Radio Internacional Feminista - FIRE

February  1999

ICPD + 5:  Women Meet at the Hague In February to Appraise Progress Over Past Five Years

 
 "The annual cost of reproductive health attention is 17 billion dollars, which is the equivalent of less than a week of military expenditures in the world" (from "ICPD + 5: In  Debt With Women," Women´s Health by LAWHN, 2/98 and State of the World Population, 1997, U.N.).
 
By Katerina Anfossi and María Suárez Toro

From February 8 – 12, 1999 at The Hague in the Netherlands, numerous Governments, United Nations Specialized Agencies, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) met to review and appraise the process of implementation of the Platform for Action about Population and Development adopted by UN member states in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt toward the U.N. 32nd  Special Session about ICPD known as  ICPD +5. 

The Programme for Action adopted at the ICPD in 1994 changed the population paradigm from the traditional demographic focus, to one about people’s well being and rights, incuding the right to sexual and reproductive health. U.N. member states agreed to meet after five years, to assess the implementation of the adopted document.  Thus, the name ICPD +5 emerged as the slogan for the appraisal..

 
This process began on December 18, 1997, when the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the organization of the Special Session to the 32nd session of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development (CPD), to do an appraisal of the implementation process.  The Special Session is scheduled for June 30 to July 2, 1999 in New York.  A  preparatory meeting for ICPD+5 is scheduled for March 22 to 30, 1999 in New York.

 
A Non-Governmental Forum, a Youth Forum, and a Parliamentarian's Forum also took place just before the UNFPA meeting at The Hague, where civil society and legislators prepared their own input into the process.  Traditionally, the international women´s health movement has organized its own meetings to prepare for the NGO Forums and the official conferences of the United Nations.

This time, five years after CAIRO, almost 200  women from 107 countries met in Cocoyoc, Mexico last  November 15-18, 1998. Some Specialized Agencies, Funding Agencies and men participated in the meeting also. Convened by HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights and Accountability) under the name “Confounding the Critics – Cairo Five Years On,” the meeting appraised case studies from all regions, North and South, to assess progress in implementing the Cairo Programme for Action, and to identify key actions essential for women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health. Their case studies showcased how the Platform can be implemented despite critiques that it is not possible to do so because it is so expensive.  But the women's meeting in Mexico also concluded that not enough has been done.

The women adopted a “CALL TO ACTION” that addresses their perspectives, not only about implementation, but especially about issues related to the context of the Programme for Action:  “We understand Cairo to mean that the sexual and reproductive health of people is determined by the conditions in which they live, poverty or wealth and growing inequity, and their ability to exercise their basic human rights. We believe that the implementation of the Cairo Programme for Action is only possible with greater partnerships to overcome the constraints of inequity, inequality, injustice and lack of accountability. The determination of what these concepts mean and how they are realized must include women’s diverse perspectives."

The Call to Action continued,"Within the Cairo Programme for Action, we have specific concerns related to a lack of progress in a number of key areas to secure women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health. Based on our analysis of what is possible within the current political and socio-economic context, we call for concerted action and mobilization in the following key areas: Gender equity and equality; sexual rights; sexual and reproductive health services; abortion; and young people” (Call to Action, Coyoac, Mexico, 1998).

The women also drafted a series of proposals and resolutions, which they took to the ICPD + 5 Forum in February at The Hague.

FIRE interviewed a number of women about the process.

One of them is Frances Kissling of Catholics for Free Choice. She  talked to FIRE about the global context of the ICPD + 5, and about the opportunity for women who met at the Cocoyoc meeting to assess a number of questions that are relevant beyond the technical implementation of the Programme for Action.  Her main concerns relate to the practical shift of paradigm in terms of focusing on population issues as human rights issues, how to defeat conservative voices about the paradigm, and about the obstacle of the model of privatization being imposed worldwide.

FIRE also asked her about the role of women´s media in the process.

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Bene Mandunagu from Nigeria and member of the program, “Girls Power Initiative” in her country, works with adolescents. Bene talked to FIRE about the challenges  regarding the accountability of United Nations member states to the ICPD Programme for Action. She believes women also own the Programme for Action because women advanced the agenda that is in it.  Thus, she believes, governments have to work in partnership with women´s organizations.

Bene also talked about the Conference convened by HERA, highlighting that in the case studies presented, women from the North and South have shown that the ICPD agenda can be implemented when there is equity in the partnership.

She congratulated FIRE for its recent Internet broadcast development. .

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FIRE´s María Suárez Toro also interviewed Marianne Hasselgrave. She is the Coordinator of the NGO FORUM which was held just before the official UNFPA Forum toward ICPD + 5 in February, 1999.

She spoke about the key issues that the NGO Forum addresses, stating that they are the same ones that the official meeting will look at, but from a different perspective: civil society’s perspective.

Marianne was also asked by FIRE to address the role of women, the gender perspective, and about the participation of men in advancing the Platform for Action of ICPD.

She also talked about some of the characteristics of the Latin American and Caribbean women in the process.

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UPDATE:
THREE ICPD + 5  FORUMS AT THE HAGUE:   PARLIAMENTARIAN´S FORUM, NGO FORUM AND YOUTH FORUM

FIRE. San José, Costa Rica, February 9, 1999.

Three separate Forums met at The Hague prior to the official meeting, scheduled for February 9-14, 1999, at which Governments assess the status of the implementation of the Programme for Action of the United Nations World Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, 1994.

The Parliamentarian's Forum, the NGO Forum, and the Youth Forum with a total of 800 participants affirmed the crucial role that civil society plays in ensuring respect for the human rights paradigm adopted in the Cairo consensus.

This perspective was also affirmed by U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton when she addressed the final gathering of the three  Forums, declaring that the NGOs are the moving force behind the Programme For Action. She called NGOs to continue publishing what they do, because they not only present statistics, but stories and testimonies, which are very powerful and moving. She called on the NGOs to remember that Governments adopted a historical consensus calling for quality of lives of women; therefore the focus cannot be placed so much on numbers and statistics. According to Ana María Pizarro from a Nicaraguan NGO, Hillary Clinton was the most applauded participant.

Hillary’s words at the closing of the Forums contrasted with those of another First Lady, Ms. Calderón Sol from El Salvador, at the opening session of the official Forum. Her speech also contrasted with other renowned personalities such as Gro Harlem Brunstland of the WHO, Mary Robinson of the UNHCHR, and Nafis Sadik of UNFPA, who together with others affirmed the agreements of the Platform For Action of ICPD.

Ms. Sol took 30 minutes to talk in the name of all Latin Americans, making statement after statement celebrating the implementation in her country of legislative measures that go against the Platform itself!

Among them are the following:  That her country just eliminated therapeutic abortion, and that the National Assembly eliminated a law that allowed the interruption of a pregnancy if the woman was about to die, although the Cairo consensus called for a humanitarian approach to it in countries where it was not recognized. Ms. Sol also hailed the fact that her government defends “life from the moment of conception.” However,  the Cairo principles already resolved that debate with the fundamentalists, by quoting the Universal Declaration Human Rights that speaks about human beings from the moment of birth, when it says that all are created equal from birth.

According to Ana Elena Badilla of the Arias Foundation, Latin American and Caribbean NGOs and some official delegates felt so disgusted by the fact that Ms. Sol spoke on behalf of all of Latin America, that they immediately wrote a letter addressed to Dr. Safis Sadik protesting the nomination of Ms. Sol as a speaker for the region, and letting her know that they did not feel represented by her at all.