Population

New trends in global migration show considerable changes in the size, direction and complexity of migration, both within and between countries over the past 20 years, and the reasons behind that shift will be the main focus of discussion during the forty-sixth session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, to be held at Headquarters from 22 to 26 April.

Many youth delegates had spoken candidly about their experiences and expectations throughout the week-long session, said Population Commission Chairman late Friday following adoption of a key draft resolution, reminding members that “what really matters is what happens outside this room, when we are back in our capitals,” where, “we have to walk the talk, to move from paper to people.”

The nearly week-long debate in the Population Commission heard Member States, experts and United Nations agency heads weigh in on the spectrum of concerns facing adolescents and youth, with the hope reinforced today that efforts made to embed credible, cohesive policies into global, national and local strategies were an investment in youth certain to yield positive results.

Speaking to the biological shift experienced by young people during the transition from adolescence from adulthood, Professor of Adolescent Health Research at Melbourne University George Patton said that youth experienced a “window of vulnerability” that lasted into the late 20s.

“It’s a fool’s paradise to believe that by controlling the lives of adolescents and young people, and denying them health-promoting — and perhaps life-saving — information and services, we are preserving our old way of life, or protecting the young from the dangers of the modern world,” one of among 40 speakers told the Commission on Population and Development today.

Acknowledging the unusually large attendance at the forty-fifth session of the Commission on Population and Development, which opened today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the turnout told only part of the story; the real message was the energy of the session and the presence of so many young people.

Deeply concerned that an estimated 358,000 women had died in 2008 from largely preventable complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth, the Commission on Population and Development concluded its forty-fourth session today by urging all Governments to redouble efforts for the elimination of preventable maternal morbidity and mortality by ensuring universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, by 2015.

Higher levels of education, particularly among girls, had a strong correlation to declining fertility and better development outcomes, delegates and experts said today as the Commission on Population and Development continued its forty-fourth session.

With more than 50,000 women dying annually from unsafe abortions, especially in Africa and South-Central Asia, Governments everywhere must make greater efforts to ensure that the old-age and widespread practice of abortion was safe, legal and available to all women and girls, today’s keynote speaker told the Commission on Population and Development as it continued its general debate.

Robust investments in family planning services could pay immense dividends in the battle to achieve development targets, delegates and experts said today as the Commission on Population and Development continued the 2011 general debate of its forty-fourth session.