COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT BEGINS GENERAL DEBATE ON NATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN POPULATION MATTERS

Press Release
POP/761

COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT BEGINS GENERAL DEBATE ON NATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN POPULATION MATTERS

As a result of the early 1990s Balkan war, Croatia had experienced a decrease in fertility and an increase in mortality, forced migration, displaced persons and refugees in a country with an economy in transition and an already low rate of population growth, that country's representative told the Commission on Population and Development this morning, as it began its general debate on national experience in population matters.

Addressing the session’s overall theme of population, gender and development, Croatia’s representative added that calls at the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) for policies linking gender to its role in social development had been echoed through the adoption last year by the General Assembly of key actions towards full implementation of the Cairo outcome. The developmental aspects of population and gender had underscored the need for further efforts, including to address the feminization of an ageing population, characteristic among European countries, which caused specific problems in health care, social security and social integration.

Pakistan’s representative said the adoption of a reproductive health agenda in his country had shifted the focus from fertility towards a more comprehensive approach to reproductive issues, which integrated family planning and the reproductive health dimension. The recent decline in Pakistan's fertility rate had signaled the beginning of a fertility transition, although its rate was still among the highest in the region. Only innovative and comprehensive approaches could create further breakthroughs. Visions alone would not carry the way forward; that would require intensified efforts to meet investment goals.

In Bangladesh, an awareness had been generated about the benefits of small families and a reduced country-wide fertility rate, that country's representative said. The use of contraception had risen to 52 per cent, and life expectancy had increased to 60 years. The median marriage age for women had also dramatically increased, marking an important transition. The Government's gender agenda had led to such initiatives as the introduction of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, Cruelty to Women Act and the Dowry Prohibition, yielding immediate results to reverse the tendency towards "son preference" and early marriage.

The representative of India expressed frustration that the status of the girl child had remained inferior in some parts of the country. Conditions were changing, but gender differences had persisted. To counter those, the Government had recently introduced a plan encouraging parents to welcome the birth of a girl

Population & Development Commission - 1a - Press Release POP/761 3rd Meeting (AM) 28 March 2000

child into the family. Parents would receive a cash incentive, deposited in an inter-bearing account, redeemable if the child was unmarried at the age of 18. Recently, the scope of the plan had been extended to include grants for girls’ education.

China was confronted by many new social and economic challenges, that country’s representative said, and the population issue would be an important factor in restructuring China’s development for many years to come. The predictable increase in its population would place incredible economic pressure on the country. The millions of women who lived in poverty deserved serious and speedy attention. Thus, the Government had made the control of population growth and the promotion of gender equality part of its basic national policy, and had also sharpened the focus of its family planning programmes.

Also today , a representative of the International Organization for Migration noted that migration had potential implications for fertility, gender roles, economic and social impacts on family members remaining in the home country, and development, in general. The trafficking of women – an abusive and dehumanizing trade in human beings –- was a human rights abuse from which organized crime reaped enormous profits. Putting a stop to the multi-billion dollar trafficking industry, however, would not come about overnight, and involved the reintegration of trafficked women and children into normal life.

Statements were also made by the representatives of the Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, Sweden, Panama, Brazil, Uganda, Canada and the Netherlands. A representative of the International Labour Organization also spoke.

The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue its general debate on national experience in population matters and convene a panel discussion on population, gender and development.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on Population and Development met this morning to begin its general debate on national experience in population matters. This is the third meeting of the Commissions’ current session, which is scheduled to run through Friday, 31 March, and focus on the link between population, gender and development. It will also consider follow-up actions to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), and hold a general debate on national experience with this year’s topic. (For background, see Press Release POP/758 of 24 March.)

Statements

ALICA WERTHEIMER BALETIC (Croatia) said that the second half of the twentieth century had been characterized by radical demographic, economic, social and political changes. Population changes had been strongly linked to social development, but the development impact on population had not been equally distributed among all segments of the population, especially with regard to gender structures. An overall improvement in the gender relationship had been recorded, but inequality still prevailed and differentiation processes continued, with strong elements of uncertainty as to the final outcome. That had been particularly important for developing countries, given the prevailing uncertainty about progress in economic, social and health-related matters in some of the most marginalized societies.

Among the most important provisions of the Cairo Programme of Action, she said, had been the call for appropriate policies linking gender to its role in social development. That call had been confirmed through the adoption of key actions at last year's General Assembly special session. The developmental aspects of the link between population and gender had underscored the need for further efforts in the areas of human rights, gender equality, social equity and women's empowerment, including reproductive rights and reproductive health -- essential for women's empowerment.

She added that, in order to balance women's reproductive and professional functions, it was necessary to organize and make accessible different services, to assure women equal opportunities for affirmation. Men's role should also undergo radical changes in terms of the equal distribution of tasks in family life and shared responsibilities in raising and educating children.

She said her country had belonged to the group of countries with economies in transition and a low rate of population growth. The fertility rate had been below replacement-level since 1967. The fertility trend had been aggravated by a negative external migration balance. The war, in the beginning of the 1990s, had deteriorated all population components and structures, and created a multitude of displaced persons and refugees, some of whom had not yet settled. According to recent estimates, the total population in Croatia by mid-1998 was 6.5 per cent less than in 1991. The percentage of women, which had been declining since the Second World War, had probably increased again because of the dominant loss of male life during the recent war.

The reproductive environment in Croatia was still fairly stable, she said. With 90 per cent of children born in marriages, the rate of extramarital births had been among the lowest in Europe. There had also been positive exchanges in terms of mortality: the life expectancy at birth had significantly increased in the second half of the century. At the same time, the ageing process would have a long-term impact on future demographic, economic and social development, and the number of aged women would expand much faster than that of men. The feminization of the aged population would raise specific problems in health care, social security and social integration.

MEENAKSHI DATTA GHOSH, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India, said that during the past decade, her country had undergone a profound transformation on every front: political; economic; demographic; and social. On the political front, India amended its Constitution in 1992 so that one third of the seats in its legislature were now statutorily reserved for women. At present, there were over 1 million elected officials who were women. Those elected women were taking a keen interest in promoting primary education, especially of the girl child, as well as maternal and child health care. Women’s political empowerment was now being realized nationwide, at local levels of governance.

Turning to the consideration of population policy, she said that her country appreciated that such policies should include such aspects of human well-being as improving the status of women and widening educational opportunities. It was fair to say that any population policy issued independently of development considerations was not sound. “Putting words to paper is not enough”, she said. There must be political will and resources made available to follow those plans through. In that regard, it was clear that strategies for population, gender and development in India must note the diversity in the demographic and development indices across and within States. A uniform and undifferentiated approach would not suffice.

She went on to say that in 1950 India’s Constitution had mandated equity in law between men and women, and had urged the Government to take proactive steps to improve the status of women. Societal development, however, had lagged behind this constitutional mandate. In large parts of rural India, gender inequities were manifest in education, food and health-care allocations within households, as well as participation in the work force. The Government of India continued, however, to put in place a number of steps to address gender-related issues, including providing increased awareness among men of the benefits of improved nutrition, education and health care for women.

It was frustrating to note that the status of the girl child continued to remain low in some parts of India, she continued. Conditions were changing, but gender differences still persisted. The Government had recently introduced a plan to encourage parents to welcome the birth of a girl child into the family. A cash incentive would also be given to parents of a girl child and deposited in an interest-bearing account, redeemable if the child was unmarried at the age of 18. Recently, the scope of this plan had been extended to include grants for education of girl children.

Finally, she said that in India government and civil society were engaged in a concerted and sustained effort to focus on population, gender and development. Her country would strive to implement viable and sustainable programmes and projects that would advance the cause. DHIRAJ KUMAR NATH (Bangladesh) said that, at the national level, his country had taken steps to implement the Action Programme. With a population of 127 million, the country was committed to enhancing opportunity in all dimensions, including education, employment and sustainable development. The emphasis had been on an improved quality of life through the reduction of poverty, the provision of adequate health care and the empowerment of women. In that regard, the Government had stressed the institutional development of local initiatives, social mobilization, access to micro-credit facilities, the formation of women's cooperatives and the involvement of civil society and stakeholders at all levels.

In the reproductive field, he said his country had successfully generated an awareness of small families and a reduction of the total fertility rate to 3.2 children per women. The Contraceptive Prevalence Rate had been increased to 52 per cent, and life expectancy at birth had increased to 60 years. The median age for marriage for women had increased dramatically, marking an important transition, and the total literacy rate had reached 60 per cent. The gender agenda had been a priority of the Government. In order to accelerate the process of gender equality, equity and women's empowerment, initiatives had included legal measures, such as the introduction of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, Family Court Ordinance, Cruelty to Women Act, Dowry Prohibition Act, and the formation of a National Council for Women's Development. Such legal initiatives had yielded immediate results in countering the tendency towards son preference and early marriage.

EJAZ RAHIM (Pakistan) said the Secretary-General's reports could form a useful basis for a review of information and an exchange of experience in smaller groups of relevant countries, bringing together professionals, policy-makers, and key implementers, at local and regional levels. On the issue of population and development, the commonality of vision had been striking, despite the multiple views on the various issues. That should enable delegations to share their national perspectives on the population question, which had country-specific dimensions, as well as global ramifications. The true depth of the Commission's work was to meaningfully bring together those two dimensions.

At the same time, he said, legislative action to remove all socio-cultural barriers should be accorded absolute priority among governments. That could be better achieved by ensuring that the basic human needs of all the Earth's inhabitants were met. That was the context in which he had supported the gender dimension of the development and population debate. The gender dimension was not a marginal issue, but a central one. The necessity of women's empowerment was part and parcel of overall human development, and was today at the heart of the entire development ideal. Girls' and women's education must be ensured, as well as their literacy, basic health needs and employment opportunities.

Yesterday, an interesting comparison had been drawn between Pakistan and the Russian Federation in terms of growth projections, he said. The recent decline in Pakistan's fertility rate had seemed to indicate the beginning of a fertility transition, although Pakistan's rate was still among the highest in the region. There were limitations to a purely quantitative approach to the question of fertility, since the quality of life approach was no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Today, a high proportion of the population in Pakistan was young: 43 per cent was under 15 years of age, and there were many females in the reproductive age group. Thus, innovative and comprehensive approaches would be required to create further breakthroughs.

He said his country was the seventh most populous nation. Its growth rate had declined, however, since the 1970s, although it still had one of the highest growth rates in Asia and among developing countries. At the current rate, Pakistan's population would double within 30 years, and the task of achieving zero population growth appeared very remote. There were some grounds for optimism, however: contraceptive knowledge was nearly universal; there was a fairly spread out family-planning infrastructure, including health outlets; and an availability of a wide range of family-planning services. Moreover, there had been an acceptance of the broader aims of population policy to improve the standard of living through an emphasis on poverty alleviation, women's equality and empowerment.

The adoption of a reproductive health agenda had shifted the focus from fertility towards a more comprehensive approach that integrated family planning and the reproductive health dimension, he said. At the same time, the role of civil society and the private sector had expanded, especially in the reproductive health areas. An in-depth review aimed at integrating family planning and health services had been undertaken, as well as programmes to strengthen the reproductive health approach. The priorities had been maternal health and safe motherhood, infant care, adolescence, prevention and management of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and male involvement in all aspects of reproductive health.

Visions alone would not carry the way forward, he said. That required an investment and implementation of programmes. Efforts must be intensified to meet the targets envisaged by Cairo. Partners for human development must expand and strengthen their actions to retain the momentum of joint endeavours.

ZHANG YUQIN, Vice-Minister, State Family Planning Commission of China, said that she would like to brief the Commission on the new progress her country had made in implementing its population and family-planning programme and promoting gender equality since the Cairo Conference.

In order to promote a human-centred population programme, she said that her Government had drawn up a new national programme for family planning with a long- term goal focusing on population and family planning and other related-specific tasks, to be carried out by the middle of the twenty-first century. That national programme had identified sustainable development as a major strategic principle in the effort to address the problem of population and development in a comprehensive way. In carrying out this programme, China had also attached more importance to an integrated approach, including the delivery of quality services for reproductive health care and family planning, based upon information, communication and education. Special attention had also been paid to the improvement of women’s status, promotion of gender equality, universal education and poverty alleviation.

“Human-centred reproductive health service has also been delivered in a comprehensive way”, she continued. Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese Government had sharpened the focus of its family-planning programmes to include the protection of women’s lawful rights and interests and the improvement of reproductive health. In that regard, the quality services for reproductive health now involved publicity and education, the reduction of infant mortality and informed choices for methods of contraception.

She went on to say that in this new millennium China was still confronted with many difficulties and new challenges in social and economic development. The population issue would be an important factor in restructuring China’s development for many years to come, as that country’s overall population would continue to increase. The increase would certainly place incredible economic pressure on China and, since millions of women continued to live in poverty, numerous measures must be taken as quickly as possible. Therefore, the Government had made the control of population growth and promotion of gender equality as two basic national policies. China would, together with other countries, continue to work hard to contribute to the stabilization of the world’s population and ensure the realization of gender equality.

G.N. KARELOVA (Russian Federation) said that the main principle of policies of gender equality should be to recognize women’s rights as human rights, and recognize the need for the fair representation and participation of women in all areas of human life.

She went on to say that Russia now had a State policy that addressed the needs of women, children and families with a focus towards replacing State paternalism with the principle of partnership and equal representation. The Government had also created a national action plan for women and enacted a “family code”, which established norms in the area of family life, marriage protection, and the rights of children and orphans. That code also ensured access to basic education tools and facilities. In the area of reproductive health, that code would ensure access to basic medical treatment. New laws would also provide improvements in medical and scientific research that could stabilize the infant mortality index, which was one of any population’s most important indicators of overall health.

Currently, her Government was preparing a policy to address the needs of senior citizens, she said. Russian women had a longer life expectancy than men, so social problems of the elderly were largely women’s problems. The policy under consideration would focus on property, land and housing concerns, as well as improved social services for the elderly.

ROBERT PAVIA, of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that migration had been increasingly recognized as a crucial element in the population and development nexus. The Population Division's recent report on replacement migration was an excellent case in point. His organization welcomed it as a call to policy makers to more fully take into account what the Director of the Population Division, Joseph Chamie, yesterday had called "the cold, sobering facts" about changing age structures in many countries. Migration, in all its complexity and controversy, had always existed; and enlightened discussion of its pros and cons would be beneficial.

He said his organization had a long-standing collaboration with the relevant United Nations departments and agencies concerned with women's advancement and issues related to women's migration flows. Migration had potential implications for fertility, gender roles, economic and social impacts on family members remaining in the home country, and development, in general. His organization had done a considerable amount of research on the international trafficking of women, which was an abusive and dehumanizing trade in human beings. Much of the trafficking in women, moreover, had been linked to the sex industry. Whether for that purpose, or as mail order brides, or forced and exploited labour, trafficking was an abuse of basic rights from which organized crime, in particular, reaped enormous profits.

Putting a stop to the multi-billion dollar trafficking industry, however, would not come about overnight, he said. Meanwhile, help must be provided to trafficked women and children, in order to reintegrate them into normal life. His organization had been working with relevant governmental bodies to ensure that the trafficked individuals were treated as victims; the criminals were the traffickers, not the trafficked. More should be done to prevent that trade in human flesh. While judicial authorities had to crack down harder and more effectively on the exploiters, his organization was working with governments and non-governmental partners to spread the word among potential victims about the reality of the trade, through credible information campaigns in countries of origin.

EUN SUNG-HO (Republic of Korea) said that his country considered the link between gender, population and development to be a priority consideration in the formulation of social policy. He went on to briefly describe some of the efforts the Government had undertaken in this respect over the past few years.

He said that, during the 1960s, his Government had integrated a successful family-planning programme into its economic policies, with a view towards breaking the “vicious cycle” of poverty caused by high population growth and low economic development. In the 1980s, however, as population growth slowed and the economy blossomed, new problems appeared, such as the disintegration of the family, population ageing and adolescent sexual issues and the increase of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. In response, the Government established a new policy that focused on enhancing the quality of life and social welfare. Based on the goals of the Programme of Action, that new policy aimed to maintain a low birth rate, improve mortality and morbidity rates and enhance the social status of women.

He went on to say that, in the face of the 1997 financial crisis, his country had seized that moment to expand free testing of infants to promote health concerns and to establish a social “safety net” to secure welfare for older persons, low-income households and the unemployed. That experience truly demonstrated the necessity of strengthening policies that secured the livelihood, education and health for all, especially women.

“Cooperation is the key to addressing effectively the complex interplay between gender, population and development”, he continued. His Government would continue to implement the Programme of Action and strengthen its cooperative relationships with international organizations and Member States, particularly developing countries.

BERTIL EGERO (Sweden) said he associated himself with the statement made yesterday by the European Union, but would add some observations based on his country's experiences. Fertility decline was intimately linked to gender relations and women's status. Low fertility regimes, such as those now in evidence in Europe, were not easily explained, however, in terms of only a few parameters. Those regimes had reflected more than the failure of governments to recognize gender dimensions and women's problems in combining work and reproduction. His country had been working for decades to identify and solidify policy interventions to reduce gender differences and enable both women and men to combine productive and reproductive lives, together or alone.

He said that more profound structural factors had contributed to the low fertility, including the persistence of gender inequalities that were entrenched in the overall social dynamics of a post-industrial, affluent society. Those were not easy to change within democratic political systems. Against that background, the Population Division should be commended for abandoning an earlier, simplistic assumption behind its population projections, namely, that all societies would land on fertility-replacement level. The more realistic assumption, of permanent levels below that limit, had opened the door for scientifically and politically more interesting debates about the world's demographic future. That had been a first step in the necessary revisions of the work of population projections.

A second step, he continued, would be to adjust projections so as to reflect the fact that already 61 countries, representing 44 per cent of the world's population, had fertility levels at or below replacement level. Countries classified into less developed and more developed categories, based on such differences as fertility levels and rates of natural increase, should be replaced by classifications better adjusted to the demographic dynamics of today's world. That would increase an understanding of the "new international population order". There were strong links in society between demographic dynamics, gender relations, women's status and poverty. The more those connections guided the follow-up assessments of the decade, the more likely the achievement of sustained improvements in people's welfare.

MARKERA CASTRO (Panama) said that her country had entered the new century with greater political will to achieve parity between men and women. Her country had proposed several national polices aimed at strengthening the political participation of women in all areas of the Government and civil society.

Sexual and reproductive health reforms included policies aimed at the prevention of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases, promoting public awareness and providing greater and more equitable access to medical treatment, she said. In 1999, another major law passed which established equal opportunities for men and women in important social arenas, such as employment, family health care and assistance for the elderly. She stressed, however, that there were still no specific institutions dealing with protection of rights of women in her country. Finally, she added that women around the world were far from being treated equally to men. Panama reaffirmed its commitment to the implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action.

MARIA LUIZA RIBEIRO VIOTTI (Brazil) said her country was entering the new century with a sense of accomplishment in many areas, although much remained to be done. The country now enjoyed gender equity in terms of literacy levels. The proportion of illiterate people was significantly smaller among women than men in all age groups up to 39 years of age. Women had also exceeded men in the average number of years of schooling. Among the social, economic and cultural factors concerning women's education, the most important had been the increased access of women to the labour market. That development had stimulated women to search for better formal education, especially as a way to overcome wage discrimination.

She said that the Cairo recommendations had significantly influenced the national agenda relating to reproductive and sexual health. Initiatives in that area had included safe delivery and neo-natal assistance, cervical and breast cancer prevention, voluntary access to contraception, regulation of surgical male and female sterilization, assistance within the public health system for legal abortion and adequate treatment of incomplete abortion. In 1989, the Health Ministry had launched the Adolescent Health Care Programme, with the aim of promoting youth health. Among the main priorities of the programme were early motherhood, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, sexual violence and abuse, as well as tobacco and substance abuse, including alcohol.

In 1997, she said, her Government had approved a new family-planning law, in order to restrain abuses and regulate access to contraception. The new law also defined the supply and criteria for the use of reversible contraception methods and the treatment for infertility. As a result, the number of pre-natal care visits in Brazil had increased from 2.8 to 7.6 million, from 1995 to 1998. Although the initiative had already led to a considerable reduction of infant and maternal mortality, major challenges persisted. Significant changes in the composition of the population pyramid had also recently occurred, namely, the increased ageing of the population. Projections indicated that the proportion of the population above age 60 would increase from 7.9 per cent in 1996 to 15 per cent in 2025.

In a related statistic, life expectancy of Brazilian men had creased from 63 years to 65.9 years. For women, the average had increased from 70 years to 73.7 years. That general improvement had reflected the continuous decrease in infant mortality rates country-wide, among other changes. The AIDS pandemic had been a matter of great concern to her society. The policy in that regard had been organized into prevention, medical care and epidemiological surveillance. Since 1991, the Brazilian National Health System had been providing free and universal access to the AZT drug. It had also been able to offer all nationally approved anti-viral drugs. In 1998, some 58,000 people were benefiting from free access to medication from the Federal Government.

She said that, although the number of cases of HIV infection was much higher among Brazilian men, women had been increasingly affected by AIDS. The ratio between contaminated men and women, which had been three to one from 1993 to 1996, had decreased to two to one, in 1997. The recent rapid increase in the rate of female infection had made it necessary to give special attention to women in the fight against AIDS. A number of pregnant women infected with the disease had also used AZT to prevent vertical transmission.

JOTHAM MUSINGUZI (Uganda) said that in his country matters of gender in the context of population and sustainable development were a priority. Issues of equality, equity and women's empowerment were crucial in that regard. In the context of poverty, women had remained the "poorest of the poor" in Uganda, especially the rural women. Country-wide, 85 per cent of Ugandans lived in rural areas, and the majority were women. The eradication of poverty and a reversal of its feminization must be tackled. Education was an important tool in that context, especially with respect to the girl child. The Government recently introduced Free Universal Primary Education, and the primary school enrolment, including of the girl child, had nearly tripled from 2.5 million children in 1997 to 6.5 million children by 2000.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic had remained another major problem for Uganda, he said. Despite a definite decline in HIV/AIDS trends in his country, as a result of mutli-sectoral efforts, vigilance was needed to protect the women and children, and the general population, and preventing mother-to-child transmission. Research for vaccines and affordable drugs had also deserved substantial investment. Reproductive health and family-planning information, counselling and services should be refocused to achieve maximum benefit for the overall population, including adolescents. Key feature actions required mobilization of financial resources, both locally and internationally.

GINETTE LACHANCE (Canada) said that promoting gender equality was a fundamental element of Canada’s domestic and foreign policies. Gender equality was enshrined in that country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was reinforced through commitments to international human rights instruments, such as Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Canada’s commitment to gender equality was rooted in the belief that sustainable and equitable development could only be achieved through increased participation by women as equal decision-makers and beneficiaries of that development.

She went on to say that sexual reproductive health was also an important aspect of quality of life. Social and economic factors, however, continued to limit women’s capacity to ensure safe sex, distribution of information about sexually transmitted diseases, or equitable medical treatment. In that regard, Canada had established five Women’s Health Centres, which brought together community leaders and academic and government representatives to develop research on women’s health issues.

Canada also placed great importance on the issue of violence against women, she continued. The problem was no longer considered an individual one, but rather as a human rights issue -– a social and structural problem that was very much related to women’s inequality in society. The Government had undertaken many initiatives to address the problem of violence against women, including enacting new laws that dealt with child prostitution, female genital mutilation, as well as improvements to the correctional system that made it easier to punish and detain sex offenders.

JENNY GIERVELD (Netherlands) said that her Government had made many recent strides in the areas of family-formation policy and addressing the problem of ageing and gender.

On the issue of family formation, it was now important to move away from an exclusive focus on the role of women and include men, thus, emphasizing a more couple-oriented approach. In that regard, the Netherlands’ Government had developed several policy measures to guarantee men’s involvement in child care and rearing responsibilities.

“Ageing was not ‘gender neutral’”, she continued. For many older persons, poverty was a major threat to well-being and, sadly, women were often the poorest among the elderly. Older women’s economic security varied depending on their access to retirement plans and pension policies and, in many countries, the loss of a husband could mean the loss of total economic support. Recently, her Government had further enhanced the financial situation of older women. It also intended to strengthen the self-reliance of elderly people to enable them to live independently in their own houses and societies as long as possible. A basic system of pension plans, based partly on a “pay as you go” system, as well as social security entitlements, had also been introduced.

CINDY BERMAN, of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said that the human rights approach to population and development adopted in Vienna, and the links established between population and gender in Cairo, were reflected in the ILO’s overall mandate to promote decent and productive work for women and men. The ongoing programmes of the organization on population and gender equality and the fundamental principles and rights in the workplace were all relevant to the Commission’s current discussion on the follow-up to the recommendation of the Cairo Conference.

The ILO had also played an active role in advocating for and promoting legal instruments to protect the interests of vulnerable groups, the rights of women and children, migrant workers and those affected by HIV/AIDS. She said that the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was directly relevant to the Cairo review process.

She went on to say that the primary goal of the ILO today was to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. It was hoped that the goals of the Commission’s current review process could be furthered through the organization’s activities. In that regard, the ILO would continue to work jointly with the international community and United Nations agencies at all levels to achieve those objectives.

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