A Chinese child wears a traditional costume as he walks with his parents. A US lawmaker has urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to condemn China's one-child policy. -- PHOTO: AP
WASHINGTON - UN SECRETARY General Ban Ki Moon must step up public condemnation of China's 'one-child' policy and investigate the alleged use of forced abortions to carry it out, a key US lawmaker said on Monday.
'To fail to speak out against what is by far the worst gender-based violence in history would make a mockery of the UN's claim to promote women,' Republican Representative Chris Smith said in an appeal to Mr Ban.
Mr Smith also urged Mr Ban to direct special UN envoys for violence against women, torture, and trafficking in persons to travel to China to investigate the way the policy is applied and its effects on women and girls.
China, under a 1980 policy designed to control its population, permits most couples to have only one child, an approach critics charge is backed with forced sterilisations and abortions.
The lawmaker - a long-time foe of abortion and a sharp critic of Beijing - also complained that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) was backing China's policy, which he described as 'the most massive human rights violation in the world today' and said the agency must 'cease and desist.'
A US State Department report in 2002 found 'no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation' in China. -- AFP
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