Volume 5, Number 16

April 12, 2002

US Takes Pro-family Stance at UN Population Commission, EU defends UNFPA

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM)  At the UN Commission on Population and Development last week, the United States delegation declared that the promotion of strong families and strong values is necessary to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. This position contradicts most UN documents that hold that the AIDS epidemic should be addressed mainly through sexual education and the widespread distribution of condoms to adolescents. US Ambassador Sichan Siv told the Commission, "Abstinence and postponement of initial sexual activity play important roles in the promotion of adolescent health and well-being..." Siv added that "monogamy, fidelity, [and] partner reduction" should also be encouraged.

     The US highlighted "the important value of strong and stable families in preventing risky behavior among young people," and chided the UN Population Division for producing reports on reproductive health that "unfortunately contain(s) only scant references to the influence of family stability, the role of fathers and parent-child communication on...responsible sexual behavior."

     The Commission meeting also saw six European Union countries, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany make nearly identical statements supporting of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has come under increasing criticism for complicity in coercive family planning in China and elsewhere. The Belgian delegate said his government "deplores the continued and unwarranted allegations against UNFPA concerning its assumed involvement in forced abortions and genocide."

     However, besides these few, all other EU nations remained silent on the status of UNFPA. It was expressed privately by at least one EU country that UNPFA's reputation is being harmed in what has been a stronghold of support in Europe, playing up a growing internal EU disagreement over the legitimacy of the beleaguered population-control agency.

     Also decided this week was the fate of a ten-year review of the Cairo Conference. Important UN conferences are normally followed by five year and ten year reviews, such as Beijing +5 and Rio +10. But a number of pro-abortion non-governmental organizations, including International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the Chinese State Family Planning Association, voiced concern over the possibility of a ten-year review of the controversial 1994 population conference. Werner Fornos, the President of the Population Institute, claimed that any review of ICPD should take place in 2005, what would, in effect, be Cairo +11. Fornos said, "it is already late to plan for a major international event in 2004."

     But others admitted that the new pro-life atmosphere created by the US was discouraging to them. IPPF Director-General Designate Steven Sinding stated that "...the political environment within which global sexual and reproductive health and rights policy is framed is becoming more hostile, with renewed attempts to remove reference to abortion from international consensus documents, global health goals, safe motherhood and other sexual and reproductive health and rights-based agendas." One UN observer stated that it was not coincidental that a 2005 conference would occur after the next US presidential elections, when the Bush Administration may be gone.

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