Population Policy and Human Rights. Journalistic Investigation into the Situation in Peru

The report by Maria-Christine Zauzich is consistently objective, thoroughly researched, carefully balanced, and yet in large parts breathtaking reading. After this report, the legend of a "well-intentioned" state population policy in Peru — discredited by various "exaggerations" and "aberrations" — can be maintained less than ever. What is correct, rather, is this: Peru's population policy was structured over a prolonged period in such a way that a vast number of abuses and human rights violations, if not directly intended, were nevertheless built into the conception and design of the measures. It is in no way consistent with minimum ethical standards, nor with the requirements of the 1994 World Population Conference. The publication of this study is intended to contribute to publicly discrediting such a policy and to preventing its repetition — even in a more subtle and sophisticated form. It also poses a question to all those responsible: how should the victims of the sterilization campaigns be treated, many of whom still suffer today from the psychological and sometimes physical consequences of the injustice done to them?