UN Population Agency Regrets at US Decision to Withhold Funding

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 23, 2002

UN Population Agency Regrets at US Decision to Withhold Funding

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The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said Monday that a decision by US President George W. Bush not to grant it the 34 million US dollars appropriated by Congress for 2002 will cost thousands of women and children their lives.

The United States is the only country ever to deny funding to the agency for non-budgetary reasons.

The executive director of the UN agency, Thoraya Obaid, said, "The denial of these funds will, unfortunately, significantly affect millions of women and children worldwide for whom the life-saving services provided by the UNFPA will have to be discontinued.Women and children will die because of the decision."

The UN agency operates projects that provide contraception and gynecological services, teen-pregnancy prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention in 142 countries.

The 34 million dollars from the United States would have allowed the agency to prevent 2 million unwanted pregnancies and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths, the agency estimates.

"We regret this decision by the (US) administration and hope that the United States will reconsider its stand and rejoin the community of nations working through UNFPA to save women's lives, to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to improve the quality of life for thousands of millions of the world's poorest people," Obaid said.

The Bush administration, in withholding the funds, alleged thatthe UN agency gives tacit support to China's one-child policy justby working in China.

"UNFPA has not, does not and will not ever condone or support coercive activities of any kind, anywhere," she said in rebutting the allegations that justifies the US decision.

"UNFPA has been and remains steadfast as a leading voice for human rights and for the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the Program of Action agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, all of which condemn coercion in all forms," she said.

Meanwhile, Obaid said that her agency's program in China strictly observed the highest standards of human rights and that the participation of women and children was voluntary.

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