Women's groups call on President Bush to withdraw nomination of Ellen Sauerbrey as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration

A coalition of ten women's health and rights groups today called on President Bush to withdraw the nomination of Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration calling it "yet another in a long string of crony nominations of unqualified individuals for critical positions."

As head of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), the Assistant Secretary manages a budget of at least $700 million at the State Department, directly administers humanitarian programs for refugees and migrants, and works closely with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which administers U.S. international family planning and related programs. The position requires considerable experience handling international crises, the management of refugee and resettlement programs, and nuanced approaches to multilateral cooperation as well as a strong, evidence-based grasp of the reproductive health needs of women and adolescents worldwide. "Ambassador Sauerbrey falls short on every count," asserted June Zeitlin, Executive Director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO). "She has no experience managing refugee or humanitarian crises and no experience administering the type of large-scale programs that fall under the direction of PRM. She has expressed ardent opposition toward efforts to strengthen multilateral cooperation at the United Nations, and to UN treaties affecting the rights of women and girls. There seems to be no way to interpret this nomination other than that it is yet another in a long string of crony nominations of unqualified individuals for critical positions." Moreover, stated Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, "She has shown outright hostility toward women's human rights and toward reproductive health services, such as family planning and maternal and child health, a stand which is particularly problematic given that the majority both of refugees and of clients of family planning services worldwide are women, and that these programs also are directly under the purview of PRM." In her post as Assistant Secretary, Ms. Sauerbrey would be required to participate in multilateral efforts to respond to refugee crises and expand family planning and reproductive health services, among other things. "Yet as U.S. Representative to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Ms. Sauerbrey stated that she did not have a favorable impression of the work of the United Nations or of human rights agreements addressing the rights of women and girls," noted Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation. For example, Ms. Sauerbrey has derided as "not pro-family" the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which requires all States Parties to "respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents or...other persons legally responsible for the child." Sauerbrey also opposes the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which includes access to family planning services as a basic human right. The U.S. stands alone among nations in its failure to ratify the CRC, and joins Iran, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria in its failure to ratify CEDAW. Past actions reveal that Ambassador Sauerbrey is willing to play politics with women's lives when it suits the agenda of the Bush Administration. In March 2005, for example, Ambassador Sauerbrey led the Administration's attempt to derail efforts by 189 countries to reaffirm the Beijing Platform for Action, a historic agreement encompassing a broad-based agenda for promoting and protecting women's rights worldwide. The U.S. delegation stalled the process by insisting on the insertion of language specifying that the Platform conferred no new international rights, including no right to abortion. "The United States did not receive the public support of a single other country in this effort, and, after much delay, and an international backlash, the U.S. and Ambassador Sauerbrey gave in and removed the U.S. amendment from consideration," noted Zeitlin. "This unilateralist tactic alienated many countries and totally undermined Sauerbrey's credibility as an effective leader or spokesperson for the US government," Zeitlin said. Similarly, Ambassador Sauerbrey has spread misinformation about the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). For example, in a speech before United Families International, Ms. Sauerbrey perpetuated the distortion of U.S. State Department findings on the role of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in China. The Administration has withheld its contribution to UNFPA, which provides family planning services to women in over 126 countries, based on assertions that UNFPA's programs in China support coercive abortion. Yet according to a report by the Administration's own hand-picked investigative team, UNFPA has succeeded in increasing women's access to voluntary family planning and reducing the effects of China's coercive programs in those counties in which it operates. "Ambassador Sauerbrey's misrepresentation of UNFPA to foster a purely political agenda shows that she does not have the integrity to serve as Assistant Secretary of State," stated Jacobson. Ambassador Sauerbrey has numerous times stated her erroneous belief that the term "reproductive health services" is "code" for abortion. "This equivalency is a political red herring trumped up by the far right to distract from their real opposition to basic contraceptive and reproductive health services for poor women worldwide," Jacobson asserted. Further, in a speech before the State Department, Ms. Sauerbrey demonstrated her lack of commitment to the rights and value of women, arguing that the U.S. should support HIV prevention in order to prevent HIV positive women from "infecting over 700,000 innocent newborns yearly." "Whether we're talking about her complete lack of experience in the areas of refugees and migration or her continued refusal to advance the reproductive rights of women, it is clear that Ellen Sauerbrey is unqualified to serve as Assistant Secretary," said Smeal. "We demand that the President withdraw Ambassador Sauerbrey's nomination and replace her with someone who is committed to women's equality and reproductive health and has the experience and expertise needed to fill such a vital role in the State Department." CONTACT: Jodi L. Jacobson, Center for Health and Gender Equity, 301-270-1182o, 301-257-7897c Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority Foundation, 703-522-2214 June Zeitlin, Women's Environment and Development Organization, 212-973-0325 The organizations supporting the withdrawal are: Advocates for Youth * Americans for UNFPA * Catholics for a Free Choice * Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) * Center for Women Policy Studies * Feminist Majority Foundation * International Planned Parenthood Federation-Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-WHR) * Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.* The White House Project * Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)