Press Release
UNFPA Rejects False Allegations About Its Work in Afghanistan
16 August 2002
UNITED NATIONS, New York - The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today expressed outrage over false allegations made by the Population Research Institute (PRI) that the United Nations is funding "abortion campaigns" among Afghan refugees. "This disinformation puts the lives of women, United Nations staff and international relief workers in danger," said Stirling Scruggs, Director of UNFPA's Information and External Relations Division.
"No United Nations agency has provided funding for abortion or forced sterilization in Afghan refugee camps or anywhere else," said Mr. Scruggs. "UNFPA is providing life-saving services, which are urgently needed because one in 17 Afghan women dies during childbirth."
Afghanistan's Ministry of Health has requested UNFPA's assistance to support reproductive health as an urgent priority for national reconstruction. UNFPA has just announced the opening of a mobile hospital in Kabul to offer emergency obstetric care to save the lives of women and babies during delivery. The mobile hospital has been set up while a damaged maternity hospital is being rehabilitated with UNFPA support (see separate press release issued today on www.unfpa.org).
UNFPA has raised $10 million for Afghanistan from several governments including the United States and continues to provide medical supplies, safe motherhood services, family planning and midwifery training. All UNFPA-funded projects are undertaken in accordance with international human rights standards. "UNFPA is in the business of saving lives, increasing opportunities and helping families to escape from poverty so they can live happy, healthy and productive lives," said Mr. Scruggs.
The recent misinformation spread by PRI in a 14 August press release is the latest in a series of false allegations by the group in their stated ongoing campaign to "drive the final nail in the coffin" of UNFPA. None of their allegations have ever been supported.
During the past three years, PRI has accused UNFPA of being a partner in "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, throwing food aid off airplanes to make room for abortion supplies, supporting forced sterilization in China and Peru, and promoting genocide in Afghan refugee camps. In Peru, UNFPA supported, among other actions, the establishment of a commission 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, in 1998 the commission decided to act as a watchdog of family planning programmes, trying to ensure the elimination of all coercive practices. In China, three separate fact-finding missions, including one by the United States State Department, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by UNFPA.
UNFPA is the world's largest multilateral source of population assistance. Since it became operational in 1969, it has provided more than $5.6 billion in assistance to developing countries.
Contact Information:
Stirling Scruggs
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5011
Fax:
Email: scruggs@unfpa.org
Abubakar Dungus
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5031
Fax: +1 (212) 557-6416
Email: dungus@unfpa.org
