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) |
|
"ICPD 94", No. 12
February 1994
Newsletter of the International Conference on Population and
Development
Cairo, Egypt, 5-13 September 1994
DRAFT PROGRAMME OF ACTION IS MADE AVAILABLE FOR CONSIDERATION PRIOR
TO PREPCOM III
"The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development
occurs at a defining moment in the history of international
cooperation." So begins the 83-page draft of the ICPD Programme of
Action, the document that will be the major outcome of the Cairo
Conference in September this year.
Spanning 16 chapters and the full spectrum of issues addressed
by the mandate of the Conference -- "population, sustained economic
growth and sustainable development" -- the draft Programme of
Action has been prepared by the Conference Secretary-General, Dr.
Nafis Sadik, in response to directives from the second session of
the ICPD Preparatory Committee (PrepCom II), the UN Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN General Assembly.
Present indications are that it will be available in the six
official UN languages in the second half of February. In the
meantime, to ensure it can be studied widely at an early stage, it
is being made available in the "final unedited" version in which it
has been submitted to the UN Secretariat for processing and
translation. This practice was used with considerable success for
the earlier annotated outline document which was debated in
November by the UN General Assembly's Second Committee.
The ICPD Secretariat is giving particular emphasis to getting
the draft document to those in national capitals who have been
working on ICPD issues. UN field offices have each received a stock
of these "final unedited" version documents to pass to their
respective ICPD contacts, both government and NGO. All UN Missions
have also received copies, as have many NGOs. Extra copies may be
requested from the Conference Secretariat.
Negotiation of this draft document will be the central
function of PrepCom III, to be held at UN Headquarters from 4 to 22
April. The Preparatory Committee, operating through Working Groups,
will endeavour to reach agreement on the exact wording of the final
Conference document. Any section of the text on which agreement is
not reached by the end of PrepCom III will then be included within
square brackets for further negotiation in Cairo. The objective for
PrepCom III, therefore, will be to reach full agreement on all
aspects of the draft document by 22 April.
Each subchapter of the draft has a standardized three-part
format: 1) Basis for Action (a scene-setting paragraph or two); 2)
Objectives; 3) Actions (action-oriented recommendations). It is
expected that particular attention will be given to the Objectives
and Actions sections of each subchapter.
Arrangements are being finalized for three sessions of
informal consultations on the draft Programme of Action, to be held
at UN Headquarters prior to PrepCom III. At the request of
delegations during the recent UN General Assembly debate on ICPD,
these will enable an "exchange of views" among delegations rather
than being negotiations. Dates are set for 22 February, 10 March
and 24 March.
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For printed or electronic copies of the "ICPD 94" newsletter, in
English, French or Spanish, or further information, please
contact:
ICPD Secretariat 220 E. 42nd Street, 22nd floor
New York, N.Y. 10017, USA
Tel: (212) 297-5244/5245
Media contact: (212) 297-5023/5030 or 5279
Fax: (212) 297-5250
E-mail: ryanw@unfpa.org or icpd@igc.apc.org
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