NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS APPLICATION FORM FOR MEDIA ACCREDITATION TO THE HAGUE FORUM AVAILABLE ON UNFPA WEBSITE

Press Release

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS APPLICATION FORM FOR MEDIA ACCREDITATION TO THE HAGUE FORUM AVAILABLE ON UNFPA WEBSITE

NEW YORK, 21 December (UNFPA) -- Government delegations from over 180 countries will be present at The Hague Forum, to be held from 8 to 12 February to review progress on implementation of the Programme of Action adopted by the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and recommend further steps to be taken.

The Cairo Conference was a watershed for global population and development initiatives. Countries now accept that rapid population growth, high fertility and gender inequality hold back development and help to perpetuate poverty. The conference recognized that the key to smaller families and slower population growth is empowerment and free choice, not demographic targets. Most women, given the choice, will have fewer children than their mothers did. Choice means access to reproductive health care, including family planning.

Invited speakers at The Hague Forum include: Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States; Louise Fréchette, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations; Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund; Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization; James Gustave Speth, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme; Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Dr. Peter Piot, Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Media accreditation application forms to The Hague Forum and other information about the event are available at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) website at www.unfpa.org/ICPD/hague.htm. For additional information, call Corrie Shanahan at UNFPA New York, tel: (212) 297-5023; fax: (212) 557-6416 or e-mail: shanahan@unfpa.org. Information about NGO, Youth and Parliamentarians' Forums, which are also taking place in The Hague, is also available at the site.

Although the UNFPA will not be able to help with hotel rooms for journalists at The Hague, information on hotel rooms can be obtained from: The Hague Forum, c/o Expo & Hoc, P.O, Box 11632, 2502 AP, The Hague, Netherlands, tel: +31-70-3766733; Fax: +31-70-4272770.

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