In a quest to reach agreement on the population issues that were central to defining and implementing a post-2015 vision for sustainable development, the Commission on Population and Development opened its forty-eighth session today under the theme, “Realizing the future we want: integrating population issues into sustainable development, including in the new agenda”.
Commission on Population and Development
After all-night negotiations, the Commission on Population and Development capped its forty-seventh session in the early hours of 12 April with the adoption of a consensus resolution, urging Governments to address gaps in implementing the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, notably in the areas of human rights, gender equality and equitable access to health care, including for sexual and reproductive health.
For young people to reach their potential as “agents of progress”, it was crucial to involve them in the planning, development and monitoring of programmes that affected their lives, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Youth told the Commission on Population and Development today, drawing particular attention to the situation of adolescent girls.
Citing steps to stamp out violence in the home, maternal mortality and sexually transmitted diseases, representatives of small island developing States shed light on their respective national schemes to implement the 1994 landmark population and development accord, as the Commission on Population and Development continued its session today.
While the last 20 years had seen remarkable gains in achieving universal education, reducing maternal mortality, and increasing access to sexual and reproductive health services, growing inequity was preventing the most marginalized from realizing their human rights, United Nations experts said today, as the Commission on Population and Development launched its forty-seventh session.