PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO TWENTY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO TWENTY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION

The United States had been a leader in the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, by being one of the largest contributors to international programmes in that area, as well as by playing an active and successful role in ensuring that countries around the world cooperated in the implementation process, the Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs, United States State Department, Frank E. Loy, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.

He was the leader of the United States delegation to the special session of the General Assembly on the implementation of the Programme of Action for the ICPD (ICPD+5). Other members of the United States delegation participating in the press conference today were: Carolyn Maloney, Congresswoman, New York; Margaret Pollack, Senior Adviser, United States State Department; and Peggy Curlin, President, The Centre for Development and Population Activities.

Mr. Loy added that there were a lot of challenges ahead, and that, in many areas, more could still be done. For example, maternal and infant mortality rates, while down, were still too high. Also, the magnitude of HIV/AIDS and its impact on youth had not been contemplated in Cairo, and the realization of resources and needs had not been fully understood. Nevertheless, the initiatives of Cairo had taken root and were working.

Ms. Maloney informed correspondents that she had developed the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) funding bill that was currently before the United States Congress. There were over 100 co-sponsors to that bill which dealt with many of the issues in the Cairo Programme of Action, and illustrated how it was working, and why it was necessary to support the plan. Some of the issues outlined in the bill were female genital mutilation, safe motherhood and maternal mortality, as well as the education of girls. She noted that recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States had disclosed that, over the past 15 years, maternal mortality rates had not dropped, and the risk was four times as high for black than for white women.

The most important lesson from Cairo, Ms. Maloney stated, was the focus on equality for women and girls. When girls had access to education, they tended to marry later and had fewer children. She noted that, in the last few years, throughout Latin America women had gone from having an average of six to three children due to equal access to education for both boys and girls. In the United States, pregnancy rates among teenagers had dropped, and this was also largely due to the education of girls.

Ms. Maloney was very hopeful that the United States House of Representatives would vote for the bill during the week of 12 July providing the money and resources so desperately needed to support and propel the Programme of Action. It was high time, she said, that "we meet our commitments to the United Nations ... on both United Nations dues and for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)".

The next speaker, Margaret Pollack, said that, in the last six months, a document had been developed with key feature actions on how the goals and objectives of the Cairo Programme of Action could be further implemented. That document, she added, was based on experience, addressing all the issues that were faced. She described it as comprehensive, well-balanced, action- oriented and very specific.

She said that some of the specific key actions were a set of new five- year benchmarks that would help evaluate progress in: eliminating the gender gap in primary education by 2005; reducing maternal mortality and having 40 per cent of births performed by skilled attendants; and to increasing HIV/AIDS prevention for young persons by 2005, ensuring that 90 per cent of those between 14 and 25 would have access to information, education and services.

She added that the document also included issues relevant to the environment, strengthening community-based programmes and partnerships, and non-governmental organization (NGO) involvement. Like any consensus document, however, everyone might go home a bit unhappy, but that was a necessary component to progress, and the United States believed that it was an excellent document with excellent action items.

Giving the NGO perspective, Peggy Curlin said that NGOs felt empowered by the Cairo Programme of Action. The need they observed, she stated, had finally been recognized and addressed. The Programme of Action was seen as being life-saving, family stabilizing, and economically and socially progressive, not only for women, but for men and youth as well. While it was obvious that NGOs would never give up their advocacy of the programme, what was not obvious was their tutelage of that advocacy to others -- individuals, women's groups and the marginalized were presently advocating for their own rights.

In Nepal, the NGOs had organized a safe motherhood alliance. In Egypt, girls and women were involved in literacy programmes as had never happened before. In South Africa, women farmers were advocating to own the land on which they farmed and, in Nigeria, women's and family-planning groups had enroled 2 million women and registered them to vote in the first free democratic election there.

There were certainly challenges ahead, but NGOs would like to remind the world that the impact for not educating a girl or not protecting an adolescent

US Delegation Special Session Press Conference - 3 - 2 July 1999

from HIV/AIDS, or from sacrificing a mother to needless death in childbirth, was first felt in that household and in that community. Those would be the partners of the NGOs, along with governments and donors, to make Cairo a reality.

A correspondent wanted to know if the delegation knew about the filing of any reservations against the final document and wondered if it fell short of United States expectations.

Ms. Pollack said that during the meeting of the ad hoc committee on Thursday, the delegations from Argentina, Nicaragua and the Holy See had expressed their reservations. On the other hand, the United States was concerned that some delegations, during the negotiations, were trying to block movement to develop the key actions of the Programme, but they were there to enhance those actions, for example, in the areas of maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS. She stressed that they were also there to recommit on the resources necessary to implement the Programme. It was frustrating, but they were very satisfied with the results of the negotiations.

How much of an obstacle to the implementation of the Programme was the right to life movement? another correspondent asked. Mr. Loy said that the Programme of Action had already been successfully implemented. What was being discussed was not abortion, he stressed. The principal issue underlying the ICPD+5 was to make it possible for women to take charge of their lives and to have access to family planning services.

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