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. 14
April 1994
Newsletter of the International Conference on Population and
Development
Cairo, Egypt, 5-13 September 1994
IN THIS ISSUE
* Third PrepCom Consolidates Broader Approach to Population,
Development
* News in Brief
* Population Ethics Principles Proposed
* Timothy Wirth on Women and Sustainable Development
* Dr. Sadik's Statement to PrepCom Press Conference
* NGO Women Speak Out on Reproductive Rights
* News From the NGOs
* Calendar of Upcoming Events
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
***
THIRD PREPCOM CONSOLIDATES BROADER APPROACH TO POPULATION,
DEVELOPMENT
Nearly all countries now agree that the provision of family
planning should be part of a broader approach that aims to meet
overall reproductive health care needs, particularly of women.
Recognition of this concept was a principal outcome of PrepCom III,
the third and final session of the Preparatory Committee for the
International Conference on Population and Development, which
closed in New York on 22 April.
Among the other major achievements of the momentous three-week
session was a strengthened recognition that population concerns
must be an indispensable part of national and international efforts
to achieve equitable, sustainable development.
Delegations from over 170 countries took part in PrepCom III,
which was also attended by an estimated 1,200 representatives from
over 500 non-governmental organizations, and was the focus of
unprecedented media attention. The central activity was the
negotiation of a detailed draft Programme of Action which is to be
finalized and adopted in Cairo in September; delegates approved
about 85 per cent of the final wording.
The participating Governments agreed on the urgency of
empowering women and eliminating all forms of gender bias; on the
need to integrate population concerns into all development policies
and programmes; and on the importance of basing population
programmes on meeting people's needs rather than demographic
targets.
Non-governmental organizations were involved in the PrepCom to
an unprecedented degree. The draft Programme calls for a
partnership of Governments and NGOs in population and development
efforts. NGO representatives closely followed the negotiations and
used numerous mechanisms to continue to make their views known (in
many cases, NGOs were represented on national delegations); a
women's caucus was particularly active. The PrepCom approved a list
of 937 NGOs for accreditation to ICPD.
The presence of so many experts and activists in the fields of
population, reproductive health, women's rights and the environment
also created opportunities for a rich variety of panel discussions,
workshops and informal exchanges of information relevant to the
many topics being negotiated.
Press interest in the PrepCom was also unusually high.
Following her opening day press conference, Dr. Sadik had a number
of interviews with television, radio and print journalists, as did
Preparatory Committee Chairman Dr. Fred Sai, ICPD Executive
Coordinator Jyoti Shankar Singh and other individuals prominent in
the ICPD process.
Despite considerable agreement with the draft Programme of
Action prepared by the Conference Secretariat, consensus was not
reached on a few key issues. The proposal to address unsafe
abortion as a major public health concern proved particularly
controversial; the Holy See and several countries opposed wording
they said might imply endorsement of legalized abortion. Many other
delegations supported the approach proposed in the draft document.
In the absence of unanimous agreement, references to "reproductive
health", "fertility regulation", "family planning" and even "safe
motherhood" were put in square brackets, meaning there will be
further negotiation on these terms in Cairo.
More discussion will also be required on proposals to offer
reproductive health information, counselling and services to
adolescents; on a set of 20-year proposed goals in health,
education and availability of family planning information and
services; and on estimates of the resources needed to provide
comprehensive reproductive health services world-wide.
The PrepCom opened in New York on 4 April with statements by
the Conference Secretary-General, Dr. Nafis Sadik, and a wide range
of government delegations, intergovernmental agencies and non-
governmental organizations on their expectations for ICPD and its
follow-up. Over 100 speakers addressed the two-and-a-half day
opening plenary.
In her remarks introducing the draft, Dr. Sadik highlighted
several major themes which flow throughout the document: the
critical importance of integrating population concerns into all
aspects of development; the centrality of the individual, and
recognition of individual rights, needs and responsibilities;
concern for the quality of life of all persons throughout their
entire life cycle; informed choice, particularly in regard to
reproductive health and family planning; and the interdependence of
actions at the local, national and international levels.
In view of the limited time available, Dr. Sadik urged
delegations to focus on strengthening the draft's specific
proposals for action. "The clarity, realism and achievability of
these actions are central to the lasting utility of the final
document, and to the success of the Conference and its follow-up."
The draft document included detailed cost estimates for
proposed population and reproductive health activities, Dr. Sadik
noted. "Each of these is backed by very specific data." Cost
estimates for other social and economic activities were felt to be
unnecessary because they had already been addressed by Agenda 21
and by other international conferences and agencies. She went on to
review the draft's various chapters.
In addition to Dr. Sadik, introductory statements were made by
Preparatory Committee Chairman Dr. Fred Sai and Jean-Claude
Milleron, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social
Information and Policy Analysis.
In speeches over the next two and a half days, scores of
national delegations, NGOs and international agencies outlined
their views on the draft Programme of Action and the main issues to
be addressed in Cairo. Some delegations spoke on behalf of groups
of countries. Algeria, speaking for the Group of 77 and China, for
example, called for more emphasis on the alleviation of poverty --
a theme repeated by a number of other developing countries. Greece,
speaking for the European Union, called for universal access to
good quality reproductive health services, including family
planning, and said that population policies should be neither
coercive nor discriminatory.
The Committee then quickly got down to the business of
considering the draft Programme of Action. The ICPD Secretariat
prepared the draft Programme -- including 20-year goals, proposed
actions, and estimates of resource requirements -- based on input
from Governments and others at PrepCom II, regional and subregional
conferences, the forty-eighth UN General Assembly, meetings of
experts, and numerous written submissions.
Most of the negotiation took place in two Working Groups --
chaired, respectively, by Ambassadors Nicholaas H. Biegman of the
Netherlands and Lionel Alexander Hurst of Antigua and Barbuda. In
a "first reading" of the draft Programme, delegations proposed
hundreds of amendments in substance or wording of the draft
Programme's 14 action-oriented chapters.
The Conference Secretariat then synthesized these proposals in
revised drafts of each chapter for further negotiations. These took
place mostly in informal but open Working Group sessions; a few
closed meetings were held to draft compromise language on various
points in the document.
Finally, the chair of each Working Group presented amended
versions of each chapter to a two-day plenary which attempted to
reach consensus on the wording that remained in brackets.
Chapters 1 and 2 (Preamble and Principles) were considered in
a Committee of the Whole. In response to various proposed
amendments, revised drafts of these chapters were prepared by the
Chairman. Because of time constraints, discussion and approval of
the final wording of each were deferred to Cairo; informal
consultations will continue in the meantime.
In a 25 April news conference summing up the achievements of
PrepCom III, Dr. Sadik stressed, "We have been talking about giving
girls a good education, and women better health and real choices."
She observed that the input of delegations and NGOs had
significantly strengthened Chapter 4 on the empowerment of women.
Emphasizing that the overwhelming majority of delegates had
accepted a holistic approach to reproductive health care that
includes family planning, Dr. Sadik said those suggesting that the
World Health Organization's definitions of reproductive health and
fertility regulation might include "abortion on demand" were
mistaken.
"Neither the United Nations nor the Programme of Action
proposes legalizing abortion," she stated. "Rather, the Programme
of Action brings to the world's attention the health consequences
of unsafe abortion," which causes an estimated 250,000 maternal
deaths each year. She said it was likely that compromise language
would be developed on abortion prior to ICPD, making it clear that
addressing the issue in the reproductive health context must be
undertaken within national laws and legislative processes.
"The delegates at Cairo will have a comprehensive and
precedent-setting document before them. Women's reproductive health
and adolescent pregnancy are on the table and will have to be dealt
with," Dr. Sadik declared. "Facing these issues and setting a
course of action will include coming to grips with realities long
denied." She voiced optimism that the Cairo Conference would adopt
the draft Programme of Action with few modifications, and that the
final document "will serve as a liberating force for women
throughout the world and as one of the cornerstones of the social
and economic planning for the 21st century."
***
NEWS IN BRIEF
A 30 March conference on Population and Economic Growth:
Perspectives from the Global South explored the links between
population, economic growth and sustainable development. The
meeting, in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by The American
University's Center for the Study of the Global South with support
from UNFPA.
In a keynote speech, Dr. Nafis Sadik, ICPD Secretary-General,
observed, "A quarter century of experience shows that the most
effective way to alter population growth and other demographic
trends is to invest in people. ... The process should start with
meeting present needs -- providing modern, safe and effective
family planning services to everyone who wants to avoid pregnancy,
an estimated 120 million people today."
The participants -- diplomats, NGO representatives, professors
and students -- agreed on 21 recommendations to be presented at
PrepCom III. These address such issues as: poverty alleviation;
structural adjustment policies; health care, education and economic
opportunity for women; resource consumption; and access to family
planning programmes.
*
Parliamentarians from 14 countries in the Asian, African and
Latin American/Caribbean regions decided on 6 April to organize a
one-day meeting of Parliamentarians, to be known as "Global Forum",
in Cairo during ICPD.
The decision, taken during a meeting at UNFPA Headquarters in
New York, was the result of an initiative by the Asian Forum of
Parliamentarians on Population and Development. A steering
committee, comprised of one representative from each region, will
prepare for the Cairo meeting. The Asian Forum secretariat based in
Tokyo will serve as the steering committee's secretariat.
*
Australia's Department of Immigration has launched a national essay
competition for secondary school students on the issue of world
population and development, as a means of promoting awareness of
ICPD and population issues. The winner will be flown to Cairo to
attend public sessions of the Conference.
*
To provide input into the ICPD process from the perspective of
youth, 68 young people and youth workers from 30 African countries
met in Accra, Ghana, from 25-29 March. The Youth Forum '94 on
Population and Sustainable Development adopted an Accra
Declaration, which was distributed at PrepCom III. The meeting was
organized by the Ghanaian Ministry of Youth and Sports and a
Ghanaian NGO, Youth for Population Information and Communication.
In a 5 April address to the PrepCom opening plenary, Nelson G.
Agemang, president of Youth for Population Information and
Communication, presented highlights from the declaration. In
Africa, he noted, 55 per cent of the population is below age 25.
Young people face such problems as changes in family structure,
early parenthood, rural-urban migration, unemployment, an increase
in sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infection and AIDS,
and substance abuse -- and are often denied the chance to
participate in matters affecting their lives.
The Accra Declaration calls on the international community to
actively promote the well-being of youth, particularly the
under-privileged; and to recognize their special needs for social
support, economic opportunity and access to reproductive health
care. It recommends legal action and education campaigns to do away
with harmful practices like child marriage and female genital
mutilation, and special programmes for young men that focus on the
reproductive rights of women, including the right to refuse sexual
advances.
***
STATE DEPARTMENT LEADER DESCRIBES NEW U.S. COMMITMENT TO WOMEN'S
RIGHTS
Support for sustainable development -- encompassing issues of
reproductive health care, women's rights and rapid population
growth as well as environmental concerns -- constitutes a key
pillar of United States' foreign policy in the post-cold war world,
U.S. State Department Counselor Timothy Wirth told a UN audience 30
March.
"Women's empowerment, rights and well-being" are central to
achieving population and sustainable development goals, and are
"top priorities for the Clinton administration", Mr. Wirth
declared, in a lecture sponsored by the Earth Pledge Foundation and
the Eminent Citizens Committee for Cairo '94.
Mr. Wirth was introduced by UN Under-Secretary-General Nitin
Desai. He noted that ICPD, in seeking to balance population with
resources, was "a bridge" between the 1992 UN Conference on
Environment and Development and the 1995 World Summit for Social
Development.
Discussing his Government's commitment to sustainable
development, Mr. Wirth stated, "A set of novel, complex and cross-
cutting trends are replacing East-West military confrontation as
new determinants of global security." These include: environmental
devastation; "inadequate access to maternal health care,
contraception and safe abortion"; sexually transmitted diseases and
AIDS; and human rights violations.
"Central to all these concerns, in my view," he said, is the
spiral of population growth. ... Continued rapid population growth
will diminish every hope of social and economic progress in the
developing world, every humanitarian endeavour." At the same time,
he noted, resource demands by the affluent were depleting timber
and water supplies and producing global warming.
"We are only beginning to recognize the extent to which human
rights, health, environmental protection, North-South partnership,
economic and social progress, are all interrelated determinants of
an prerequisites for sustainable development," he said.
In particular, "sustainable development cannot be realized
without the full engagement and complete empowerment of women," Mr.
Wirth argued. As barriers to this goal, he cited the lack of
primary and reproductive health services, high rates of maternal
and child mortality, denial of educational services, under-
appreciation of women's potential contribution to environmental
goals, and gender bias in political and economic spheres.
He listed several priorities for Cairo: "meeting the unmet
demand for and expanding the range of reproductive health
services"; "investing in the wisdom of women"; pressing for
"respect of the basic human rights of women"; ensuring that "women
have necessary economic rights"; adapting population programmes "to
address the unique problems faced by adolescent girls"; persuading
men "to accept their responsibilities related to fertility"; and
involving women "in the design and implementation of sustainable
development strategies and programmes."
In support of this agenda, Mr. Wirth noted that the
administration of President Bill Clinton hopes to provide nearly
$600 million for population activities in 1995.
Following the speech, ICPD Secretary-General Dr. Nafis Sadik
hailed the United States' renewed leadership role in the population
field, and predicted that its increased funding commitment would
have a significant impact on other donors.
At the end of the meeting, Eminent Citizens Committee Chairman
Theodore W. Kheel read a letter from Mr. Wirth reporting on his
recent visit to Cairo. The letter stressed "the importance that the
United States places on the successful completion of the Conference
in the city of Cairo." It lauded the Egyptian Government's
preparations for ICPD and noted, "Security arrangements are
carefully coordinated, with a strong Interior Ministry in charge."
***
STATEMENT OF DR. SADIK AT PREPCOM PRESS CONFERENCE
ICPD Secretary-General Dr. Nafis Sadik delivered the following
remarks at the start of her UN Headquarters press conference on 4
April, opening day of the third session of the Conference
Preparatory Committee.
The third and final meeting of the Preparatory Committee for
ICPD will take place over the next three weeks. This meeting is the
culmination of an exhaustive three-year process of regional
conferences, national activities, expert group meetings, round
tables on a variety of related subjects, and a lot of hard work by
Governments and NGOs throughout the world.
We meet at a time when, driven by unprecedented growth in
human numbers and wasteful consumption, many of the basic resources
upon which future generations will depend for their survival are
being depleted, when environmental pollution is intensifying and
when widespread poverty and social and economic inequality
persists.
However, we also meet during a time of widespread agreement
about the importance of population and about the need to focus on
the individual and on individual choice as the keystone to
balancing population and resources.
There is now an international consensus that we should invest
in people, especially in women, and let them make the choices about
family size by providing them with high quality family planning
programmes. This approach will eliminate hundreds of thousands of
maternal deaths each year. At the same time, it will slow the rapid
population growth that is making it difficult for many developing
countries to provide their growing numbers with food, shelter,
employment, education and health.
The efforts of nations and the international community have
already met with great success. Average fertility rates in
developing countries, where almost all population growth is
occurring, have declined from between six to seven children in the
1960s to three to four today. Currently, about 55 per cent of
couples and individuals in developing countries use some method of
family planning, a nearly five-fold increase since the mid-1960s.
However, there is still much to do. World population today is
5.7 billion. It will reach either 7.27 billion or 7.92 billion by
the year 2015, depending on what we do over the next two decades.
That's a difference of 660 million people, nearly equivalent to the
current population of Africa.
The PrepCom has before it a draft Programme of Action that
contains a set of 20-year goals in the areas of mortality reduction
and universal availability of and accessibility to family planning
information and services, and completion of at least primary
education, especially for girls. What makes us optimistic about
what can be accomplished over the next 20 years are the successes
that many countries have made in expanding access to reproductive
health care, lowering death rates, bringing family planning
information and services and raising education and income levels,
including among women.
However, the full range of modern family planning methods
still remains unavailable to at least 350 million couples. Surveys
indicate that approximately 120 million additional women would use
a modern family planning method if information and services were
more available.
Women throughout the world, even in cultures where there are
large families, want to have fewer children. Women want high
quality reproductive health care which includes not only family
planning information and services, but also pre-natal, and post-
natal care, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS
and referrals for complications. Meeting unmet demand for family
planning and providing high quality reproductive care are part of
the 20-year Goals.
The cost for the proposed population activities is reasonable,
considering what is at stake -- about $13 billion per year by the
year 2000. We estimate that international donors would need to
provide about one third of the resources, or $4.4 billion annually
by the year 2000, approximately four times the current level of
their assistance. The developing countries themselves would
continue to be the principal supporter of family planning
programmes (75 per cent in 1990). The Programme of Action calls for
a strong follow up and monitoring system to keep the goals on
track.
I am encouraged by the recent pledges of Japan and the United
States. Japan has pledged $1 billion over the next seven years. The
United States, which promises to provide approximately $585 million
in 1995, has said it will attempt to bring its commitment up to
$1.2 billion annually by the year 2000 and will campaign to
encourage other donors to increase their contributions. I am
hopeful that as one outcome of the Cairo Conference, other donors
will follow the lead of Japan and the United States.
***
NEWS FROM THE NGOS
How to ensure media coverage of population issues was the focus of
a three-day national workshop in New Delhi, organized in February
by Women's Feature Service. Some 22 journalists and others took
part.
"The media, when it addresses the issue of population, focuses
on the differing perspectives of North and South," commented Anita
Anand, director of Women's Feature Service. "The substantive issues
have, unfortunately, never received the focus and space they
deserve."
To provide participants with a better understanding of the
issues, medical professionals and development experts delivered a
series of issue briefings on family planning counselling and health
services, abortion, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, migration,
reproductive health technologies, and population from a women's
health perspective.
*
To fully involve Turkish NGOs in ICPD, the Family Planning
Association of Turkey organized a February meeting of 11 NGOs and
government representatives to discuss the country's national
report to ICPD and make recommendations regarding the Conference
Programme of Action.
Participants agreed to continue working as a permanent NGO
committee to deal with ICPD preparatory activities and follow-up.
*
Enda Third World (Environment and Development in the Third
World), a Paris-based NGO, plans to produce a daily
French-language newspaper, "Vivre autrement", in Cairo during
ICPD. The paper will provide a platform for Southern NGOs to
exchange information. Enda Third World published similar papers
during the 1992 Earth Summit and last year's World Conference on
Human Rights.
***
NGO REPRESENTATIVES SPEAK OUT FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Forcefully condemning "threats to women's reproductive health and
rights", 10 women representing a diverse group of international
NGOs organized a 6 April press conference to coincide with
PrepCom III. In a series of moving, sometimes personal
statements, the women described their struggles against
"religious fundamentalism" of various kinds and other obstacles
to women's empowerment in reproductive matters. At issue was not
religion, several stressed, but political power.
"We view with alarm current attempts to weaken references
[in the ICPD draft Programme of Action] to contraception,
sterilization and abortion, and to undermine women's rights both
as individuals and as members and heads of households," read a
statement signed by all the participants. This was issued one day
after the representative of the Roman Catholic Church attacked
the draft Programme as lacking "a coherent moral vision".
The first speaker was Dr. Pamela Maraldo, president of the
Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She stated that the
inability to control their lives shackles women to a lesser
status than men; there can be no advancement in the world if the
status of women is not improved.
Mona Zulficar, of the Women's Health Improvement Centre in
Cairo reported on a January 1994 meeting in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, in which 227 women from 79 countries adopted a strong
statement on reproductive rights.
Women in Bangladesh must struggle not only against a
deprived economy and cultural restrictions, but also a recent
rise in religious fundamentalism that has targeted women,
reported Sandra Kabir, executive director of the Bangladesh
Women's Health Coalition.
Frances Kissling, president of Catholics For a Free Choice,
said that neither Governments nor religion can substitute for
each individual woman's judgement regarding her reproductive
life. "Culture" cannot justify discrimination against women, she
emphasized.
Sonia Correa, representing the Brazilian NGO IBASE, said
that despite the separation of state and church in Brazil, the
Roman Catholic Church asserts a strong influence on the
governmental decision-making process in matters of reproductive
health.
In Nigeria, one consequence of the lack of reproductive
health information and services is the widespread occurrence of
vesico vaginal fistula, a disabling condition linked to early
child bearing, explained Rakiya Sani Ahmed, leader of a campaign
on this issue in the predominantly Muslim state of Kano.
In Romania -- as in other Eastern European countries --
women use abortion as a means of family planning because they
lack family planning services or information, reported Irina
Dinca, founder of the Youth-for-Youth Foundation which provides
sex education for adolescents. She told of girls as young as 14
resorting to abortion.
Maria Consuelo Mejia, representing Mexico's Information
Group on Reproductive Choice, made a strong appeal for respecting
cultural diversity and human rights. No group has the right to
impose its views on the world and to monopolize ethics, she said.
Luz Alvarez Martinez, co-founder and director of the
National Latina Health Organization in the United States, told of
her feelings when, after giving birth to twins, her Roman
Catholic priest told her she must not practise family planning.
Finally, Margaret Thuo, programme director of the Family
Planning Association of Kenya, said that no one has the right to
force women to have children or not to have children, to tell
women what family planning method they should use, or to withhold
information on choices.
***
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS
July 1994
United Nations Headquarters, New York
Substantive session of the United Nations Economic and Social
Council.
3-4 September 1994
Cairo, Egypt
Pre-Conference intergovernmental consultations.
5-13 September 1994
Cairo, Egypt
International Conference on Population and Development, 1994.
Mid-September-mid-December 1994
United Nations Headquarters, New York
49th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Consideration of the Report of the International Conference on
Population and Development.
* *** *