Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 7 Nov 2000

Vol. 525 No. 2

Written Answers. - United Nations Population Fund.

Jim O'Keeffe

Question:

265 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the work of the United Nations population fund and Ireland's contribution to it; if this fund supports a coercive abortion and sterilisation programme in China; and his views on any such programme. [24565/00]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen):

The primary objective of the Ireland Aid programme is to assist developing countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable development. The links between demographic factors and sustainable development are accepted by all developed and developing countries, particularly in the aftermath of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development – ICPD – and its review in 1999. The principles and programme of action adopted by the international community at the ICPD recognised the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly on the spacing of their children and to have all the information, education and means to do so. The ICPD principles and programme of action explicitly reject the use of any form of coercion in reproductive health programmes.

It is estimated that some half a million women in the developing world die each year due to pregnancy-related causes and that 350 million women have no access to any form of contraception. The United Nations Population Fund – UNFPA – extends assistance to developing countries at their request to help them address reproductive health and population issues. UNFPA is committed by its mandates to the principles of voluntarism and all of its programmes of assistance throughout the world are based on the principles of freedom of choice and informed consent. Its guiding policy, as laid down by its Governing Council in 1985, stipulates that UNFPA is "not to provide assistance for abortions, abortion services and abortion-related equipment and supplies as a method of family planning".

UNFPA has categorically stated that it does not support China's one-child policy and is opposed to targets and quotas to enforce such a policy. The fund has a voluntary reproductive health and family planning programme in China. This programme operates in the 32 counties where the government of China has suspended its one child policy.

The Irish Embassy in Beijing has reported that UNFPA is deeply sensitive to the human rights aspects of family planning in China and is fundamentally opposed to any element of state coercion. Those opposed to the UNFPA programme tend on occasion to confuse criticism of UNFPA with criticism of China's one-child policy and to assume that UNFPA, because of its co-operation with China's State Family Planning Commission, implicitly endorses the coercive aspects of this policy. The embassy in Beijing can find no evidence to support this argument.

Ireland Aid has been making annual voluntary contributions to UNFPA since 1993. The money provided by Ireland Aid saves the lives of thousands of women each year and helps prevent hundreds of thousands of unwanted pregnancies. Ireland Aid contributed £600,000 to UNFPA in 2000. Through its membership of UNFPA's executive board, Ireland has participated directly in detailed donor discussions on UNFPA's programmes. The executive board approves and monitors UNFPA's country programmes and ensures that UNFPA operates in full accordance with its mandates and policies and employs its resources as efficiently and effectively as possible and in the best interests of the developing countries.

The Department has a sufficient body of information available to it from these sources to form an accurate assessment of UNFPA's operations. On the basis of that information, and in the light of specific and repeated assurances from UNFPA, I am satisfied that its operations are conducted in full accordance with the principles of voluntarism and with full respect for the rights of individuals.