UNITED NATIONS POPULATION INFORMATION NETWORK (POPIN) UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)

U.S. NGO Hosts Meeting on Population Policy

"ICPD 94" 

January 1994 

Number 11



Newsletter of the International Conference on Population and

Development, Cairo, Egypt, 5-13 September 1994



U.S. NGO HOSTS MEETING ON POPULATION POLICY



A recent regional meeting of experts organized by the Population

Institute, a Washington-based NGO, called on the U.S. Government to

formulate a national population policy by 1996.



     The group, convened from 19-22 November at the Airlie

Conference Center outside Washington, D.C., recommended that such

a policy take into account refugee inflows and legal and illegal

migration and that it recommend ways of protecting the environment

and eliminating over- consumption.



     The Population Institute said it would send the "Airlie

Declaration" to the U.S. State Department.



     The participant signatories said they "reaffirm[ed] our

commitment to the dignity of individual life." They strongly

recommended including among the highest priorities of the 1994

Conference: "universal voluntary access to safe, affordable and

effective fertility regulation; establishment of gender equality

and rapid enhancement of the status of women...; emphasis on the

role and responsibility of men in family planning; a clear

statement of the linkages between population, environment, economic

growth and sustainable development; establishment of reproductive

health and family planning as human rights; urging countries to

reduce pressure leading to uncontrolled migration by fostering

employment through sustainable economic development in countries of

origin."