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This week, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly passed a resolution to give nearly $11 million more to the controversial committee that monitors the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

While the United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, several other delegations expressed concerns regarding particular provisions for the increased funding, the call to withdraw reservations to the treaty, as well as increasing the number and length of CEDAW committee sessions.

The nations that originally negotiated the treaty provided for only two annual sessions of the CEDAW committee to last no more than two weeks.

The new resolution empowers the CEDAW Committee to meet for three annual sessions, effective from January 2010.

The resolution also authorizes the CEDAW Committee to hold five sessions from 2008 to 2009 and extends the length of each meeting to a month, which includes a preparation week which pro-abortion groups use to lobby the committee.

The cost of having additional meetings in Geneva and New York in 2008-2009 accounts for the increased funding.

[3Dec07, S. Singson, LifeNews.com]