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NEW
YORK - A UNICEF-funded book being passed out at the United
Nations Child Summit encourages children to engage in
sexual activities with other minors and with homosexuals
and animals.
As
the delegations to the summit remain deadlocked on abortion,
international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that
support the U.S. delegation's anti-abortion stance circulated
copies of pages from a UNICEF-funded book given to delegates
from Latin America that promotes sexual activity and abortion
among teens in their countries.
"Reproductive
health includes the following components: Counselling
on sexuality, pregnancy, methods of contraception, abortion,
infertility,
infections and diseases," says the Spanish-language
book, whose title translates to "Theoretic Elements
for Working with Mothers and Pregnant Teens."
An
accompanying workshop book produced by the U.N. Children's
Fund (UNICEF) tells Latin American mothers and teens:
"Situations in which you can obtain sexual pleasure:
1. Masturbation. 2. Sexual relations with a partner -
whether heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. 3. A sexual
response that is directed toward inanimate objects, animals,
minors, non-consenting persons."
The
book, which was distributed by the Mexican government
with U.N. funding, suggests lesbian sex as an acceptable
alternative for girls.
"Sexual
relations with a partner: Here we should insist there
is no ideal or perfect relations between two or several
people," the book says. "The one that gives
us the most satisfaction and that which is adopted to
our way of being and the style of life we have chosen.
This is why we encounter many differences among women.
Some women like to have relations with men. And others
with another woman."
UNICEF
spokesman Alfred Ironside acknowledged U.N. funding for
the book, but said it was produced by the Mexican government
in 1999 and pulled from circulation "when the content
was more carefully reviewed."
Mr.
Ironside said he did not know how many of the books were
circulated. "A very small number were produced -
fewer than a thousand," he said. "It was pulled
out of circulation when the content was more carefully
reviewed."
"That
book was a product of the Mexican government, supported
by UNICEF financially as part of UNICEF's support to the
Mexican government," Mr. Ironside said.
"We
do everything we do in full agreement with the governments
we support. We do not operate independently," he
said.
He
said the book was "intended as a training manual
for people working with adolescent women to prevent teen
pregnancy. That publication was a compilation of articles
by different contributors and has a very clear disclaimer
in the front that the views of the writers do not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations." The workshop
book is being passed out by anti-abortion NGOs to persuade
delegates from the large Latin American bloc of countries
called the Rio Group to support the U.S. proposal to remove
ambiguous language from the child-summit action document,
which has been used in the past by U.N. agencies to promote
abortion.
Delegations
to the U.N. Child Summit remained deadlocked yesterday
in closed-door negotiations over abortion and other hot-button
issues that have held up final agreement on a U.N. action
agenda to protect the world's children.
The
U.S. delegation, praised by pro-family groups for standing
firm to ensure the agenda does not sanction continued
U.N. promotion of abortions, was attacked by NGO critics
for a second day at an afternoon briefing, NGO members
at the meeting said.
Douglas
Sylva, an official with the Catholic Family and Human
Rights Institute, called the briefing "an NGO feeding
frenzy," in which the United States was attacked
for its position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict;
arms sales to allies; the Bush administration's support
of capital punishment; and U.S. failure to ratify the
U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
"The
fact that the United States is the only country besides
Somalia that has not ratified [the] child's rights [convention]
is shocking," said Paula Daeppen, director in Zurich
for the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas.
"We're
supposed to be a moral leader of the world and child friendly,"
she said.
Rep.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas Democrat, told the meeting she
applauded the administration's work to protect children
from pornography, exploitation and "child soldiering."
But she said she disagreed with the U.S. delegation on
some issues.
"There
needs to be flexibility on life," she said - an apparent
reference to the administration's strong anti-abortion
stance. A person close to the congresswoman, who asked
to remain anonymous, said her remarks were intended to
urge "more flexibility on family planning."
Abortion
is not mentioned directly in the draft child-summit document,
but UNICEF, which organized the 187-country special session
of the General Assembly, and the U.N. Fund for Population
Activities, interpret the ambiguous phrase "reproductive
health services" to include abortion.
A
senior Canadian negotiator told delegates in earlier preparatory
meetings that the term includes abortion, prompting the
Bush administration to start pushing for the alternate
term "reproductive health care."
European
countries, with the exception of Spain, along with Canada,
Japan and New Zealand oppose the U.S. position. Muslim
nations and some African countries also support the United
States.
The
Rio Group, whose delegations say their predominantly Catholic
populations don't condone abortion, said there is no danger
the term "reproductive health services" will
be used to promote abortions in Latin America.
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