The Geneva Consensus continues to generate adherences. The President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, signed on October 12th the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.

The governments that sign the Declaration establish a coalition that works for women’s health, the defense of life in all of its stages, the integrity of family and the sovereignty of all nations; and, together they resist the pressure exerted by international organizations to impose abortion as a right, or regulations that violate families. A year ago, it was launched by only 6 countries, and now, with Guatemala, there are 35 signatory countries.

“This is a clear message to the international community that there are many countries that recognize that there is a fundamental right, the right to life, which must always be guaranteed and defended; and that any statement that says that already exists, at an international level, a consensus in favor of abortion, as some sadly allege, is totally false ” said the president at the accession ceremony.

Giammanetti’s statement touches a raw nerve. Indeed, various international organizations, especially the United Nations (UN), present abortion as a “sexual and reproductive right”, they generate guidelines to promote it, and condition the access to economic resources to its acceptance. All because, supposedly, over the years, a consensus would have developed around the recognition of abortion as a “fundamental right” of women.

However, as the Guatemalan president points out, the simple existence of the Geneva Consensus is a conclusive proof that the supposed consensus on abortion does not exist. There are at least 35 UN member states that do not accept it and, instead, they do value life, from conception to natural death, as a true fundamental right.

“Any effort to try to impose abortion in a country is an undue interference in its internal affairs. I must point out that these efforts to promote abortion are often made in the name of defending human rights, which is absurd. Without any legal, anthropological or scientific basis, some currents of thought fabricate supposed rights, which are nothing other than the denial of the true inherent rights of the person “, warned Giammanetti.

The same applies around a supposed consensus in relation to “gender rights” that assume an ideological perspective that weakens the family. “As the declaration points out, we recognize that the family is essential for the full development of our peoples,” said the president.

Guatemala’s adherence to the Consensus, explained Giammanetti, is a complement to the Public Policy for the Protection of Life and the Institutionality of the Family that the government recently promulgated (Agreement Number 149-2021). This governmental determination is one of the most audacious governmental initiatives in favor of life and family in the American continent.

The signing ceremony of the Consensus was held in the capital of the country, as it could not be held at the UN headquarters due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic, Damares Alves, Minister of Women, Family, and Human Rights participated virtually from Brazil, the country that currently leads the coalition; and Valerie Huber, president of the Institute for Women’s Health in Washington, participated in person.

Speeches from the ceremony can be viewed here (in Spanish).

The full text of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, you can read here.