proven  HIV  harm  reduction  strategies  like  needle exchange and in avoiding specific reference to target populations   like   commercial   sex   workers.   But according  to  an  NGO  observer,  few  conservative groups  attended,  and  both  PEPFAR  and  the  Bush administration’s  emphasis  on  abstinence-until-mar- riage perspective were criticized by other nations at the gathering. The strength of the final declaration was dimin- ished, not so much by challenges to language, but by the assembly’s unwillingness to be more ambitious in its commitments to fighting HIV/AIDS. Even  when  the  Bush  Administration  fails  to change the content of international declarations, the power of the purse gives the United States consider- able   influence   over   many international   programs.   In 2003 and again in 2005, the U.S.   House   of   Represen- tatives   blocked   $500   mil- lion  in  international  family planning funds destined for the  United  Nations  Popu- lation Fund (UNFPA), falsely claiming   that   the   funds would go to Chinese women aborting    pregnancies    to comply with China’s one family, one child popula- tion policy.³⁵ In 2002, the United States also froze $3 million  in  aid  to  the  World  Health  Organization, because  the  UN  agency  conducts  research  on  safe abortion techniques. A Bumpy Road E fforts to insert an anti-choice platform at the UN have been uneven. In 2001, when Bush overruled then Secretary of State Colin Powell by attempting to appoint John Klink to be the Assistant Secretary of State  for  Population,  Refugees,  and  Migration,  the plan  collapsed  in  the  face  of  widespread  criticism. Klink  had  been  the  Vatican’s  representative  at  the UN for six years and was an opponent of condom use for HIV prevention and reproductive health serv- ices for refugee women. At a February 2005 confer- ence  marking  the  10th  anniversary  of  the  Beijing Conference on the Status of Women, official U.S. del- egates  failed  in  their  effort  to  remove  references  to the  right  to  reproductive  health  on  the  grounds  it referred  to  abortion  rights  but  still  reaffirmed  sup- port for the declarations made in Beijing.³⁶ But all was not lost for anti-choice supporters. During  the  January  2006  Congressional  holiday recess, Bush appointed the chief of the U.S. delega- tion,   Ellen   Sauerbrey,   a   former   Bush   campaign worker and anti-choice representative at the UN, to the  State  Department  position  he  tried  to  fill  with John   Klink.    Like    other recess   appointments,   this one   occurred   without   the conventional   approval   of Congress.  Women’s  health and human rights advocates worldwide   expressed   out- rage, but the deed was done. Since     her     appointment, Sauerbrey    has    been    im- mersed in refugee issues and has  not  been  visible  at  UN events dealing with reproductive rights. In November of 2005 the UN Human Rights Committee  (UNHRC),  an  18-member group that monitors  the  implementation  of  the  UN’s  human rights covenants, decided in its first abortion case, KL  v.  Peru,  that  abortion  is  a  human  right.  This decision affirmed the work of international women’s health advocates who have been describing the dis- crimination  and  deprivation  many  women  experi- ence  across  the  globe  as  the  result  solely  of  their being women. The  UNHRC  decision  sent  anti-choice  NGOs into  tailspins.  Austin  Ruse  stubbornly  declared  in his Friday Fax that the committee’s decision was not only an example of flawed reasoning but was also non-binding.³⁷ UNd o i n g   R e p r o d u c t i v e   Fr e e d o m  ^•Christian Right NGOs Target the United Nations POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES   2006 10 Even when the Bush Administration fails to change the content of international declarations, the power of the purse gives the United States considerable influence over many international programs. ³⁵U.S. Department of State, “Report of the China UN Population Fund (UNPFA) Independent Assessment Team,” May 29, 2002, http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rpt/2002/12122.htm. ³⁶Goldenberg, Suzanne. “American Urges UN to Renounce Abortion Rights.” Guardian, March 1, 2005. http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/un/2005/0301abortion.htm. ³⁷C-Fam Friday Fax, December 9, 2005, at http://www.c-fam.org/FAX/Volume_8/faxv8n51.html.