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State Department Says White House Investigating UN Agency
Funding for UN Population Fund in the balance
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Feb 27 - At a Senate hearing today, a representative of the US State Department, which oversees US programs with the United Nations, testified that the White House had taken control from the State Department of the decision about whether to permit US funding of the UN Population Fund.
Testifying on behalf of the Administration, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migrations, Gene Dewey, indicated decision-making on the issue was being handled by the White House and that his office at the State Department was no longer involved.
The testimony reflects the increasingly political nature of the Administration’s hold on UNFPA funding and backing away from the agreement it reached with Congress last December. Despite a carefully crafted, bipartisan compromise in Congress late last year to provide up to $34 million to the UN Population Fund, it was revealed January 12th that the Bush Administration has frozen funding to the world leader in the field of international family planning. A decision to cut or eliminate UNFPA funding by the Administration would represent a startling reversal not only of legislation passed unanimously in the US Senate and by a 3-to-1 margin in the House, but also of previous Administration policy.
In his first budget proposal to Congress in early 2001, President Bush requested $25 million in funding for UNFPA. The Administration also approved the release of $21.5 million in fiscal 2001 funds for UNFPA after determining that UNFPA was in compliance with US law. In May, Secretary of State Colin Powell testified to Congress that UNFPA “provides critical population assistance to developing countries” (testimony before the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, May 10, 2001). Again in late 2001, the Administration signaled its support for UNFPA’s life-saving work by providing $600,000 in funding to support the agency’s work in support the health of Afghan refugees.
The importance of UNFPA’s work in Afghanistan was made more clear last week in a new report from the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealing that maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan are 100 times greater than rates found in the United States. Due the lack of access to reproductive health care, more than 40 percent of women of reproductive age in Afghani refugee camps died from pregnancy-related causes.
The hearing, convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on International Organizations and Terrorism, was organized to learn more about allegations by the Population Research Institute regarding coercive population practices in China. PRI, an avowed opponent of international family planning efforts, has long attempted to undermine the work and reputation of UNFPA. Most recently, the organization has charged that UNFPA is complicit in coercive practices in China.
At the hearing, no witness indicated any knowledge – first hand or otherwise – of the UNFPA involvement in any coercive activities in China or elsewhere. All of the Senators and witnesses recognized and condemned human rights abuses in China, and Senator Boxer drew a sharp line between coercive practices of the Chinese government and the voluntary efforts of UNFPA. Josephine Guy, who conducted the undercover investigation for PRI, stated that none of the women she interviewed mentioned UNFPA and that she suspected none of them had ever heard of UNFPA.
The former Assistant Secretary Phyllis Oakley, who served the United States Government for more than 40 years, testified that during her tenure overseeing international family planning programs, “I have to tell you that never, not once, did I hear from another government, from my forceful colleagues in the human rights bureau, from the intelligence community, or from any reputable human rights organization expressing concerns about UNFPA’s work in China or anywhere else. Not one cable, not one letter, not one phone call. Nothing.”
The Administration’s policy reversal is undermined by its own human rights report on China, released last year, which found clear evidence of UNFPA’s positive influence in China:
“600 counties covering about half the country’s population have adopted more liberal (population) policies.”
“The Government was beginning to relax its policies in the cities.” “Other jurisdictions, such as Minglan village in Yandu County, have reportedly followed the earlier example of Beijing and other cities, abolishing birth permits and allowing couples to decide on their own when to have a baby.”
Ambassador Nicholas Biegman of the Netherlands, who chaired an international review team sent by UNFPA to investigate PRI’s allegations, testified not only that the review team found no evidence to back up the PRI claims, but also that UNFPA’s activities in China are among the most monitored in the world. During the 4-year history of the current China program, UNFPA’s activities in China have been visited by more than 60 outside international observers representing more than 30 countries. Internally, UNFPA has initiated monitoring missions almost twice a year in each of the 32 counties in which it is supporting voluntary family planning efforts.
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