NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, YOUTH AND LAWMAKERS AFFIRM COMMITMENT TO REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

9 February 1999

Press Release
POP/698

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, YOUTH AND LAWMAKERS AFFIRM COMMITMENT TO REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

19990209 Parliamentarians Adopt Declaration Backing Cairo Programme Of Action; US Congresswomen Seek To Restore Support to UN Population Fund

THE HAGUE, 6 February (UNFPA) -- Three global meetings under way here in advance of the intergovernmental Hague Forum affirmed that civil society has a vital role to play in assuring reproductive rights and reproductive health for all.

Representatives from a wide range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and young people concerned with reproductive and sexual health began two days of discussions on ways to advance the action plan adopted by 179 governments nearly five years ago at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

Across town, parliamentarians committed to the same goal pledged "to translate our personal commitment into collective political action" to increase political and financial support for the ICPD agenda. Two of them, from the United States House of Representatives, put this pledge into action by announcing a legislative initiative to restore their Government's support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The NGO Forum and Youth Forum on ICPD+5 both opened today at the Netherlands Congress Centre, while the International Forum of Parliamentarians on ICPD Review concluded at the historic Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights). All three meetings were organized to provide input into the 8-12 February Hague Forum, at which representatives of 180 States will review progress in the five years since the Cairo Conference. The findings of the UNFPA-organized Hague Forum, in turn, will inform the process leading up to a special session of the United Nations General Assembly reviewing ICPD implementation, which will take place in New York from 30 June to 2 July.

Some 600 participants, representing 140 activist groups from throughout the world are taking part in the NGO Forum. The meeting was convened by the World Population Foundation of the Netherlands, guided by a steering committee made up of leaders from a broad variety of organizations in the women's health and rights and population. About 100 young people from all regions are

participating in the Youth Forum; many are from groups working to assure adolescents' access to sex education and appropriate health services.

At the forums joint opening session, following a welcome by Wouter Meijer of the World Population Foundation, and Evelene Herfkens, the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Nafis Sadik stressed that partnership is the key to successful implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. "No single group alone -- whether it be the public sector, NGOs or the private sector -- can meet the basic human and social needs of the people, especially in the context of globalization, privatization and resource scarcity."

Non-governmental organizations, she said, "continue to be strong advocates of difficult issues and, where governments accept, to complement their role in the implementation of agreed goals". Since the ICPD, NGOs have played a steadily increasing role in delivering reproductive health services to the rural and urban poor and to adolescents, and in advocating for women's rights and adequate allocation of resources for reproductive health.

"Adolescent reproductive health continues to be one of the most neglected and difficult areas in which we all work", Dr. Sadik acknowledged. While each country must determine what information and services to provide young people, and at what ages, "the discussion should not hold up implementation of the basic agreement that young people must be enabled to protect their own reproductive health".

Also addressing the opening session were: Timothy Stamps, Zimbabwe's Minister for Health and Child Welfare; Aziza Hussein, Chairperson of the Commission on Population and Development, an Egyptian NGO; and Amparo Claro, head of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network.

The NGO Forum then continued with four panel sessions on key themes addressed by the Cairo conference:

-- Links between reproductive health, empowerment, population and development (panellists spoke about development programmes, production and resource consumption, migration and governance, debt and North-South relations);

-- Rights -- rhetoric to reality (covering the human rights underpinning for sexual and reproductive rights, the rights of young people, abortion, and social mobilization for change); and

-- ICPD ethos in practice -- implementing policies and services (quality of care issues, maternal health, violence and HIV/AIDS).

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The plenary will continue on Sunday with panels on partnerships, and resources and advocacy. Drafting committees are working on statements addressing each of these themes, to be included in a final report on the NGO Forum and presented to the Hague Forum on Monday.

Participants in the Youth Forum divided into working groups to address the topics: education, individual development, sexual and reproductive health, and violence. These broke into smaller, often lively discussion groups addressing different issues within each theme area. Their conclusions will also be shaped into a statement and summarized at the Hague Forum.

The parliamentarians' forum, meanwhile, concluded its own series of thematic discussions and then debated the language of a draft final document. The result was the Hague Declaration of Parliamentarians on ICPD Review. "We, the 210 parliamentarians from 103 countries ... reaffirm the ICPD Programme of Action and its relationship to food security and environmental and economic issues", it states. While progress has been made since the ICPD "through policy reformulation, programme redesign, increased partnerships and collaboration, and increased resource allocation", it notes, "many challenges still remain".

The declaration identifies seven priority areas for action:

-- Reproductive health and reproductive rights -- reviewing laws and revising them where necessary, increasing efforts to promote reproductive health and family planning, and passing legislation to ensure governments meet their obligations;

-- Gender and population-establishing laws, policies and resources to educate girls, empower women and remove barriers to their full participation in society;

-- Adolescents, youth, the elderly and the disabled -- urging increased spending for education and health care for these groups;

-- Population, environment and food security -- ensuring that international trade agreements are "consistent with the long-term perspective of food security";

-- Resource mobilization -- calling on donor governments to increase official development assistance to 0.7 per cent of their gross national product and devote 4.5 per cent of such assistance to population and reproductive health, and for a reassessment of "the disproportionate emphasis on military spending at the expense of social needs";

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-- Economic crisis -- urging measures to prevent crises and to "protect the poor from the consequences of an economic collapse", and to re-evaluate developing countries' debt repayments; and

-- Parliamentarians' networks -- calling for a global exchange of information and best practices, and support for advocacy and resources to achieve ICPD goals.

The lawmakers called on national parliamentarian groups to play a more active role in monitoring ICPD implementation, and pledged to support the declaration through national legislative action.

While the parliamentarians were still meeting, United States Representative Caroline Maloney held a briefing at the Netherlands Congress Centre to announce that she will introduce legislation to restore Washington's funding for the UNFPA, cut by the United States Congress from $35 million in 1995 to $20 million last year, and to no funds in the current fiscal year. The proposed bill would provide $25 million in 2000 and $35 million in 2001. "At a time when countries worldwide are uniting behind the Cairo agenda, the United States is failing to do its fair share. My bill will help correct this imbalance and fulfil the promise we made in 1994", she said. "One hundred and seventy-nine countries can't be wrong." Representative Cynthia McKinney, also attending the parliamentarians forum, declared her support for the measure.

Asked about the draft legislation during a media seminar on ICPD+5, Dr. Sadik noted that it has the support of the United States State Department. She said she hopes it will pass, since "many countries look to the United States for leadership" in supporting reproductive health and family planning.

The parliamentarians, youth and NGOs will convene a joint session at the Netherlands National Netherlands Congress Centre on Sunday. United States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to address the NGO Forum and to keynote the Hague Forum on Monday.

For more information contact,

In the Hague:

Corrie Shanahan (email: shanahan@unfpa.org), Abubakar Dungus (email: dungus@unfpa.org), William A. Ryan (email: ryan@unfpa.org); telephone: +31-70-306-5716/5717/5719; fax: +31-70-306-5737/5738

In New York:

Brian Kelly (email: kelly@unfpa.org); telephone: (212) 297-5023; fax: (212) 557-6416

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