THREE-DAY SPECIAL SESSION OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION OF CAIRO PROGRAMME OF ACTION BEGINS TOMORROW AT HEADQUARTERS

29 June 1999

Press Release
GA/9568
POP/731

THREE-DAY SPECIAL SESSION OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION OF CAIRO PROGRAMME OF ACTION BEGINS TOMORROW AT HEADQUARTERS

19990629 Background Release Text on Key Actions for Further Implementing Cairo Programme of Action, to be Submitted to Assembly Session, Still Under Negotiation

The General Assembly will hold its twenty-first special session at Headquarters from 30 June to 2 July to review and appraise implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (Cairo, 1994).

The Cairo Conference adopted breakthrough language concerning reproductive health and reproductive rights. It recognized the right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so. It emphasized empowering women and guaranteeing choice in regard to family planning, and stressed that advancing gender equality and ensuring women's ability to control their own fertility are "cornerstones of population and development-related programmes."

Designed to stabilize world population growth and achieve human-centred and sustainable development, the 115-page Programme of Action addressed the interrelated issues of population, environment, consumption patterns, the family, internal and international migration, HIV/AIDS, resources and partnerships between governments and civil society. The document reflected the world's conviction that investing in health, education and a human rights- based approach to reproductive health would lead to balanced population growth and improved opportunities for all people.

Five years later, as the global population races to the six billion mark, participants from governments, civil society and intergovernmental bodies will come together again, this time to determine priorities for future action.

The "ICPD+5" special session will hold nine plenary meetings over three days, along with parallel meetings of an Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole. The session is expected to culminate with the adoption, at the highest political

level, of a text on key actions for further implementing the Cairo Programme of Action.

One day before the special session is to begin, however, the expected outcome was still in the form of a revised working paper submitted by the Chairman of its preparatory committee, entitled "Proposals for key actions for the further implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action". Negotiations on the draft document are being conducted by an expanded session of the Commission on Population and Development, acting as the special session's preparatory committee.

The preparatory committee first met from 22 March to 1 April to negotiate the draft. Unable to forge consensus, it resumed its negotiations for four days before the special session, meeting from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. to develop a draft that participants could support. It is scheduled to conclude its work today.

The principles and recommendations agreed to in Cairo are not to be renegotiated, according to resolution 52/188, by which the Assembly decided on the dates for the special session.

The draft final document still under negotiation makes proposals for further implementation of the Cairo outcome. Women's human rights are addressed, including their economic, social and reproductive rights. Other topics addressed in the document include: family planning; the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; adolescent sexual and reproductive health; and mobilization of resources. When the preparatory committee resumed its session on 24 June, there was not yet agreement on almost one-third of the draft document's 79 paragraphs. Some provisions had been set aside, to be taken up as the negotiations resumed; others were already actively being discussed. Contentious issues include reproductive rights, adolescent sexuality, sex education, resources, and abortion.

One paragraph set aside in the draft -- at the start of the preparatory committee's resumed session -- states that Governments should ensure that the human rights of women and girls, as defined in the Cairo Programme of Action and including reproductive rights, are protected through gender-sensitive legislation and policies. Another provision, also set aside for discussion, would include sex education in school curricula in order to further implement the Programme of Action in terms of promoting responsible sexual behaviour and protecting adolescents from early pregnancy, unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Language also under negotiation concerned providing adolescents with education -- both in and out of school -- counselling and health services to enable them to make informed decisions on their sexual and reproductive

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health. Sexually active adolescents require special family planning information counselling and services, by the draft language. Governments should remove legal, regulatory and social barriers to sexual and reproductive health information and services for adolescents, by language proposed.

Another paragraph set aside for discussion recognized the need to address the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies through providing family planning counselling, information and services, among other provisions. That paragraph also states that in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.

When the negotiations resumed, several paragraphs had been set aside for further discussion or had been proposed but not yet discussed under the heading "partnerships and collaboration" in the draft document. Among these, the Assembly would state that the private sector must ensure that all population and development programmes, respecting religious, ethical values and cultural backgrounds in each country, adhere to basic rights recognized by the international community and recalled in the Programme of Action.

The special session will begin by electing its President, taking up the report of the Population Commission on its work as the preparatory committee, and adopting its agenda. It will then begin its overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action, hearing from high- level government representatives. President Alberto Fujimori of Peru is scheduled to be the first speaker, followed by the Vice-President of Colombia, Gustavo Bell.

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