U.N. Head Praises Progress Since 1994 Cairo Population Conference, Says Work Remains

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 14 Oct 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Progress has been made on women's equality since the "watershed" United Nations population conference in Cairo 15 years ago, but nations must renew commitments toward the goals of the women's rights action plan developed at the meeting, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports. The action plan called for creating gender equity by endorsing universal education for girls, the need for economic opportunities for women and the right for women to choose when and if to become pregnant.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly's 15th anniversary commemoration of the 1994 conference, Ban touted progress made since the Cairo meeting. Today, 56% of women and couples use contraception, compared with 47% in 1994, he said. The number of infants who die in their first year of life has fallen from 71 out of every 1,000 to 51 per 1,000, he added.

However, parts of the plan remain "more a goal than a reality," Ban said. About 200 million women lack access to contraception, girls in many countries still become "child brides" and sexual violence -- especially during wartime -- "continues to victimize women on a mass scale," he said. He noted that more than 500,000 women die in childbirth annually, a figure that has not changed since the 1994 conference.

"To fully carry out the Cairo program of action means providing women with reproductive health services, including family planning," Ban continued. He added, "It means backing poverty-eradication initiatives. And it means preventing rape during wartime and ending the culture of impunity." Reaching these goals will require funding, he said, urging governments not "to renege on our promises to protect and invest in women" because of the global economic crisis (Lederer, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 10/13).

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