Vatican Slams UN Refugee Sex Manual

A UN manual for handling sexual issues in refugee camps promotes "without reserve" the morning-after pill for contraception, presents sterilization as "simple birth control," and takes a "nonjudgmental" attitude on extramarital and homosexual relations, the Vatican charged on Thursday. The Vatican decried what it said was young men and women "being introduced to the world of individualistic and irresponsible sexual pleasures which increases the risk of expanding the HIV/AIDS epidemic." The "Inter-Agency Field Manual of Reproductive Health in Refugee Situations" was published in 1999 by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. UNHCR spokesperson Kris Janowski said the handbook "is basically a manual for workers in the field on how to limit the danger posed to those, especially women, in messy refugee situations. . . Basically we are telling our people in the field they need to give options to those exposed to rape and AIDS," he said.

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