The statement opposed abortion based on gender or undesirable genetic conditions while advocating basic health care to reduce child mortality and aid maternal health.
Krason said she was surprised by the "strange bedfellows" the pro-life, pro-family movement works with at the U.N.
The students were advised not to bother talking to western countries "because nine times out of ten they are going to be very opposed to your viewpoint."
"The people you want to talk to and try to encourage in their work are people from the African countries, the Muslim countries, and maybe the most surprising, Russia," Krason explained. "Russia is having a demographic crisis. So they have become very pro-life."
Students also attended sessions on violence against women and girls in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
In a March 12 report about the lobbying effort, Scarnecchia and undergraduate student Sara Hartung said developed nations, including the U.S. under the current Obama administration, use such gatherings to try to push poor countries to accept documents enshrining abortion "as a fundamental right" and classifying restrictions on homosexual sex as "crimes against humanity."
They said many delegates from the developing world complain that the Commission on the Status of Women "has lost its direction and is simply focused on forcing abortion and unrestricted homosexual sodomy on the third world."
In the view of these delegates, the real issues affecting women in the developing world include providing "potable water, sanitation, and basic health care such as antibiotics and blood banks," though they believe these receive "little attention."
Krason said pro-life, pro-family organizations need to have a stronger presence at the United Nations in order to encourage other like-minded countries.
"The pressure they're under is immense," she explained.
She suggested interested student volunteers contact the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, the International Solidarity and Human Rights Institute and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute to learn more.
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Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.