that Delegates had communicated clearly throughout the process. These came from what the Holy See said was an obsession on issues related to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights and the failure to accept a reference to State sovereignty in accordance with the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD), which says that abortion is to be determined by national legislative process and that each country has the right to implement the ICPD in accordance with its national laws.

The statement can be found here.