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NGO ACTIVITIES

The NGO Planning Committee for the ICPD has been active during the last quarter of 1993 in preparation for PrepCom III and the NGO Forum. Over 90 NGOs have completed registration forms and suggested programme activities for PrepCom III. The NGO Planning Committee has also been working with the Egyptian National Preparatory Committee and the Egyptian NGO Committee to finalize details and address the needs of NGOs who will be in attendance at the NGO Forum. The NGO Forum will take place at the National Sports Complex, a ten-minute walk from the Cairo International Conference Center where the ICPD will be held. In early December, the staff of the NGO Planning Committee went to Cairo to outline tasks and responsibilities critical to a successful Forum. Remaining concerns are the renovation of the Forum site, a range of hotel accommodations appropriate for NGO budgets, and fundraising to cover the costs of the Forum.

@HEAD2.5TOP = GENERAL ASSEMBLY HIGHLIGHTS

The ICPD was considered by the 48th session of the UN General Assembly on 4-5 November 1993. The discussions took place in the Second Committee, which had before it a number of documents including the Report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 47/167 and ECOSOC resolution 1991/93 (A/48/430) and the annotated outline of the final document of the Conference (A/48/430/Add.1).

The outline of the annotated outline of the Cairo Document as presented to the Second Committee, is as follows:

@INDENT = PART ONE. PREAMBLE AND PRINCIPLES

  • I. Preamble
  • II. Principles/fundamental considerations
@INDENT = PART TWO. CHOICES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

  • III. The interrelationships between population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development
  • IV. Gender equality and empowerment of women
  • V. The family, its roles, composition and structure
  • VI. Population growth and structure
  • VII. Reproductive rights, reproductive health and family planning
  • VIII. Health and mortality
  • IX. Population distribution, urbanization and internal migration
  • X. International migration
@INDENT = PART THREE. MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION:

  • XI. Population information, education and communication
  • XII. Capacity-building
  • XIII. Technology, research and development
  • XIV. National action
  • XV. International cooperation
  • XVI. Partnerships with non-governmental groups, including non-governmental organizations, the private sector and local community groups
  • XVII. Follow-up
In her opening statement to the Second Committee, ICPD Secretary-General Dr. Nafis Sadik asked delegates to examine and comment on the annotated outline. She also touched briefly on several other aspects of the preparatory process. She mentioned that they have been able to assist 92 developing countries (at a total outlay of over US$760,000) in the preparation of national population reports and in activities aimed at raising public awareness on population and development issues. With regard to national population reports, 50 countries have already submitted their reports and she encouraged delegates to both submit their reports and make them widely available in their countries, at PrepCom III and in Cairo. In addition to asking delegates to endorse ECOSOC resolution 1993/76 (which recommends extending the third session of the PrepCom by one week, convening two days of pre-Conference consultations, and raising the level of the Preparatory Committee to a subsidiary body of the General Assembly), Dr. Sadik asked governments for permission to conduct informal briefings during the first three months of 1994.

The annotated outline was the focus of many statements during the Second Committee debate. During the discussion, delegates raised a number of key points. These were summarized by Dr. Sadik in her closing statement as follows:

  • The centrality of population issues must be maintained in the Cairo document;
  • Part II (Choices and Responsibilities) and Part III (Means of Implementation) must be more in line with one another;
  • The recommendations should be action-oriented, clear and concise;
  • There should be an emphasis on implementable activities, not just recommendations;
  • The rights of the individual must be central to the document;
  • The chapter on the empowerment of women must be strengthened;
  • The document should give more attention to sexuality and the family planning needs of youth and adolescents;
  • The 20-year goals should not establish demographic targets and quotas, but should relate more to education and access to family planning information;
  • The Secretariat should provide information on the costs of various proposals;
  • Means of implementation should be given a high priority;
  • The chapter on follow-up to the Conference is inadequate;
  • The issues of consumption and lifestyles should be given more attention;
  • The perspective and needs of countries in transition should be reflected in the document;
  • The section on indigenous peoples needs strengthening; and
  • The role of NGOs should be spelled out more carefully.
The ICPD Secretariat will be using these statements, as well as any written comments and reactions to the annotated outline, to assist it in its next major task -- the preparation of the full text of the draft final document. This draft is expected be completed in January and will be the focus of discussions at the third session of the ICPD Preparatory Committee, to be held from 4-22 April 1994.

Second Committee resolution A/C.2/48/L.11/Rev.1, adopted on 6 December, endorses the Economic and Social Council resolution 1993/76 of 30 July 1993 on the preparations for the ICPD and decides that the ICPD Preparatory Committee shall become a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, without prejudice to current arrangements for participation in the Conference and its preparatory process. The resolution also requests the Secretary-General of the Conference, in preparing the draft final document of the Conference, to be guided by the views expressed by delegations and groups of delegations on the annotated outline, including those expressed at the 48th session of the General Assembly. The Secretary-General was also requested to submit to the PrepCom at its third session a report synthesizing the results of regional and subregional population conferences. The Secretary-General of the Conference has also been requested to convene, within existing resources, informal consultations at UN Headquarters, in the period prior to the third session of the Preparatory Committee, to exchange views in preparation for negotiations on the draft final document of the Conference.

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