| Sixty-fourth
session of the General Assembly United
Nations Headquarters
13
October 2009, New York, USA
Statement
by
Jyoti Shankar Singh
Permanent Observer to the
United Nations
Mr
President,
Executive Director of UNFPA.
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen
The
historic International Conference
on Population and Development (ICPD),
whose fifteenth anniversary we are
celebrating today, has many firsts
to its credit. It was at the ICPD
that for the first time, a far reaching,
comprehensive definition of reproductive
health, including family planning,
was established by 179 member countries.
Though
it is based on a ‘working definition’
used previously by the World Health
Organization(WHO), it incorporates
significant revisions of many of the
concepts included in the working definition
and links reproductive health services
to primary health care. There is a
clear and unambiguous recognition
of ‘the right of men and women
to be informed and to have access
to safe, effective, affordable and
acceptable methods of family planning
of their choice.’ Since 1994
the ICPD definition of reproductive
health has been increasingly adopted
and used by countries all over the
world for formulation and implementation
of relevant policies and programmes.
The
Conference set a quantitative goal,
for the first time, for the universal
delivery of reproductive health services,
proposing that such services be provided
to ‘all individuals of appropriate
ages as soon possible and no later
than 2015.’ At the same time,
it specified qualitative goals at
improving the quality, outreach and
effectiveness of family planning and
other reproductive health services.
It also provided a set of fairly precise
estimates for the mobilization of
domestic and international resources
that would be needed to achieve these
goals.
A new definition of reproductive rights
was established, going well beyond
the formulation adopted at the World
Population Conference in Bucharest
on ‘the right of couples and
individuals’. In this context,
inclusion in the ICPD Programme of
Action
of ‘the right to obtain the
highest standard of sexual and reproductive
health’ is highly significant.
Among its other recommendations, the
Conference sought to delineate the
role of men in sexual and gender relations,
crystallized the international community’s
growing concern with HIV/AIDS, assigned
high priority to action on unsafe
abortion as a major health concern,
emphasized the need to give particular
attention to the sexual and reproductive
health needs of adolescents and clearly
linked the high incidence of maternal
mortality to other issues relating
to family planning, women’s
health and safe motherhood.
Cairo
broke new ground in many other areas.
While emphasizing the integral relationship
between population and development,
it underscored the importance and
urgency of instituting and implementing
population policies and programmes
that would seek to meet the needs
of individual men and women. It endorsed
a holistic view of social development,
and a whole range of quantitative
and qualitative goals ( within a 20-year
framework) covering health care, education,
particularly for girls, and a complement
of legal and social measures aimed
at promoting gender equality. It gave
full and unequivocal support to the
concept of partnership between governments
and civil society. But, above all,
it will be remembered for the clear
links it established between the women’s
right to chose and their empowerment.
The
Conference also gave unstinted support
to the concept of South-South cooperation
and the Partners in Population and
Development (PPD) was established
at the conference itself as a practical
demonstration of the relevance and
importance of this concept. Today,
PPD groups together 24 developing
country governments and through a
series of programmes in the areas
of policy dialogues, training, research,
exchange of information and technical
assistance, PPD seeks to promote and
strengthen South-South cooperation
in population and development.
The
goals of ICPD are now firmly linked
with the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). But as in the case of MDGs,
there has been insufficient progress
towards achieving the ICPD goals by
2015 (particularly in the areas of
universal reproductive health services
and maternal health). The current
economic crisis makes this task doubly
difficult, particularly in the poorer
countries (most of which are in Africa).
Before
I close, I would like to pay a sincere
tribute to Dr. Nafis Sadik, Secretary-General
of the ICPD, under whose visionary
leadership the ICPD achieved its historic
results, and
to Dr. Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director
of UNFPA, under whose direction, UNFPA
has sought in a steadfast and consistent
manner promoted and supported the
achievement of ICPD goals and objectives.
The
commemoration of ICPD+15 should give
us all the opportunity to reflect
on how much still remains to be achieved
and as the Secretary-General suggested
to recommit ourselves to achieving
the ICPD goals and MDGs, through increased
political commitment, implementation
of effective policies and programmes
at the national level, with sustained
support by international organizations
such as UNFPA and allocation of adequate
domestic and international resources
to get the job done.
Thank
you, Mr President.
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