Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. UNFPA stands in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan. We remain deeply concerned about the de facto authority's decision to ban female aid workers from working in humanitarian NGOs. In Afghanistan, UNFPA's work includes the provision of maternal reproductive healt

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, indeed, Mr. Vice-Chair. I would like to emphasize that UNFPA is against any form of coercion. When it comes to reproductive health and rights, we are foremost in upholding the rights and choices of women everywhere.

Foreign Affairs committee  In particular, because I wish to be precise—

Foreign Affairs committee  Certain things that you mentioned I am not in a position to comment on. It is our member states, for example, that decide who receives the population award. This is not something that the agency decides. It is, in fact, the countries of the United Nations. Nevertheless, I do wis

Foreign Affairs committee  Just to emphasize that we stand for the rights and the choices—

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you so much. You underscored that maternal mortality can be a tragedy, but it can also be averted. Preventable maternal death is what we focus on. Maternal mortality reduction progress has been considerable, yet over 280,000 women globally still die yearly since 2020 from

Foreign Affairs committee  In fact, the latest “State of World Population” report by UNFPA dealt with the issue of unintended pregnancy and covered the circumstances under which lack of access can be lethal, literally, in the sense that women lose their lives. We also featured, as I mentioned earlier, that

Foreign Affairs committee  It's true that we know that nearly one-third of women in low- and middle-income countries begin child-bearing in their adolescence, age 19 and younger. This has implications in terms of consent and in terms of how a girl navigates her adolescence safely, often in the absence of c

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. It underscores the importance of being able to plan predictably for the needs of women, who are the most vulnerable in so many circumstances around the world, including in humanitarian circumstances. I will note that last year, in 2022, Cana

Foreign Affairs committee  Canada has been an extremely close partner. As mentioned, back on our executive board, we've taken a lot of guidance in terms of the strategic planning, which I've insisted should be finite. We work on three transformative results: contraception, because it's empowering for women

Foreign Affairs committee  From the perspective of UNFPA's position—and actually, this is a United Nations position—that women and couples have the right to decide the number and spacing of their children, this is what we espouse in every country where we work.

Foreign Affairs committee  It is, in fact, our belief that these decisions are made by couples. However, it is not the United Nations Population Fund that ascertains this term “violation” that you're using. Within our mandate, we actually fall under.... It's the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Ri

Foreign Affairs committee  I was trying to be as comprehensive and direct as possible.

Foreign Affairs committee  It is, indeed.

Foreign Affairs committee  I thank you for this question, because UNFPA is pained by these allegations, and where investigated, they have consistently been found not to be the case. In particular, as I alluded to earlier, our mandate is based on principles that are long-standing over the 53-odd years tha