E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 73 187 In May 1999, the Vatican reportedly condemned the distribution of abortion pills by the United Nations to Kosovan women raped by Serbian soldiers. Also, in November 1999, the Scottish Catholic Church is believed to have paid the parents of a 12-year-old girl not to have an abortion. See L’Express, 9 March 2000, article by Marion Festraëts, Patrick Angevin, Siavosh Ghazi and Dominique Lagarde. On this subject generally, see report of the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, E/CN.4/2000/65, paras. 159 ff. See also the reservations of the Holy See to article 24, paragraph 2, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ST/LEG/SER.E/17 (note 49 above), p. 246. 188 See the UNFPA website: www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/francais/ch03.html. 189 Levirate law has its origins in the phenomenon of the transmigration of souls and ancient family solidarity based on a genesis myth according to which Judah married a Canaanite woman, who bore him three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. Judah chose for his firstborn a wife, Tamar, but Er displeased the Lord and the Lord slew him. Judah then told Onan to marry his brother’s wife according to the levirate custom in order to raise up an heir to his brother. But Onan knew that the heir would not be his and, whenever he went to his brother’s wife, he emitted on the ground in order not to give an heir to his brother (hence the term onanism). His conduct displeased the Lord and the Lord slew him. 190 Many forms of marriage coexist in that country: recognized polygamy, monogamy (since colonization), free unions and customary marriage recognized by tradition, and Muslim religious marriage. 191 See the website www.woga.com/news/french/pana/articles/2000/10/12/FRE007.shtml. 192 For examples in Africa, see the website www.vih.org/cs/cs_af_4/csaf4_a9.htm. 193 See reports of CEDAW, consideration of the reports of Algeria (A/54/38/Rev.1, p. 14, para. 83) and Jordan (A/55/38 (Part I), para. 172). See also Report of the Human Rights Committee, A/55/40, vol. I, Kuwait, para. 481. 194 This is true of surah 2, verse 282, of the Koran, of which one translation among many others reads: “Call to witness from among your men two witnesses and, if two men are not at hand, then a man and two women of such as you approve as witnesses, so that, if one of the women errs, the other may remind her”. Mohamed Talbi maintains that it is not stated that the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man. See Jeune Afrique/L’Intelligent, No. 2082, 5 December 2000, pp. 46 and 47. For a conflicting opinion, based, inter alia, on the words of the Prophet, see Abd Al Halim Abou Chouqqa, Encyclopédie de la femme en islam, Al Qalam, Paris, 1998, vol. 1, p. 257. See also Souad Chater, “Le vécu féminin dans le monde musulman: la règle et l’exception”, CHEAM Symposium, p. 27, and Abu–Sahlieh (note 144 above), p. 697. 195 See Talbi (note 12 above). 196 A/54/38/Rev.1, consideration of the report of Chile, p. 66, para. 221. 197 Surah 4 devotes many verses to this issue. On the subject, see, inter alia, Tahar Haddad, La femme dans notre société et selon la charia (in Arabic), Tunis, 1929, 6th edition, Maison