UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
ISO: ROM
************************************************************************
The electronic preparation of this document has been done by the
Population Information Network(POPIN) of the United Nations Population
Division in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme
************************************************************************
AS WRITTEN
STATEMENT DELIVERED
BY H.E. Mr. OLIVIU GHERMAN
Chairman of the Senate of Romania,
in the Plenary of ICPD
Cairo, 6 September 1994
Mister President, Mister Secretary General, Madame Secretary General of
the ICPD, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me from the outset congratulate you, Mister President, on
your unanimous election in the highest office of this Conference and
express the satisfaction of our delegation to see in the chair a
distinguished representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt, a friendly
country of Romania.
As the personal representative of the President of Romania, H.E.
Mr. Ion Iliescu, I have the great privilege to begin by presenting His
Excellency's message to the ICPD.
"Message de Son Excellence Monsieur Ion Iliescu, President de la
Roumanie, adresse aux participants a la Conference internationale sur
la population et le developpement (Le Caire, 5-13 septembre, 1994)
Deux decenies auparavant, se tenait a Bucarest, sous l'egide de
l'ONU, la premiere Conference Mondiale Gouvernamentale sur la
population et le developpement, qui a adopte "Le Plan Mondial d'Action"
sur la population, le premier guide de la communaute internationale
dans le domaine de l'inter-relation population-developpement. Les
principes et les objectives de ce Plan d'Action, qui maintienent leur
actualite, ont ete developpes au cours des annees et seront enrichies
par le Programme d'Action qui sera adopte lors de l'actuel Forum
International du Caire.
La Conference du Caire a lieu dans le courant de changements
politiques, particulierement importants survenus dans le monde depuis
la precedente Conference de Mexico, dont l'apparition des nouvelles
democraties dans l'Europe Centrale et de l'Est. Dans ce contexte, je
voudrais signaler qu'une des premieres mesures adoptees en Roumanie
juste apres la Revolution de Decembre 1989, a ete de mettre fin a la
politique que l'ancien regime totalitaire avait poursuivie en matiere
de natalite, et par consequence l'abrogation de la legislation
restrictive sur l'avortement et la contraception, qui violaient les
droits fondamentaux de l'homme et du couple. Un nouveau systeme
legislatif a ete adopte, en commencant avec la Constitution de 1991,
qui garantit le respect des droits de la famille, de l'enfant et de la
jeunesse, ainsi que la protection sociale.
La Conference du Caire est invitee a repondre aux problemes
contemporains majeurs, concernant l'interaction entre la population,
l'accroissement economique soutenu et le developpement durable, fondes
sur le respect des droits et des libertes fondamentales de l'homme.
Elle devrait aussi recommander de nouvelles mesures, y compris
l'intensification de la cooperation technique et financiere
internationale, pour assurer des conditions dignes de bien etre et de
travail pour la population du monde entier et toute particulierement
une vie heureuse pour les meres et les enfants de notre planete.
L'oppinion publique internationale suit avec beaucoup d'interet et
d'espoir le deroulement de cette Conference et je suis convaincu que
tous les participants sont animes par la volonte d'arriver aux
meilleurs resultats.
Permettez moi de souhaiter plein succes aux travaux de la
Conference internationale du Caire sur la population et le
developpement!
Ion Iliescu President de la Roumanie"
Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the Romanian delegation, I would like to express our
high appreciation and thanks to the Egyptian Government for its efforts
to provide the suitable conditions for our work and a successful
conclusion of the International Conference on Population and
Development.
At the same time, we appreciate the efforts made by the
distinguished members of the Conference's Preparatory Committee,
especially by the Secretary General of the Conference, Ms. Nafis Sadik,
for the excellent organization of this major event.
Romania considers that the current draft Programme of Action
outlines a consistent body of principles and objectives, along with the
means to implement them, entailing the common responsibilities of the
states, both to each other and also towards the planetary home of the
whole mankind. The draft provides a substantial groundwork for
discussions and, once adopted, for the co-operation among all the
countries attending the Conference.
We cannot help mentioning the fact that, to a great extent; the
concrete possibilities for applying the principles listed out in the
draft Programme depend on outside factors to which we are going to
refer further on. In our opinion, it is obvious that a sine qua non
condition for putting the Programme's provisions into operation, is
closely related to the existence of an adequate minimum economic
standard.
All programs meant to improve the human condition have to
overcome poverty, which is the greatest enemy of any actions aimed to
cross the bridge from words to facts. Or, given the present conditions
when, unfortunately, the gap between the poor and the rich tends to
widen, the danger that the Programme's principles might become empty
slogans in the countries facing poverty is real and should not be
underestimated.
What I have said above leads to the conclusion that a necessary
preliminary step to be taken in order to fulfil the objectives of the
Programme is the development of a global strategy to bridge off the
discrepancies between the poor and the rich, not only between the
countries, but also inside each country. The existence of such a
programme is essential for decreasing the migration tendencies as well.
These migration movements are detrimental both to the recipient states,
generating inequities against the local citizens and stirring up
xenophobia, and also to the native countries in view of the fact that
the most likely strata to emigrate are the most educated, the native
countries being pushed once more towards poverty.
Therefore we consider that, if we really want to solve the
population problems, then we must start with the very beginning, namely
to convince the rich countries that it,is also in their interest, or
better said, in their long-term interest, to find the way to more
efficiently pay the tax for self-protection, by putting into practice
programs for speeding up the eradication of poverty worldwide. We think
that it makes no sense to talk about "their" problems and "our"
problems; today, and in the future, all problems are common, and
concern all of us equally.
The second aspect I would like to focus on is the family
planning. In this line, the gaps I was referring above find a very
negative expression. So, admittedly or not, the family planning is
formulated and applied to the wealthy families level and becomes a mere
illusion for the poor families. Fortunately, because of the large-scale
improvement of living standards, this trend is curbed down, but does
not stop to be a problem. We would take the risk to state that each
person on Earth should have free access to air, water, education and
contraceptives. Adding to these elements a minimum sexual education, we
consider that a substantial progress toward a coherent strategy of
population policy would be achieved.
Of course, we are for equal rights for men and women, but I
wonder whether this magnificent statement does not also depend , inter
alia, on guaranteeing the fairest possible share of duties between the
two genders. Sometimes, we feel that the thesis on insuring equal
rights for men and women is misused for overloading women's duties.
Mister President,
It is well known that five years have almost passed since Romania
succeeded, following a far-reaching revolutionary movement, to overthrow
dictatorship, which, during its final stage, had become an anachronistic
despotism. Because of the aberrant population policy pursued by the
former regime, which was targeted to achieve at any price a population
growth, we lnherited an unfavorable population structure, with a non-
negligible layer of the population having low opportunities of
employment in the country's productive effort. This layer comes
especially from the broken families as a result of a legislation under
which the divorce was almost impossible. Even under these
circumstances, the results in rebuilding the Romanian society are
satisfactory, due to the qualifications of the active population. But,
this fact can not satisfy us entirely, so for the future, we have to
strengthen the basic nucleus of the society, which is the family,
through economic and educational key factors. This desideratum lies at
the heart of all decision-making in Romania.
Mister President,
The Romanian delegation agrees on and backs up all the principles
included in the draft Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development, and militates for putting
into practice the measures stipulated by the Programme, according to
our country's specific conditions.
It is a pleasant duty to express to the United Nations Fund for
Population Activities the high appreciation of the Romanian Government
for the technical assistance provided in the field of family planning
and for running the 1992 Population and Housing Census. Likewise, we
express our gratitude for the assistance received from the European
Union through the PHARE Programme, as well as from UNICEF and from the
World Bank.
We express our availability and support for the basic issues of
the "Agenda for Development" forwarded by the United Nations General
Secretary, which foreshadow a new, unitary and interdependent outlook
on development, centered on the human being.
We assure you, Mister President, of all our co-operation for the
successful conclusion of the Conference.
Thank you for your attention!