Child Sex Book Given Out at U.N. Summit

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: Counseling 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.

You know, millions upon millions of kids around the world suffer from malnutrition, serious diseases for which they cannot afford medicines, a lack of education, and only a distant hope of finding meaningful and fruitful work. And the UN's response to these genuine needs is to suggest to kids that they should consider engaging in homosexual sex, sex with animals and sex with non-consenting partners. Shouldn't it be left to the parents and families and religious leaders of these kids around the world to teach them about sex? What arrogance it is for UN activists to foist their truly perverted sexual notions on other peoples' kids around the world. I lived in Africa for a while, and I know for sure that parents there, in both rich cities and poor villages, do NOT want this toxic stuff taught to their kids. We should defund the UN pronto. Among charitable groups, which raise money from people, rather than from the government, you will find no one successfully collecting money to promote or suggest sexual depravity to the world's children.

Interesting, since their web site has this:

UNICEF Warns: Demand for Child Sex is Linked to Spread of HIV/AIDS

NAIROBI / GENEVA /NEW YORK, 28 November 2001 - The head of the United Nations Children's Fund said today that one of the most troubling and complex aspects of the spread of HIV/AIDS is its link to the widespread sexual exploitation of children.

"Whether it is myths about the curative powers of sex with young girls, or macho attitudes that sanction violent sexual behaviour toward women and girls, the links between sexual abuse of children and the spread of HIV/AIDS are clear," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy.

Bellamy said that children who are forced into the sex trade - estimated to be 1 million every year - are the most vulnerable to contracting and then spreading HIV/AIDS, and she called for more direct action aimed at challenging accepted sexual behaviours, as well as action to protect children from the sex trade to begin with.

Bellamy's comments come as UNICEF gears up for the 2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, December 17-20 in Yokohama, Japan, which UNICEF is co-sponsoring with ECPAT International, the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Government of Japan.

Research and preparatory meetings for the Yokohama Congress have highlighted the need not only to protect the child victims of commercial sexual exploitation, but also to diminish the demand among the (mostly) male customers who abuse them. Contrary to popular belief, research shows that the majority of exploiters do not match the profile of the 'paedophile,' but are men who go to prostitutes and through either machismo or indifference choose ever younger children for sex.

Fuelling the demand for young girls in some parts of the world - particularly Asia and Africa - is ignorance about HIV/AIDS transmission and myths about the curative powers of virginity. Some exploiters believe that sex with a child is less risky because the child is more likely to be 'clean' and unable to transmit disease. In reality, children are physically more prone to bleeding, infection and disease. And they are rarely able to negotiate safe sex or fend off violent behaviour.

In some of the hardest-hit countries, teenage girls are infected at five-to-six times the rate of teenage boys. It is estimated that 13 million young people between 15 and 24 years of age are living with HIV/AIDS and more than 7,000 young people are infected each day.

At a recent preparatory meeting for the Yokohama Congress held in Rabat, Morocco, African delegates reported another link between HIV/AIDS and sexually exploited children. Twelve million children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost parents to HIV/AIDS. This figure is expected to more than double in the coming decade. These orphans are being drawn into the sex trade. Not only do they lose their family, these children are often plunged into deeper poverty, denied education, forced onto the streets and into labour - all situations that increase many-fold their vulnerability to sexual exploitation.

UNICEF works in many different ways to protect those children most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation. In Rwanda, UNICEF works with child-headed households to provide school supplies so that the children can stay in school. In Haiti, UNICEF supports the training of peer educators to help young people understand risky behaviour. In Madagascar and Zimbabwe, UNICEF supports special drop-in centres for abused children and women that also provide AIDS education. In Ukraine, where the growth in HIV/AIDS infection is the fastest in Europe and the vast majority of intravenous drug users are young people, UNICEF has established youth information centres and a telephone helpline.

But tackling the demand for sex with children is essential if the child sex-HIV/AIDS connection is to be broken. Bellamy said Yokohama would provide an opportunity to make concrete progress in this crucial area. "The sexual abuse of children - in the commercial sex trade and more generally - accelerates the spread of HIV, and we must not shy away from confronting exploiters and the sexual attitudes that allow them to abuse children in this way," Bellamy said. "We will call on everyone who can help us - governments, health workers, brothel operators, the media, school teachers, sex worker collectives, and people of influence. Tackling this issue openly and enlightening people's sexual attitudes and practices is the only way to protect children from this deplorable practice."

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