PRESS CONFERENCE ON PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR SPECIAL ASSEMBLY SESSION ON IMPLEMENTING CAIRO PROGRAMME OF ACTION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR SPECIAL ASSEMBLY SESSION ON IMPLEMENTING CAIRO PROGRAMME OF ACTION

Successfully implementing the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 would mean lower fertility, smaller families, slower population growth, and would change peoples lives, Stirling Scruggs, Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Information and External Relations Division, told correspondents as he introduced two leaders in the field of population policy at a press conference at Headquarters this afternoon.

The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) had adopted this remarkable landmark 20-year action programme that made human rights and individual needs the focus of international activities in the field of population, he continued.

The United Nations was now reviewing progress in implementing this action plan, and determining priorities for future actions, he explained. The five-year review would be considered during an inter-governmental preparatory committee meeting that commenced today and would continue until 31 March, prior to a special session of the General Assembly to be held from 30 June to 2 July, which would adopt proposals for key actions for further implementing the Programme of Action.

The preparatory committee meeting was an expanded session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, he said. The Department of Public Information had prepared a very thorough 13-page press release with background information on the Commission and the documents.

About 180 governmental delegations were at Headquarters to attend the preparatory committee meeting, including several from countries that were not United Nations Member States, he said. All relevant United Nations and inter-governmental organizations and about 764 non-governmental organizations were also represented.

Mr. Scruggs introduced the two "key actors" in this process who, he explained, would not make statements but would respond to correspondents questions. Dr. Nafis Sadiq was Executive Director of the UNFPA and the first woman to head a major United Nations organization, he explained. She had also been Secretary-General of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury was Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations. He had today been elected Chairman of the preparatory committee for the special session, and most recently had chaired the main committee of The Hague Forum, which was an important part of the ICPD process.

Asked whether, in light of a meeting held yesterday aimed at trying to induce the United States to recommence funding the UNFPA, there were any signs that other countries might enhance or recommence their funding, Dr. Sadiq explained that she did not know of any country other than the United States which had discontinued its funding. Pledges had increased from a number of States, including Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Fund was also receiving contributions from foundations, which it hoped would increase, and from donor countries' bilateral aid channel.

The goal for 1999 funding was $400 million -- an ambitious figure, representing an increase of roughly 30 per cent from the starting level of $310 million, she continued. She did not think there would be many pledges today.

Asked to comment on objections to the use of the term "rights" in the Cairo document, Dr. Sadiq stated that the right to health had been accepted in Cairo, and that right included the right to reproductive health. In fact, chapter 7 of the Programme of Action was called Reproductive Rights. She had heard one or two delegations say that they accepted the right to reproductive health, but the concept was not being interpreted correctly. No country could determine how another should interpret the Cairo recommendations; that was for each country to decide for itself. It was the sovereign right of each country to determine its own policies. It seemed that some delegations intended to try to impose a particular interpretation which had not even been debated in Cairo.

Mr. Chowdhury said he expected discussion on that very issue at the preparatory committee meeting this afternoon.

In response to a correspondent who asked whether there was concern that the debates over rights or over reproductive technology could affect the substantive outcome of Cairo, Dr. Sadiq explained that she believed the correspondent was alluding to the emergency contraception issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) was clear on the matter, and would make a statement this afternoon.

Making emergency contraception available did not mean people would be forced to use it, she said. The reason it was often mentioned in connection with refugees and conflict situations was that there was an extremely high rate of violence against women, and of rape in particular, in those situations. Abortion rates were consequently extremely high, and abortion- related deaths and complications were too common. The common position of non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross, the WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was that all health personnel should be trained to understand the choices available and that people should know about the technology.

Cairo Programme of Action - 3 - 24 March 1999

Training and information should be available so that even if a woman was raped, she did not have to become pregnant, she said. Another question she sometimes heard in the context of discussions about HIV/AIDS, was whether female condoms should be allowed. Individuals and couples would decide whether they would use them or not.

She had heard that female condoms did not protect people from HIV/AIDS, but to say as a consequence that they should not be made available was incomprehensible. Sometimes one could only make sense of the position by seeing it as a statement that women should not have the right to choose.

She had heard comments on these matters, but she was not sure how they would be brought out, she said. The agreements of Cairo, which stated that effective methods of contraception should be made available, would not be changed here.

Asked who was providing abortions in refugee camps, she explained that no official body was -- certainly the UNFPA was not providing abortions. Women came to clinics in terrible conditions because they had tried to induce abortions themselves.

Ambassador Chowdhury said he believed that some delegations which felt they had lost out in Cairo would attempt to reopen the issues by arguing about interpretation of the language. However, in accordance with the relevant General Assembly resolution, the Cairo agreements were not supposed to be reopened in any way. Cairo had produced a hard-earned consensus and it had to be respected.

He underlined that the preparatory committee and the special session were to work for further implementation of the Cairo commitments. The focus was on how to adopt measures to better implement what had come out of the Cairo conference. That was what would happen, on the basis of recommendations the Secretary-General had made, and it would be the basis of the discussion in the working group, due to start at 4 p.m. today. As Chairman of the preparatory committee, he had submitted a draft paper based on the Secretary- General's report, and he hoped delegations would start working on that paper. By the end of the preparatory committee meeting on 31 March, he hoped a document would be adopted, hopefully by consensus, to be recommended to the General Assembly's special session. He thought the majority of the delegations shared his intention.

In response to another question, Mr. Chowdhury explained that at the preparatory committee plenary, delegation after delegation had stressed the two sets of commitments made in Cairo -- the commitments of developing countries to introduce national policies and measures, and those of developed countries to contribute resources. Over the last five years developing countries had made tremendous efforts to undertake policy and institutional measures, but resources from developing countries, while they had surged

Cairo Programme of Action - 4 - 24 March 1999

immediately after Cairo, had been stagnant in 1996 and 1997 and had begun tapering off last year.

That was the disappointing note the preparatory committee was starting with, he said. He believed delegations, particularly those from donor countries, should take note of the renewed commitment of developing countries.

Dr. Sadiq said that there were proposals to help improve the availability of resources, including increasing official development assistance, increasing the portion dedicated to population issues, mobilizing private sector resources, forgiving debt and negotiating better prices from the private sector for developing countries.

Asked if there were positive areas regarding implementation, Mr. Chowdhury said he believed that out of the preparatory committee and the special Assembly session, action could be expected on two areas -- involving young people in promoting the Cairo Programme of Action, and assisting with HIV/AIDS prevention.

Dr. Sadiq said another area that required attention was reducing maternal mortality reduction. There was need to sit down in every country and look at epidemiological reasons for high maternal mortality and try to develop country-specific actions to expand services, to assist deliveries, and also to address other problems like anaemia, since haemorrhage was a major cause of death.

Asked if there was any reaction to his proposal that a conference be held to look at migration without linking it to controversial issues, Mr. Chowdhury explained that there had been a technical symposium last year in The Hague, there had been regional meetings and now issues needing attention were emerging. There was increased acceptance that an international forum might be needed, and the issue was now recognized as global rather than regional.

Dr. Sadiq said the main problems were the confrontation of two opposing views and a poor knowledge base. Countries, except for the United States, had not documented the benefits accruing from migration. In addition, the problems for families of migrants who were left behind in sending countries were not well documented, and should be looked at. There had been some regional conferences and some bilateral conferences. What they had found could be brought to an international meeting where there could be a step-by-step approach to addressing the issue.

Mr. Chowdhury recalled the Convention on the right of migrants and their families, and new concern had arisen with regard to the treatment of female migrant workers. That was an area of concern that had not been there a few years ago, but was now there in a big way.

* *** *