PRESS CONFERENCE ON REVIEW OF CAIRO PROGRAMME OF ACTION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON REVIEW OF CAIRO PROGRAMME OF ACTION

At a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, the Women's Coalition for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (Cairo, 1994) expressed disappointment that progress in the review process of the Programme of Action adopted in Cairo was being impeded by a few dissenting delegates.

Sonia Correa, of Brazil, said that the review process was not working because some diplomats were threatening the strength of the current document, which could eventually weaken implementation of the human rights approach at the country level. "It is ironic that even in some of the delegates' countries, the rights-based approach embraced in Cairo is being implemented consistently in policy and practice, while they are here engaging in this deadlock," she said. "We expected delegates to come here and defend their own policies, not water down language agreed on in Cairo."

The Coalition, made up of 75 non-governmental organizations from throughout the world, as well as a youth coalition representing the Hague Youth Forum of 132 non-governmental organizations from more than 100 countries, is participating in the Preparatory Committee for the General Assembly special session organized to review implementation of the Cairo action plan. Among other things, the 20-year Programme of Action aims to make reproductive health care, including family planning, universally available by the year 2015, while emphasizing the needs of individual men and women, rather than demographic targets. The special session is scheduled to meet from 30 June to 2 July at Headquarters and the Preparatory Committee for the session is expected to complete its work today.

Bene Madunagu, of Nigeria, told correspondents that the Women's Coalition was determined to go ahead with the unstoppable process of implementing the Cairo approach. She added that some misinformation was being used in an attempt to sway the positions of certain delegations, who had been working hard to deal with "complex and technical issues that affect the lives of women and girls".

Also, the representative for the Youth Coalition, Tania Taitt-Codrington of Suriname, said to correspondents that youth must be included in the dialogue on these human rights issues.

When asked by a correspondent what the Coalition would consider a comparable procedure for a suitable review process, Venita Mukerjee of India said it should be decentralized at the country and regional levels, where concrete action was being implemented.

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