Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Mar 2003

Vol. 562 No. 4

Written Answers - Human Rights Abuses.

Michael D. Higgins

Question:

220 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Government's position on the involvement of the UNFPA in a programme of compulsory sterilisation of Peruvian women following the report published recently by Anticoncepción Quirúgica Voluntaria, which concluded that the Peruvian national population programmes strategies were explicitly restrictive and controlling. [6581/03]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

Ireland's permanent mission to the UN in New York has raised this allegation with UNFPA.

The report of the AQV Commission in Peru alleges that the UNFPA acted as "Technical Secretary" of forced sterilisation campaigns. UNFPA emphatically denies this and has confirmed that it was not the secretariat of any national population programme. UNFPA has confirmed in the strongest terms that it did not fund or support voluntary surgical contraception or the use of coercion in Peru or anywhere else in the world.

The AQV report was produced by a sub-committee of the Peruvian parliament's health committee which investigated allegations in relation to forced sterilisation in Peru. The author of the investigation's report, however, did not present the report to the parliament and has since resigned from his position.

UNFPA states that it first learned about reports of involuntary sterilisation in Peru in late 1997 and expressed strong concerns to the Ministry of Health, recommending an investigation. At the request of the Ministry, in February 1998, the Pan-American Health Organisation, PAHO, and UNFPA examined the issue and recommended measures to protect the rights of Peruvian women. Immediately afterwards, a series of protocols and procedure manuals were issued to ensure compliance with international human rights standards. These were meant to ensure that family planning services are provided on a voluntary basis. UNFPA insisted on the observance of the right of users to free and informed consent and strengthened counselling procedures.

UNFPA also supported the establishment in 1997 of the National Tripartite Commission on Population and Development in Peru to oversee the implementation of the rights-based programme of action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. As part of its mandate, the commission decided to monitor family planning programmes to ensure the elimination of all coercive practices. The body included international organisations, such as the United States Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Programme, and local women's groups.

I am satisfied that UNFPA's programme in Peru has consistently promoted voluntary family planning measures and has supported Government and NGO efforts to bring an end to coercion, including forced sterilisation.