The UK government is in a diplomatic standoff with three European countries over a statement on gender equality it changed to remove commitments to women’s reproductive and sexual health rights.
Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are refusing to sign the redacted version unless their concerns are “addressed”, a Dutch foreign ministry spokesman told the Guardian on Thursday.
The parties drafted alternative wording and circulated their proposals to all governments participating in the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), which took place in London in early July.
“Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands will not sign the current amended version unless our concerns about the inclusion of [sexual and reproductive health and rights] have been taken into account and yesterday provided counterproposals to that effect,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The Foreign, Community and Development Office (FCDO), under whose auspices the conference was held, initially said the edits were made to clarify a “perceived ambiguity”, but has since said it has made the changes to focus on “core issues and ensuring consensus among signatories”.
However, the second version of the statement, which was released online days after the conference ended, has only eight signatories, including the UK, while the original version had 22. The original version included a commitment to repeal any laws that “permit harmful practices or limiting the … sexual and reproductive health and rights, bodily autonomy of women and girls’.
The changes, as well as the non-transparent manner in which they were made, have also drawn criticism from human rights organizations and high-ranking politicians.
Caroline Noakes, the Conservative chair of the Women and Equality Select Committee, wrote to Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership contender Liz Truss asking her to explain “this sudden backsliding on women’s rights”.
Labour’s shadow international development secretary, Preet Kaur Gill, described the amended statement as “yet another attack on humanitarian rights from a government whose global reputation is already tarnished”.
Ed Brown, general secretary of Stefanus Alliance International (Saint), an Oslo-based religious freedom and human rights organization, worked on drafting the original statement with colleagues in Denmark.
He said he would have understood if the concerns had been raised earlier, allowing all parties to reach a mutually satisfactory compromise. But the way the changes were made by the UK after the conference was a big problem, he added.
“For me, the procedural problem – when the statement is removed after 22 countries have signed it – that, to me, is a big, big problem, and to me it undermines the trust that has been built between nation states on this issue… That’s my main gripe .”
It remains unclear who ordered the changes. The United Kingdom hosted the conference in its capacity as this year’s chairmanship of the International Alliance for Religious Freedom or Belief. Fiona Bruce, Tory MP and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for FoRB, was heavily involved in organizing the two-day event.
Bruce and the FCDO have been contacted for comment.
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