MORE THAN 100 COUNTRIES TO OBSERVE WORLD POPULATION DAY

7 July 1997

Press Release
POP/649

MORE THAN 100 COUNTRIES TO OBSERVE WORLD POPULATION DAY

19970707 NEW YORK, 3 July (UNFPA) -- More than 100 countries, as well as institutions, non-governmental and private organizations, will commemorate World Population Day, on 11 July, with special events.

The theme for this year's observance is adolescent reproductive health care. In particular, the focus is on the need to provide adolescents with sex education and reproductive health care so that they can make informed choices, including how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

"There are more than 1 billion young people in the world today aged between 15 and 24 -- the largest generation ever", said Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

"Teenagers all over the world tell us they want information about sexuality, and about sexual health. They want to know how to protect themselves and their loved ones from unwanted pregnancy, from sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and from reproductive tract infections. Moreover, as these new baby boomers enter their adulthood, many of them are concerned with getting married, starting a family and bringing up their children in good health."

"We must ensure that young people not only know the choices open to them but have the appropriate information and services to help them make the right decisions", she said.

To mark World Population Day, UNFPA is issuing three booklets: "Generation 97", the results of a survey of the views of young women and men on sexual and reproductive health published by the Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation; "The Youth Perspective", which includes the winning entries of the Fund's 1996 International Youth Essay Contest together with excerpts from hundreds of essays by young people from throughout the world on such issues as adolescent sexuality, peer pressure and teenage pregnancy; and "UNFPA and Adolescents", a discussion of the special problems that adolescents face and a description of how the UNFPA designs and implements programmes that address those problems.

Dr. Sadik and Ingar Bruggemann, Secretary-General of the Federation, will launch "Generation 97" at a press conference in Amsterdam. Among the events planned throughout the world are rallies and speeches by national and local

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leaders; lectures; seminars; radio, television and film programmes; newspaper and magazine supplements; special publications; exhibits; and sports events.

Many national television networks and local stations will broadcast a series of video programmes on reproductive health and reproductive rights. Produced for UNFPA, the videos will be distributed via satellite by Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) to their subscribers on 9 July. The five 15- minute programmes are based on the UNFPA's 1997 State of World Population report. Set in Ethiopia, Fiji, Latvia and Jamaica, the programmes portray: the intricate relationship between population and the environment; the physical problems associated with early marriage and a lack of maternal health care for adolescents; sexual trafficking and sexual slavery; reproductive rights; sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS; and programmes dealing with teenage pregnancy and domestic violence.

In addition, UNFPA has produced, and distributed globally, a World Population Day poster and brochure as well as the "Population Issues Briefing Kit" (in English, French, Spanish and Arabic) -- a survey of population issues and data.

World Population Day was first celebrated in 1987, when the world population reached 5 billion. The Fund's Governing Council designated 11 July as World Population Day in 1988. The United Nations authorized the event as a vehicle to build awareness of population issues and the impact they have on development and the environment. According to Dr. Sadik, it is critical to bring world population questions to the attention of as large an audience as possible because of both the global nature of the problem and the need to enlist both high-level and grass-roots support for population programmes.

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