GOVERNMENTS COMMEMORATE LANDMARK CAIRO CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
In 2004, United Nations member states held a Special Session of the General Assembly to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. The ICPD outcome document—the Cairo Programme of Action—marked the first time that the international community explicitly recognized that reproductive rights are human rights, called for the recognition of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, and rejected the use of sterilization and population targets in family planning initiatives. The Programme also stressed the importance of empowering women to take charge of their reproductive lives, and laid out a twenty-year plan for furthering reproductive and sexual rights worldwide.
Long before governments began work for the Special Session, nongovernmental organizations such as the Center for Reproductive Rights, conducted their own assessment of how far governments have come in fulfilling their promise to provide basic sexual and reproductive health services for all by 2015. In late August 2004, the Center participated in the Countdown 2015 Global Roundtable, an international meeting of NGOs focused on accelerating implementation of the ICPD agenda. The Center, in collaboration with Ipas and the Women’s Health Foundation of Indonesia, spearheaded the Roundtable’s discussion of global abortion policy.
"By recognizing that the existing body of international human rights law encompasses women’s experiences in their reproductive and sexual lives, the Cairo Programme of Action provided activists with a crucial jumping off point," said Nancy Northup, President of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "Although ICPD did not go far enough in calling for universal access to safe legal abortion, the past ten years demonstrate that women’s rights and health advocates are making progress. We will continue to work for the day when all governments respect, protect and fulfill women’s reproductive rights."
Find out more about the post-Cairo laws and policies that governments have adopted in conformity with international standards of reproductive health care, by reading "Governments in Action (PDF)," an online feature from the Center.
For more information on progress made towards the goals of ICPD at the five-year review, see the following Center publications: ICPD +5: Gains for Women Despite Opposition (PDF) and Cairo +5: Assessing U.S. Support for Reproductive Health at Home and Abroad (PDF).
For more information on the impact of population policies on reproductive rights, read the Center’s briefing paper, Rethinking Population Policies: A Reproductive Rights Framework (PDF).
COUNTDOWN 2015:
SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS AT THE CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT TEN-YEAR REVIEW
From August 31 to September 2, 2004, the Center for Reproductive Rights took part in Countdown 2015, a gathering in London of activists and experts from around the globe to identify actions necessary to implement the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action. The Center co-convened, with Ipas and the Women’s Health Foundation of Indonesia, a working group entitled From Controversy to Consensus on Abortion.
Read the Statement of Center President Nancy Northup
Read the Declaration of the Global Roundtable
Learn more about Countdown 2015 at www.countdown2015.org
For more information on progress towards reaching the goals of ICPD at the five-year review, see ICPD +5: Gains for Women Despite Opposition and Cairo +5: Assessing U.S. Support for Reproductive Health at Home and Abroad.
US JOINS CONSENSUS IN SAN JUAN ECLAC MEETING
Despite initial pressure on Latin American countries from the United States, all countries of the Americas joined the consensus to continue supporting the Cairo Programme of Action at its ten year anniversary in the resolution adopted at the ECLAC meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 2 , 2004. The U.S. asked countries to abstain from the consensus, citing its opinion that the Cairo Programme of Action has been interpreted to promote abortion. In the end, the US joined the rest of the Americas in the consensus, avoiding the isolation it experienced at previous regional meetings. Earlier this year in Santiago, Chile and in Port of Spain, the US stood alone in refusing to affirm and support the principles and commitments adopted in 1994 at the Cairo Conference.
COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT CONCLUDED WITH GLOBAL AFFIRMATION OF THE CAIRO PROGRAM OF ACTION
The Bush Administration's attempts to condemn abortion through the UN were again frustrated at the May 6 conclusion of the 37th Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD). Despite US efforts to the contrary, the resolution adopted (document E/CN.9/2004/L.6) reaffirmed the 1994 Cairo Programme of Action. The Cairo Programme of Action was the first document in which the international community explicitly recognized that reproductive rights are human rights, that sterilization and population targets have no place in family planning efforts, and that abortion ought to be safe where it is legal. The final resolution also stresses the importance of the women's empowerment agenda set out in the Cairo Programme of Action for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and recognizes strong support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The following are links to useful documents on the the CPD.
FIVE-YEAR REVIEW OF THE CAIRO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT, 1999
The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was a watershed event, with representatives of over 180 nations agreeing to the centrality of women in all discussions of population and development. The five-year review of ICPD sought to assess the progress in implementing the 20-year ICPD Programme of Action and to articulate strategies for moving forward. Known as "ICPD+5," the review process - though fraught with conflict - resulted in a negotiated document that was an important reaffirmation of the principles agreed to in 1994. The resulting ICPD+5 Key Actions Document should make possible the adoption of legal, policy, and program reforms needed to further implement the ICPD goals.
The Key Actions Document describes important measures needed to better address maternal mortality and morbidity. In particular, the document outlines the need for governments to increase women's access to essential obstetric care and to ensure that health providers are trained and equipped to provide safe abortion services. The Key Actions Document builds on ICPD's focus on voluntarism and non-coercion in the provision of all reproductive health services.
In addition, the Key Actions Document draws attention to the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on women and adolescents. It emphasizes the need for prevention and treatment strategies specifically targeting these groups, as well as adequate legal and policy measures to eliminate stigma, discrimination, and violence against those living with HIV/AIDS.
The Key Actions Document also recognizes the importance of the reproductive and sexual health needs of adolescents. For example, adolescents who are sexually active are entitled to privacy and confidentiality, to give informed consent for services, to education, and to the highest attainable standard of health. However, the refusal of certain conservative governments to face the pressing need for adolescent access to reproductive health services and information resulted in some weakening of the proposed provisions addressing adolescents.
Unfortunately, some provisions in the Key Actions Document, particularly those regarding reproductive health and reproductive rights, were not as concrete as they could have been due to a minority of delegations opposed to ICPD. Stalemates in the negotiations led to the adoption of the exact language agreed to at ICPD five years earlier, contributing nothing to the effort to assess the Programme of Action and move implementation forward. In certain provisions, references to important advances in contraceptive technology, such as emergency contraception and female-controlled methods, were watered down or deleted.
Nonetheless, the implementation strategies included in the Key Actions Document support the efforts of governments, donors, U.N. agencies, and non-governmental organizations to advance the reproductive health and rights of women and girls.
UN Committee Calls on Russia to Improve Teen Access to Reproductive Health
