The Holy See and the United Nations: the Holy See's reservations against the Sustainable Development Goals

 I have already noted (here) that, through its Permanent Observer status at the United Nations, the Holy See can have its documents with respect to the work of the UN circulated as official documents of the organisation, and that it is able to state "reservations" (in effect, objections) with regard to positions adopted by the UN, and to have those reservations circulated.

Some quarters are strident in their criticism of the Holy See for the support that it offers to the UN's sustainable development goals. It is, however, worth looking carefully at the reservations that the Holy See has recorded against those goals and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Holy See's advocacy of the sustainable development goals is explicitly qualified by these reservations, and perhaps more is to be gained by widening knowledge of the reservations than by criticism of the Holy See on grounds that are actually answered by the reservations.

These reservations have been expressed consistently by the Holy See Mission to the UN. In an early form, these reservations were expressed as follows:

(1) With reference to “sexual and reproductive health”, so-called “reproductive rights,” “family planning” and other language on which the Holy See has registered reservations at Cairo and Beijing, we reiterate these reservations as set out more fully in the Report of the ICPD and in the Beijing Platform for Action. In particular, the ICPD rejects recourse to abortion for family planning, denies that it creates any new rights in this regard. 

(2) With respect to so-called “education” or “information” on “sexuality”, my Delegation reaffirms the “primary responsibility” and the “prior rights” of parents, including their right to religious freedom, when it comes to the education and upbringing of their children, as enshrined, inter alia, in the UDHR and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

(3) By “gender” my Delegation understands to mean “male or female” only, and to have no meaning other than the customary and general usage of the term.

 These reservations are expressed in a more developed form in a response to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Firstly, in reference to the language of "sexual and reproductive health" and rights that might derive from it:

Regarding the terms "sexual and reproductive health" and "reproductive rights", the Holy See considers these terms as applying to a holistic concept of health, which embrace, each in their own way, the person in the entirety of his or her personality, mind and body, and which foster the achievement of personal maturity in sexuality and in the mutual love and decision-making that characterize the conjugal-relationship between a man and a woman in accordance with moral norms. The Holy See does not consider abortion or access to abortion or abortifacients as a dimension of these terms.

With reference to the terms "contraception", "family planning", "sexual and reproductive health", "sexual and reproductive rights", “reproductive rights”, and any other terms regarding family-planning services and regulation of fertility concepts in the document, the Holy See reaffirms its well-known position concerning those family-planning methods which the Catholic Church considers morally acceptable and, on the other hand, family-planning services which do not respect the liberty of the spouses, human dignity and the human rights of those concerned.

 And a reservation which refers to the term "gender", and is welcome in providing a basis on which others can engage in a dialogue in wider society from a like position:

With reference to "gender", the Holy See understands the term to be grounded in the biological sexual identity that is male or female.

The last reservation is with regard to education:

With respect to "education" or "information" on "sexuality", the Holy See reiterates the "primary responsibility" and the "prior rights" of parents, including their right to religious freedom, when it comes to the education and upbringing of their children, as enshrined, inter alia, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In that sense, the Holy See wishes to underline the centrality of the family, “the natural and fundamental group unit of society,” as well as the role and rights and duties of parents to educate their children.