September 27, 2013 (C-FAM) – Bangladeshi Diplomats and Ministers have charged a UN agency with meddling in their affairs and rigging an international conference. The UN ambassador from Bangladesh lashed out against the agency’s controversial actions to the press.
The agency in question is the controversial United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It has come under fire in the past because it helped set up and implement coercive population control programs in several countries.
UNFPA instructed Bangladesh’s delegation on how to vote and what to say at a recently concluded conference in Bangkok, according to the Dhaka Tribune. The newspaper reported delegates felt “awkward” because UNFPA paid for the delegation’s expenses and placed a representative of a non-governmental organization on the delegation to pressure them. The reports came from delegation members and other insiders.
The document from the conference is being touted as “groundbreaking” for declaring sexual and reproductive rights “indispensable” to sustainable development and a “key part” of the post-2015 development agenda. These terms are controversial because abortion activists and some within the UN system say they include abortion.
The reports cast a shadow over the outcome of the conference attended by 500 delegates, ministers and officials from 47 countries. It suggests some delegates were surrogates for UNFPA and did not represent the sovereign will of their respective countries.
UNFPA laid out its expectations to delegates in advance of the conference, instructing them on what to say and how to vote. A memo from UNFPA said to “refrain from voting against any motions in favor of services for LGBT” and “strongly support” sexual and reproductive health information, services and education for adolescents.
Bangladesh’s Health Secretary M.M. Niazuddin, who led the delegation, admitted UNFPA prepared a speech for him. He called a speech prepared by Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United Nations “too lengthy.”
Bangladesh Ambassador A.K. Abdul Momen, a seasoned international policy maker, lashed out against pressure to accept sexual rights, LGBT rights, and controversial sexual education programs during the conference. He said the sexual education coming out of the UN system involves teaching pre-pubescent children “how to have sex through animation.”
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The revelations of UNFPA’s tactics prompt questions about the how it spends money from donor states. The agency has been the subject of multiple audits.
UNFPA says its $1 billion budget goes towards making contraception available, fighting obstetric fistula, reducing maternal mortality and other issues. This year alone UNFPA organized two other regional conferences like the one in Bangkok.
Former head of UNFPA Nafis Sadik admitted earlier this year she used UNFPA donations to place abortion activists onto government delegations at international conferences. This latest news further undermines UNFPA’s credibility.
The conference was an opportunity for UNFPA to color the way countries understand the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) — a foundational UN social policy agreement. The UN system is performing a 20-year review of the ICPD, along with establishing a post-2015 development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals.
UNFPA is pressuring countries to embrace controversial policies like abortion rights, special new rights for LGBT persons, and sexual rights for minors as priorities for the post-2015 development agenda. Countries rejected these policies in 1994. Several delegations at the Asia conference expressed reservations to references in the final document that inch countries towards accepting these policies.
Reprinted with permission from C-FAM