Human Dignity alert!!!

Human Dignity Alert! No EU Funding for Coercive Reproductive Health Programs

No European Union Funding for Coercive Reproductive Health Programs

Vote in the European Parliament Plenary Session, Wednesday, October 20th at 12:30PM

We are asking all people to support an amendment to the European Union 2011 annual budget that will be voted on Wednesday next week in Strasbourg, France at the European Parliament Plenary Session. This amendment will prevent EU financial support to development programs, NGOs or governments that participate in forced abortions, sterilizations or infanticide. WYA has consistently advocated against this indirect funding which supports coercive policies in foreign countries. This year again, we want to alert the Members of the European Parliament and ask for your participation.

The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action explicitly condemns coercive reproductive and sexual health programs, as stated in Principle 8, Paragraphs 6.25, 7.3, and 7.12. Couples should have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, without coercion in any form. Coercive measures in the area of reproductive and sexual health violate the dignity of the human person, especially the dignity of women. The European Union should not support coercive programs that violate human rights and therefore dismantle the conditions necessary for human flourishing and sustainable development. Any support of the EU for such programs would constitute a violation of internationally-agreed norms and standards.

To avoid this the following amendment 495 must be included in the Budget of the European Union (SECTION III — COMMISSION, Title 21 —Development and relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States):

The European Parliament) Stresses that Community assistance should not be given to any authority, organization or programme which supports or participates in the management of an action which involves such human rights abuses as coercive abortion, involuntary sterilization or infanticide, especially where such actions apply their priorities through psychological, social, economic or legal pressure, thus finally implementing the specific Cairo ICPD prohibition on coercion or compulsion in sexual and reproductive health matters; calls on the Commission to present a report on the implementation of the EU’s external assistance covering this programme.

More information: http://wya.net/news/newsitem.html?newsid=384