The government of newly sworn in President Gustavo Petro in Colombia announced on Monday night (22) that it withdrew from the so-called Geneva Consensus Declaration. The text is a kind of multilateral libel against abortion and in defense of the family based on heterosexual couples.
Brazil, under the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), adhered to the document in October 2020, in a ceremony in which it was represented by the then ministers Ernesto Araújo (International Relations) and Damares Alves (Women, Family and Human Rights), exponents of the the vaunted ideological wing of management.
The United States, at the time with Donald Trump in the presidency, co-sponsored the declaration, which was ratified by ultraconservative governments such as Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia and Uganda. Colombia joined it more recently, in May of this year, still under the right-wing Iván Duque, an ally of Bolsonaro.
The decision of the first leftist in power in Colombia was announced precisely in a letter from the chancellery of Bogotá to Itamaraty, filled with not necessarily subtle messages.
The text states that the local government “recognises, respects and protects the rights of girls and women” and lists that the Constitution and Supreme Court jurisprudence see “the right to legal and safe abortion as an integral part of sexual and reproductive rights and the women’s health”.
In February, the Constitutional Court decriminalized the voluntary interruption of pregnancy until the 24th week of pregnancy — which, in a way, made the Colombian adhesion to the pact, after the establishment of this decision, a contradiction.
“Colombia will remain committed to the promotion and attention to women’s health needs,” says the note from Petro’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In other messages, the text also highlights that “in different cultural, social and political systems, there are different forms of family, for which the promotion of policies that strengthen their role in society is extremely important”.
The statement, finally, warns that cases of violence against women have a pronounced effect on women’s health.
The Geneva Consensus Declaration still has 36 signatories, which in Latin America include Paraguay and Guatemala — as well as countries like Oman, Pakistan, Poland and Libya. Colombia’s departure from the declaration therefore increases the isolation to which Bolsonaro has been exposed in the region. The US, when Joe Biden took office, had already ceased to endorse the text and represent its leadership.
The Itamaraty did not comment on the Colombian communiqué.
The document emphasizes that “women play a fundamental role in the family” and commits to “allowing women to safely go through pregnancy and childbirth”.
It also emphasizes that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning” and that “any measures or changes related to abortion within the health care system can only be determined at the national or local level in accordance with the national legislative process”. .
The agreement does not have the force of a treaty nor is it binding, that is, countries are not obliged to follow the guidelines. Defenders of human and women’s rights critical of the terms, however, have always seen it as another step in trying to break existing international consensus on the subject.
