(LifeSiteNews) — Once again, an African country has held the line against Western efforts to push abortion and LGBT ideology on the developing world.

According to C-Fam, Ambassador Zéphyrin Maniratanga of Burundi, who serves as the chairman of the UN Commission on Population and Development, “refused to put a document forward for approval” because he “objected to the European efforts to load up the document with abortion and gender ideology.” The final draft, as presented, could not be adopted unanimously, and was thus not put forward for adoption.

The Republic of Burundi — as well as Maniratanga himself — have been at the forefront of opposing such efforts. Burundi co-sponsored the Conference on the State of Women and Family opposite the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March, where I spoke on behalf of Christian Council International on sexual colonialism. Maniratanga and the daughter of Burundi President Évariste Ndayishimiye opened the event.

“European and other progressive governments objected to the final draft of the agreement because it did not have enough language linking sexual and reproductive health, gender, and censorship to human rights,” C-Fam reported. “Maniratanga chose to withdraw the agreement rather than accommodate the progressives or propose an agreement that they would vote against. This follows the practice of UN conferences and meetings to require adoption by consensus, that is, without a single UN delegation objecting.”

Wealthy Western countries have been engaged in this agenda for years — Nigerian human rights activist Obianuju Ekeocha calls it “ideological neo-colonialism.” It is a top-down revolution in which powerful countries that have adopted the values of the sexual revolution are pushing a global rather than merely national agenda. The “long march through the institutions” that transformed academia and other establishments occurred not only in national entities but international institutions.

Activists work at the UN with the ambassadors of Western nations to put forward “non-binding resolutions” that push abortion as a human right, gender ideology, and other aspects of the sexual revolution. While these resolutions are non-binding, they are then used by these activists to push politicians and judges in developing countries to adopt these agendas — and, in many cases, the resolutions are treated as binding and thus achieve the intended effect of changing policy around the world.

These resolutions also give cover to leftist politicians and judges in these countries who can tell the public that unpopular policies or judicial decisions are merely in keeping with international law.

“Maniratanga’s decision was a quiet but sharp rebuke to the European and progressive governments that, just last month, forced a vote on the agreement at the Commission on the Status of Women rather than one that would have defined what a woman is,” C-Fam reported. “It was the first time in the history of that commission that a vote was necessary. Europeans and their allies seemed poised to call a vote this week, too.”

Ambassador Maniratanga was congratulated by Nigeria, Malaysia, Egypt, The Gambia, the United States, and the Holy See for his actions. The Holy See stated that he had preserved the “practice of consensual adoption” at the UN and emphasized that the agenda being put forward — with its attempts to push abortion and sexual ideology — had “always been controversial.”

Western countries, however, “vowed to continue to promote abortion, gender ideology, DEI, and censorship through UN agencies and non-governmental organizations that implement UN policy on sexual and reproductive health and gender.”

Cyprus’ representative, “speaking on behalf of all EU member states,” expressed their disappointment that commitments were not made to “women’s and girls’ rights and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” — that is, abortion. Abortion is illegal in Burundi, as it is in the vast majority of African countries.

C-Fam noted that in response to successful efforts by developing countries to stymie their agenda, “the EU and progressive governments have increasingly pushed the commission to discard unanimity in order to adopt resolutions by vote” in order to push controversial social policies through.