1997 UNITED NATIONS POPULATION AWARDS ANNOUNCED

12 February 1997

Press Release
POP/634

1997 UNITED NATIONS POPULATION AWARDS ANNOUNCED

19970212 NEW YORK, 12 February (UNFPA) -- The 1997 United Nations Population Award will be shared by Elizabeth Aguirre Calderon Sol, Director of the National Family Secretariat of El Salvador; Professor Toshio Kuroda, Director Emeritus, Nihon University Population Research Institute, Tokyo; and Senator Mechai Veravaidya, Director of the Population Development Association of Thailand, the Chairman of the Award Committee and Guatemala's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Julio Armando Martini Herrera, announced today.

"There were a great number of nominations this year, more than usual", said Mr. Martini Herrera. "And they were of very high quality. The Committee spent a great deal of time and effort looking at and analysing the nominations. These were difficult choices to make since there were so many excellent nominations, but the Committee feels that, in the end, it has made the best choices. This year, in honour of the fifteenth anniversary of the Award, and for this time only, we decided to give it to three laureates. The only regret is that we could not give the Award to more of the nominees, but we felt that we had to limit it to three."

The Award is presented annually by the Committee of the United Nations Population Award to individuals and institutions which have made outstanding contributions to increasing the awareness of population problems and to their solutions.

Each of this year's winners will receive a diploma, a gold medal and an equal share of the monetary prize of $25,000.

Elizabeth Aguirre Calderon Sol was nominated for her work in promoting social development when she was President of the "Brigade for Social Development" in 1989, and for her more recent work directing the National Family Secretariat. She also led El Salvador's delegation to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, as well as her country's delegation to the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing.

Professor Kuroda, often called the "Dean of Japanese demographers", has spent more than 50 years writing, teaching and undertaking scientific studies on population issues in Japan, throughout Asia and the world. Professor Kuroda began his career in 1947 at the Institute of Population Problems in the Japanese Ministry of Health and eventually became the Institute's Director.

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He was also Director-General of Nihon University's well-known Population Research Institute. He has served as Japan's delegate to sessions of the United Nations Population Commission and to various international conferences. Professor Kuroda's research covers the full range of population issues, with specially noted work in the areas of fertility, family organization, migration and urban affairs.

Senator Mechai Veravaidya was nominated for his more than two decades of energetic and innovative work promoting population policy in Thailand and throughout Asia, and for his promotion of family-planning services. He is one of the most well-known names in Asian family planning, particularly noted for his effective use of humour to destigmatize contraceptives, including vasectomies, thus, promoting their greater acceptance. His work has been important in bringing Thai fertility to below replacement level in a thoroughly voluntary programme. He was among the first leaders to acknowledge Thailand's growing problem with HIV/AIDS, and has worked to frame an effective national policy for AIDS prevention in response.

The three winners will receive the award at a ceremony to be held later this year. The Committee of the United Nations Population Award is made up of representatives of 10 United Nations Member States elected by the Economic and Social Council for a term of three years. The current members are Belarus, Burundi, Cameroon, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines and Zaire. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, serve as ex officio members. In addition, the Committee has five eminent individuals as honourary members who serve in an advisory capacity for a renewable term of three years.

There were 22 nominations for the 1997 award, including 15 individuals and seven institutions. Nominations can be made by: governments of Member States; intergovernmental organizations engaged in population-related activities; population-related non-governmental organizations having consultative status with the United Nations; university professors of population or population-related studies; heads of population-related institutions; and past laureates.

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