MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the forced abortion scandal in China
3.7.2012 - (2012/2712(RSP))
pursuant to Rule 122 of the Rules of Procedure
José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, Cristian Dan Preda, Elmar Brok, Alojz Peterle, Anna Záborská, Mario Mauro, Bernd Posselt, Filip Kaczmarek, Roberta Angelilli, Tunne Kelam, Monica Luisa Macovei, Eija-Riitta Korhola, Sari Essayah, Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris, Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Csaba Sógor, Zuzana Roithová, Bogusław Sonik on behalf of the PPE Group
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B7-0388/2012
The European Parliament,
- having regard to article 5, 9, 12 and 16 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- having regard to Article 6.1, 7, 9 and 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
- having regard to Article 16.1 e) of the Convention of all forms of Discrimination Against Women;
- having regard to article 16 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;
- having regard to Chapter 1, Resolution 1, Principle 8 and to Action 7.25 of the International Conference on Population and Development of 1994;
- having regard to article 3.1, 3.2, 4, 7 and 9 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;
- having regard to the remarks of Section III, Title 21 of the General Budget of the European Union for the Financial year 2012;
- having regard to its policy study "Gendercide: The Missing Women", requested by its Committee on Development[1]
- having regard to Rule 122(5) of its Rules of Procedure;
A. whereas since 15 June 2012, international press reports that local family planning officials of Zengjia in Shaanxi province of China, abducted Mrs Feng Jianmei and forcibly aborted her fetus against her will;
B. whereas, since 1970, China´s so called "family planning abortions" have numbered more than 300 million cases
C. whereas the International Conference on Population and Development agreed that "Governments should take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion, which in no case should be promoted as a method of family planning, and in all cases provide for the human treatment and counseling of women who have had recourse to abortion"[2];
D. whereas the EU budget covers actions to prevent forced abortion and sterilisation when dealing with migration flows (chapter 1803), the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR, chapter 1904), the relations with Asia, Central Asia and Middle East (chapter 1910), ACP States (title 21), Fundamental Rights and Citizenship (chapter 3302), the fight against violence (Daphne, budget line 33 02 05) etc.[3];
E. whereas the EU-Commission is still funding organizations involved in the provision of family planning services in China;
1. Expresses concern about China’s restrictive one child policy;
2. Invites the Chinese authorities to revise its one child policy, pressuring family planning officials to meet the strict birth control targets;
3. Condemns local family planning officials from Zengjia, for abducting a young woman and forcibly aborting her fetus ; welcomes the apologies made by the Chinese authorities on the 15 of June;
4. Recognizes forced abortions, sex-selected abortions, and coerced sterilizations as a violation of human rights and as an expression of a special form of violence against women and mothers;
5. Calls on the Commission and the External Action Service to include forced abortion in the agenda of their next bilateral human rights dialogue with China, in particular, in the fight against torture and all other forms of ill-treatment;
6. Invites the Commission to review its close partnership and funding of UNFPA, IPPF and Marie-Stopes-International when financing family planning services;
7. Urges the Commission to review its funding to organizations involved in the provision of family planning services in China, to ensure that it does not breach the remarks of Section III, Title 21 of the General Budget of the European Union for the Financial year 2012;
8. Call for the unconditional release of all those imprisoned and detained solely for the peaceful exercise of basic rights, such as the freedoms of expression, assembly, association, and religion. In particular, the EU needs to publicly reiterate its call for the release of Liu Xiaobo, co-drafter of Charter '08 and recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize;
9. Call for the end of extralegal detention or other extralegal limitations on the rights of activists, their families, and their supporters. They include Liu Xia, Chen Guangcheng's family, the public health activist Hu Jia and his family, and ethnic Mongolian activist Hada and his family;
10. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, the Council, the Commission, and the President, Prime Minister and People’s National Assembly of the People’s Republic of China.