The United Nations Children’s Fund

Women or Children First

Under Carol Bellamy, UNICEF has added controversial programs (Source: UNICEF).

For decades, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has enjoyed perhaps the finest reputation of any large international organization. UNICEF earned this reputation through an earnest, unwavering commitment to improve the health and lives of as many children as possible. Unfortunately, this reputation is increasingly at risk, and it is at risk because powerful forces both within the organization and within the larger international community have demanded that UNICEF change, that it alter its traditional child survival programs and that it add new and ever-more controversial programs, that it consciously and consistently embrace a newly dominant ideology in all that it does-the ideology of radical feminism. Radical feminism ^[1] has come to define the current UNICEF, even to the possible detriment of UNICEF's original mandate to help children. The story of UNICEF is a cautionary tale, a tale of how difficult it is for international organizations to retain autonomy, to retain control over their own policies, to remain free from the influence of this powerful ideology. UNICEF still saves many children's lives, but a reformation of UNICEF programming will be necessary for UNICEF to perform as much good as possible. A reformation in programming-and perhaps personnel-will be necessary for UNICEF to regain its reputation as the world's pre-eminent child-care organization.

Conclusion, the Future of UNICEF

It has now become clear that UNICEF does not operate in a vacuum; it is not free from the influence of other UN organizations, its donor nations and, most especially, its Executive Board. And, since many of the nations on the Executive Board, especially the European nations, have embraced the notion that adolescents should possess complete sexual autonomy, as well as the reproductive services necessary to exercise that autonomy, we should expect UNICEF to reflect these views in its programming. In fact, at the same meeting in which the US representative declared that UNICEF was silent about the role of fathers and the promotion of abstinence, a meeting held in 2001, the representative from Denmark called for UNICEF to place even more emphasis on adolescents' reproductive and sexual rights. The representative from Sweden called for UNICEF to accelerate its integration with UNFPA, stating that one of the greatest needs of the world's children is universal access to reproductive and sexual health care services. ^[2]

It is obvious that children-how they should be reared, the role of parents, the education and services children should receive-will remain a battleground on the international scene. It is also obvious that, because of this ideological strife, Jim Grant's vision of UNICEF, an agency able to spark the imagination of the entire world, may continue to recede into memory.

Recommendations

To avoid this future, it will be necessary for donors, both individuals and nations, to demand changes at UNICEF. Donor nations, most especially the United States, must take a closer look at how their money is being spent by UNICEF. These donor nations must demand greater transparency in UNICEF spending, especially in controversial matters regarding reproductive health care services and sexual education programs. Donor nations should also initiate full investigations of the various, serious charges raised in this study. In the United States, an investigation should take the form of congressional hearings. Donor nations should also work to ensure that the next generation of UNICEF's top leadership reflects the principles and priorities of former Executive Director Jim Grant. Finally, parents whose children are called upon to raise funds for UNICEF, should tell their children to desist until these fundamental changes have been achieved.

Specifically:

• UNICEF should seek a balance between programming for girls and programming for boys; problems faced specifically by boys should garner as much attention at UNICEF as problems faced by girls.

• UNICEF should not spend resources on controversial efforts to re-educate boys and men according to feminist gender theory.

• UNICEF should abandon the "life-cycle" approach to programming, which has been used as a justification for UNICEF to create feminist programs for women. Many international agencies address women's issues; instead of adding to this effort, UNICEF should focus on its original mandate, the care of children.

• UNICEF should renounce the CEDAW Compliance Committee as a source of policy guidance because of its insistent advocacy for abortion rights and for other radical feminist causes.

• UNICEF should publicly account for the activities of all UNICEF health services, especially the funding or distribution of contraceptives to adolescents.

• UNICEF should disassociate itself with any organizations that perform or promote abortion, such as International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International.

• UNICEF should renounce any documents previously endorsed by UNICEF which call for abortion services or the legalization of abortion.

These changes are necessary if UNICEF is truly to be an organization that puts children-all children-first.

Douglas A. Sylva, Ph.D., is the Director of the International Organizations Research Group, as well as the Vice President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. He earned a doctorate in political theory from Columbia University, where he was also an instructor. Dr. Sylva has been published widely, including in the New York Times, the Washington Times, National Review Online, Insight, and the National Catholic Register. He and his wife, Susan, are the parents of two children. You may contact the author by writing to family_under_attack@islam-online.net.

[1] The term “radical feminist” is used to distinguish this viewpoint from other varieties of feminism. Radical feminism is intimately linked with such issues as the promotion of abortion on demand as a human right and the understanding of gender as a social construct.