The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 1994, legitimized the notions of reproductive rights, and agreement was reached that population and family planning programmes should be transformed to accord with women's needs. DAWN's main contribution was in consolidating the idea that reproductive rights and gender were very much part of the women's agenda in the South. The main challenge now is to promote clarity around the concepts of reproductive health and sexual rights.
Despite legitimization of the reproductive rights agenda at the governmental level and the incorporation of the issues into the discourse of the women's movement, the concepts of "rights" and "health" remain indistinct, often used synonymously, or as interchangeable terms - even within the women's movement. In promoting clarity, the areas on which to focus are:
Sexual Rights
Feminists do not use this term even in countries that are less constrained than Brazil. The concept is being shaped not by the women's movement, but by the initiatives taken by the lesbian and gay movement.Male Responsibility
Agencies talk about male "involvement" but this is not the same as male "responsibility", which is the precise definition adopted in Cairo and Beijing.Human Rights & Citizens Rights
In many settings, there has always been a tension between human rights and nationally based norms and citizenship rights. In the wake of definitions agreed at ICPD and the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, these tension have increased particularly with respect to abortion and sexual rights.The Enabling Environment
It is vital that the reproductive rights/sexual rights framework is located within an enabling environment with linkages to globalization, political restructuring, environment, and gender and culture.
The strategic components of the reproductive rights/health research programme are:
Training
Efforts are being made to improve and/or create linkages with the various institutions providing training in the regions. Initiatives are already underway in a few regions, particularly in Latin America, where academic institutions are already involved in research and training.Policy Analysis
This has become a strategic need in the post-conference era, and within this frame, Cairo+5 has emerged as a critical target. To avoid a repeat of Rio+5 (where the formal UN conference model adopted proved unproductive) a more non-conformist Open Forum will be staged (February 1999, Amsterdam), followed by a special session of the UN General Assembly to review/approve the report of the Secretary General coming out of the preparatory process which began last February. The emphasis is on governments and agencies finding ways to make the Cairo agenda feasible. Case studies are being prepared by locally based consultants for presentation at the open forum. Among the countries the UN has selected for case studies are Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, South Africa, Uganda, and several of the newly emerging states in Eastern Europe. The Centre for Development Cooperation is doing other case studies and the UNFPA may also get involved.
UNFPA has organized a series of roundtables in preparation for conference - up to press time, three had been held on "Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health" (April, New York); "Reproductive Rights and Implementation of Reproductive Health Programmes" (June, Kampala), and "Cairo Implementatoon in Partnership with Civil Society" (July, Dhaka). The preparatory process also includes technical meetings and NGO and regional conferences.
Funders are moving faster than women's organizations in preparing for Cairo+5. Many activists are not yet tuned into the process, finding themselves caught between national commitments, the preparation of case studies and global mobilization. The need is for a sharper and clearer division of labour between national and global initiatives as well as between the various global oriented networks. In this context DAWN is collaborating with the network HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights, Accountability), a close partner in this particular area of investment.
From a preliminary assessment, HERA is planning an inter-regional meeting to address the situation. Scheduled to be held in Mexico on November 25, 1998, the meeting is expected to bring together about 100 activists to produce an in-depth collective analysis of what has happened since Cairo, from which a publication will be produced to inform the Cairo+5 Forum and subsequent UN related activities. HERA is also tracking and monitoring UNFPA, putting out fact sheets and conducting public education programmes.
In terms of positions and alliances, it's likely that states will laud the outcomes of ICPD but argue that implementation is too complicated, not on financial grounds but on the basis that efforts have been made for five years and it does not work. New and problematic alliances can also be expected - for example, one can predict that the Vatican will renew its alliance with the population control sector (which will be arguing for a return to the "old, simple and cost-effective" system of population control) and attack abortion and all individualist notions of reproductive rights.
Sections of the women's movement are likely to take more cynical positions, for instance, that the ICPD outcome was mere rhetoric and governments are doing the same old ting; or that developments such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), globalization and the World Trade Organization (WTO) will make any significant transformation impossible.
Essentially, DAWN remains supportive of ICPD, acknowledging that efforts are being made to move policies in the right direction, while recognizing that in keeping with the nature of policy change, this is not being done fast enough. But while bottlenecks are inevitable given the complexities of implementation and of resource constraints ways can be found to overcome the sticking points.
Cairo+5 Events Calendar
September 1998
Technical Meeting: "Reproductive Health Services in Crisis Situations" (The Hague, Netherlands)
October 6-9, 1998
Technical Meeting: "Population and Aging" (Brussels, Belgium)
November 15-18, 1998
HERA: ICPD+5 International NGO Conference (Cocoyoc, Mexico)
February 5-6, 1999 (tentative)
Youth Forum (The Hague, Netherlands)
February 6-7, 1999
Dutch NGO ICPD+5 Forum (The Hague, Netherlands)
February 8-12, 1999
UNFPA: ICPD+5 Open Forum (The Hague, Netherlands)
Review of national and international experiences
March 22-29, 1999 (tentative)
Commission on Population and Development (New York)
CPD serves as the PrepCom for governments to negotiate the draft report of the Secretary General
June 30-July 2, 1999
UN General Assembly Special Session (New York)
Review/Approve report of the Secretary General
