Voices from the Conference

 

Here are excerpts from formal country statements made at the meeting March 9-11 in Santiago, Chile, of Latin American and Caribbean ministry-level population and health policy-makers. (Some are unofficial translations from the Spanish.)

 

ARGENTINA

After Cairo, it was decided to establish gender equality and equity through legislation passed after the Constitutional Reform of 1994: Law of Protection Against Family Violence (1994); incorporation of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violence Against Women (1996); modification of the Penal Code to criminalize sexual assaults (1999)….guarantees of equality of opportunity for women and men in public employment (1998)…creation of the Program of Responsible Sexual and Reproductive Health (2002)….

 

BRAZIL

The countries of the region must continue to cooperate and exchange successful experiences for our mutual benefit…[In Brazil,] on the theme of population, the ministerial-level National Commission of Population and Development was created in 1995, with the cooperation of civil society representatives….in 2003 a Special Secretary of Policies for Women was created in the Office of the President, with ministerial status. A 1997 federal law obliges parties to reserve 30 percent of their candidates’ lists for women…another legal victory is the new Brazilian Civil Code of 2002, which replaces the former rights and duties of “man” with those of the “person”…

 

These measures reflect the high importance that we attribute to the Cairo objectives, to the Millennium Development Goals and to the political will to give them concrete expression…my delegation reiterates its total support for the Cairo Consensus and joins the majority of the countries that endorse the Declaration that should result from this meeting.

 

GREAT BRITAIN

Countries in this region have taken a lead in implementing concepts and actions agreed at the Cairo and Beijing conferences. This has made a real difference both to millions of families and to the development of the region….This region has the potential to attain many of the Millennium Development Goals. It has the highest gross national income per capita of all developing country regions. It is the only developing region where girls have a higher literacy rate than boys. It has high life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rates have been falling. But there are still big challenges….

 

Many women, and poor women in particular, do not have access to reproductive health services, with the result that there is a considerable unmet demand for contraception and family planning. Meeting this need is vital and would help lower the incidence of abortion. But for some women, abortion, often illicit and unsafe, is the only way of avoiding unwanted pregnancy. Too many women in the world continue to die as a result of unsafe abortion, and the ICPD agreed upon action to address this….the ICPD also recognized the special reproductive and sexual needs of young people. We need to respond to their realities. Just telling them to say no is not enough….

 

This is why the UK is pleased to reaffirm its commitment to ICPD. We also support the spirit of the draft Declaration circulated earlier as an outcome of this meeting and have submitted comments on that draft.

 

CANADA

Canada strongly supports the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including the right to make informed choices about one’s own sexual and reproductive health across the life cycle….Canada recognizes that adolescents have the right to comprehensive and accessible sexual and reproductive health education and services that respect their rights to privacy, confidentiality and informed consent. It is particularly important that young people have access to information and services, including a full range of contraceptives that enable them to make healthy decisions about their reproductive and sexual lives….

 

We believe that the drafting of the Declaration builds on previous commitments and reflects the priorities that member countries have themselves identified as crucial for moving forward in implementing the Cairo Programme of Action.

 

COLOMBIA

We want to reaffirm in an integral way the contents of this Programme of Action and reiterate the importance of a declaration like the one proposed for the finale of this meeting as a full expression of the broad political consensus of our region.

 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

….the Dominican delegation wants to emphasize the need to obtain greater international cooperation in counteracting the reduction in official development assistance, toward solidifying the region’s economic progress through adequate social programs against poverty, in accord with the Cairo Conference of 1994 and the Millennium Development Goals….we hope that in these two days of deliberations we can come to an important consensus that is expressed in a Declaration where we ratify the political agreement we made ten years ago and reaffirmed subsequently…

 

ECUADOR

We must emphasize that Ecuador recognizes the rights of boys, girls and adolescents to protect their physical, psychological, cultural, personal and sexual integrity….The country’s Total Fertility Rate fell from 3.4 children per woman to 2.8 in the last ten years, as a direct result of increased awareness and use of contraceptive methods. At the moment, 65 percent of women of childbearing age, married or single, use contraceptives….Ten years after Cairo, the government and society of Ecuador ratify their total agreement of continuing to work for the achievement of the agreements and execution of the Programme of Action…

FEMINIST ORGANIZATIONS OF WOMEN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Ten years ago, individuals, their surroundings, their personal relations, their productive capacities were put forward for the first time as the undeniable focus for formulating policies of population and development. Let us celebrate! Let us celebrate because ten years ago, the feminist movement and the women’s movement were recognized by the United Nations system as indispensable protagonists in constructing a truly human development. But in a world that has the money to find out whether there is water on Mars while millions of human beings do not have drinkable water, it is not enough to celebrate….

 

If we seek to guarantee the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights only for one kind of family and not recognize that we must also guarantee the human rights of everyone of every age, sexual preference, culture and ethnicity, it is not enough to celebrate….We must again evoke those ideas, values and that ethical agreement for which, with political will, resources and mechanisms can be generated that will make more celebrations possible.

 

JAMAICA

Jamaica feels strongly about its adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights and has worked assiduously to re-orient services to accommodate them….Steps are being taken to integrate gender considerations into all government policies, programmes, plans and research. It has now become routine that legislation being passed are gender-neutral and non-discriminatory….Jamaica will continue to play its part…to ensure the full realization of the principles and goals of the ICPD and the Millennium Development Summit.

 

MEXICO

The government of Mexico promotes the coordinated and concerted participation of all government sectors in favor of women; the inclusion of a gender perspective in its plans, policies and programs of development; and active participation and associated collaboration with the diverse political forces of society….The government reaffirms again its agreement with the Programme of Action of the ICPD…

 

NETHERLANDS

My country strongly supports the implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action. We are convinced that it is fundamental for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals….Young people must have better access to sexual and reproductive health information, and expert counseling in sexual health and sexuality, as well as access to information about sexually transmitted diseases and about reproduction….

 

In the five minutes allowed me for these remarks, ten women more have died for reasons related to pregnancy, and a hundred more have been infected with HIV/AIDS. We cannot permit that women, men and adolescents suffer so, when the capacity, the technology and the experience exist to save their lives. Sexual and reproductive health is a human right, and it is a critical ingredient for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

 

NICARAGUA

Nicaragua reaffirms its agreement with the Programme of Action of the ICPD and with the priorities of the 1999 revision known as Cairo Plus 5….[and] recognizes the Programme of Action as an instrument of special relevance, fruit of international consensus, that has served our country as a reference for the design of policies and laws whose principal objectives are economic growth and reduction of poverty.

 

PARLIAMENTARIANS

(Eight participants who are members of the nacional legislaturas of France, Bolivia, Ecuador, Portugal, Venezuela, Portugal, Peru and Chile.)

‘Life or death is a political decision.’ This was the alarming message heard by more than 100 parliamentarians from 70 countries in Ottawa, Canada, in 2002, at the International Conference of Parliamentarians on implementation of the Programme of Action of the ICPD. The urgency of this reality has had a catalytic effect on legislative work toward implementation of the ICPD everywhere….in Europe, all countries have remained firm in their financial support of UNFPA [the UN Population Fund], and in France, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Sweden, regional parliamentary groups are working actively to increase support for the ICPD….the lessons learned in this meeting [in Santiago] will guide our work at a national level and in our regional networks of parliamentarians.

 

UNITED STATES

The United States has been active in supporting countries of the region in many of their efforts….The United States draws much of its identity and prosperity from its immigrants and views immigration as a positive phenomenon, essential to our growth as a nation….15 million people residing in the U.S. were born in Latin America and the Caribbean….

 

The dictum “how we achieve goals matters” has special relevance for approaches to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS….the prevention approach adopted by the United States and informed by the epidemiological evidence from Uganda, one of the few HIV/AIDS success stories, focuses on Abstinence, Be faithful and, when necessary, appropriate and safe use of condoms (ABC). Faith-based communities and strong families are two pillars on which this successful approach is built.

 

The United States continues to be the largest bilateral donor of assistance to support the objectives set forth in the Programme of Action…A growing body of research…supports the conclusion that strong families offer some of the best protection to young people as they negotiate the turbulent waters of adolescence. For this reason, the United States believes that parents should be involved in all decisions affecting children and adolescents including health and sexual health.

 

VENEZUELA

The Venezuelan Constitution of 1999, in accord with the agreements of Cairo, incorporated principles concerning the relation between population, economic growth and sustainable development….We also should mention the creation of the National Institute of Women, whose objective is to guarantee gender equity…as a way of reducing that terrible indicator: more than half of the poor are women, and more than half of the women on the planet are poor….

 

We are here to say that we have a right to stop being poor, because to stop being poor is the only way to live with dignity. That we have the right to decide in which way we want to stop being poor, because that is the only way to decide with sovereignty.

 

YOUTH DELEGATION

[Unofficial group of young people from 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries]

[In 1994], we had to think about learning arithmetic or finishing school. While states recognized that all young people had the right to sex education, we learned (because we were taught) that sex was a sin. While the world’s greatest conference on population considered youth participation indispensable in all processes that affect their lives, many of us had to decide between skirts and pants. While adults, men and women decided that young people should have access to sexual and reproductive health services, many of us didn’t know that the condom could save our lives.

 

We demand that the governments here reaffirm their commitment to the Programme of Action, which changed the framework of the world of population and development….we have come here to unite and say in a high clear voice that our needs and concerns should not just be heard but included….the majority of young people initiate our sexual lives without information, without sex education and without access to sexual and reproductive health services…

 

We demand that the governments present here do not make us wait ten more years to be sitting in your places, and make the correct decision: Reaffirm and advance Cairo now!