From the Press Conference at the U.N.
Q: Ms. Veneman, the United Nations in general and UNICEF in particular
have long-standing policies on reproductive health and education for
girls that are at odds, regularly, with the Bush Administration…
Ms. Veneman: I don’t come with any agenda with regard to those or any
other social issues. I come with an agenda of helping children,
particularly in the areas of education and health and to address the
issues of hunger and malnutrition. … I don’t believe that these issues
are relevant to the missions of UNICEF.
This is in sharp contrast to her predecessor, Carol Bellamy. The prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, culminated its long-standing criticism of her in a December editorial: “Her
distinctive focus has been to advocate for the rights of children. This
rights-based approach to the future of children fits well with the
zeitgeist of international development policy. But a preoccupation with
rights ignores the fact that children will have no opportunity for
development at all unless they survive… Child survival must sit at
the core of UNICEF’s advocacy and country work. Currently, and
shamefully, it does not.”
I’m sure glad to see that there is hope for UNICEF under a new boss. Given my experience working in the UN Conferences on Population and Development, Habitat, Social Development, and Women’s Issues, I’d say that UNICEF always seemed to be just one more agency of the UN to promote reproductive health under the false pretension of bettering the world of children and their plight in developing countries.