05-26-2009, 11:58 AM
Cairo Conference reaches consensus on plan to stabilize world growth by 2015 - International Conference on Population and Development - includes related article on United Nations' studies on urbanization
UN Chronicle , Dec, 1994
Against a backdrop streaked with controversy and under the intense spotlight of unprecedented world media attention, the international Conference on Population and Development reached consensus--despite some widely divergent viewpoints--on a worldwide strategy to curb global population growth over the next 20 years and achieve sustained economic growth and sustainable development.
At the heart of the work of the Conference--the fifth UN global meeting on population issues--was, in the words of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the "search for an equilibrium between humanity and its environment and, ultimately, the means to sustain life on earth". in that light, he felt the widespread public attention to controversial issues debated at the Conference was "essentially encouraging", since it helped raise consciousness of important issues and mobilize public opinion significant action. Such critical matters could not be considered "without causing ripples and even some storms", he said.
Convened in Cairo, Egypt from 5 to 13 September, the Conference adopted without a vote a 16-chapter Programme of Action, calling for action to stabilize world population growth at below estimates of 7.5 billion by the year 2015 in the context of sustainable development.
In its preamble, the Programme states that the Conference represented "the last opportunity" in the twentieth century to collectively address the critical challenges and interrelationships between population and development. The Programme of Action, according to Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Conference Secretary-General, had the potential "to change the world".
Delegations from more than 180 countries, which included a number of Heads of State or Government, were joined at the Conference by thousands of participants from non-governmental and other grass-roots organizations, intergovernmental bodies and the media--an indication of the importance attached by the people of the world to a meeting convened for the people of the world.
Four previous UN population conferences have been convened at the global level: Rome (1954); Belgrade (1965); Bucharest (1974) and Mexico City (1984). The first World Population Plan of Action was adopted in 1974 and was reviewed and supplemented at the 1984 Conference by a set of recommendations for its further implementation.
Mindful of the need to continue to consider population issues at a high level, the UN Economic and Social Council in July 1989 called for the convening of an international conference on population. The General Assembly, in 1992 and 1993, stressed "the need for comprehensive national population policies based on national priorities and compatible with sustained economic growth and sustainable development". (See special Conference background section, UN Chronicle, September 1994, Volume XXXI, No. 3).
'The destiny of the human being'
In an opening address on 5 September, Mr. Boutros-Ghali underscored his belief that "the efficacy of the economic order of the planet on which we live" depended in great measure on the results of the Conference. Delegates to UN conferences in the economic and social spheres were currently considering the "destiny of the human being". Three principles of human conduct--"rigour, tolerance and conscience"--should, in his view, set the tone and guide Conference deliberations. He reiterated the need to support population policies, since "it would be inadmissible to rely on some kind of law of nature"--to allow wars, disasters, famine or disease to regulate the world's demographic growth. He also stressed the important role that women must play in development.
In view of the social and ethical questions under discussion, he said, all delegates should be tolerant and respectful of the sensitivities of others. in the end, the Secretary-General said, men and women throughout the world must have not only the right but also the means to choose their families' futures. Egyptian President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, a winner of the 1994 UN Population Award, was acclamation as Conference President. He told delegates that solutions to population problems must transcend mere "demographics" and be elaborated in close relation to the problems of social, economic and cultural development.
Among the dignitaries who spoke was Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, who told the Conference that for too many women in too many countries, real development had only been an illusion. Morality had become "hypocrisy" when it meant accepting mothers suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions, and unwanted children living in misery, she said.
Vice-President Albert Gore of the United States, mindful that no single solution was sufficient, spoke of a "holistic" and comprehensive approach to the world's population problems, as well as to the persistent high level of poverty. in his words, democracy, economic reform, low rates of inflation, low levels of corruption, sound environmental stewardship, free and open markets at home and access to markets in the developed countries were essential.
UN Chronicle , Dec, 1994
Against a backdrop streaked with controversy and under the intense spotlight of unprecedented world media attention, the international Conference on Population and Development reached consensus--despite some widely divergent viewpoints--on a worldwide strategy to curb global population growth over the next 20 years and achieve sustained economic growth and sustainable development.
At the heart of the work of the Conference--the fifth UN global meeting on population issues--was, in the words of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the "search for an equilibrium between humanity and its environment and, ultimately, the means to sustain life on earth". in that light, he felt the widespread public attention to controversial issues debated at the Conference was "essentially encouraging", since it helped raise consciousness of important issues and mobilize public opinion significant action. Such critical matters could not be considered "without causing ripples and even some storms", he said.
Convened in Cairo, Egypt from 5 to 13 September, the Conference adopted without a vote a 16-chapter Programme of Action, calling for action to stabilize world population growth at below estimates of 7.5 billion by the year 2015 in the context of sustainable development.
In its preamble, the Programme states that the Conference represented "the last opportunity" in the twentieth century to collectively address the critical challenges and interrelationships between population and development. The Programme of Action, according to Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Conference Secretary-General, had the potential "to change the world".
Delegations from more than 180 countries, which included a number of Heads of State or Government, were joined at the Conference by thousands of participants from non-governmental and other grass-roots organizations, intergovernmental bodies and the media--an indication of the importance attached by the people of the world to a meeting convened for the people of the world.
Four previous UN population conferences have been convened at the global level: Rome (1954); Belgrade (1965); Bucharest (1974) and Mexico City (1984). The first World Population Plan of Action was adopted in 1974 and was reviewed and supplemented at the 1984 Conference by a set of recommendations for its further implementation.
Mindful of the need to continue to consider population issues at a high level, the UN Economic and Social Council in July 1989 called for the convening of an international conference on population. The General Assembly, in 1992 and 1993, stressed "the need for comprehensive national population policies based on national priorities and compatible with sustained economic growth and sustainable development". (See special Conference background section, UN Chronicle, September 1994, Volume XXXI, No. 3).
'The destiny of the human being'
In an opening address on 5 September, Mr. Boutros-Ghali underscored his belief that "the efficacy of the economic order of the planet on which we live" depended in great measure on the results of the Conference. Delegates to UN conferences in the economic and social spheres were currently considering the "destiny of the human being". Three principles of human conduct--"rigour, tolerance and conscience"--should, in his view, set the tone and guide Conference deliberations. He reiterated the need to support population policies, since "it would be inadmissible to rely on some kind of law of nature"--to allow wars, disasters, famine or disease to regulate the world's demographic growth. He also stressed the important role that women must play in development.
In view of the social and ethical questions under discussion, he said, all delegates should be tolerant and respectful of the sensitivities of others. in the end, the Secretary-General said, men and women throughout the world must have not only the right but also the means to choose their families' futures. Egyptian President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, a winner of the 1994 UN Population Award, was acclamation as Conference President. He told delegates that solutions to population problems must transcend mere "demographics" and be elaborated in close relation to the problems of social, economic and cultural development.
Among the dignitaries who spoke was Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, who told the Conference that for too many women in too many countries, real development had only been an illusion. Morality had become "hypocrisy" when it meant accepting mothers suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions, and unwanted children living in misery, she said.
Vice-President Albert Gore of the United States, mindful that no single solution was sufficient, spoke of a "holistic" and comprehensive approach to the world's population problems, as well as to the persistent high level of poverty. in his words, democracy, economic reform, low rates of inflation, low levels of corruption, sound environmental stewardship, free and open markets at home and access to markets in the developed countries were essential.