Daily report for 9 September 1994

FORMAL SESSION OF THE MAIN COMMITTEE

The Committee met formally Friday morning to adopt adreferendum Chapters XI (Population, development andeducation), IX (Population distribution, urbanization andinternal migration) and XVI (Follow-up to the Conference) ofthe Draft Programme of Action. Some delegates said that itwould be difficult to accept the revised chapters as containedin non-papers, since they were available only in English. Tofacilitate the process, the Secretariat read out the changesso they could be translated simultaneously.

The Chair, Dr. Fred Sai, said that several delegations hadsought to amend unbracketed text on the basis that it wasunclear, poorly translated or open to misinterpretation. Henoted that the Bureau agreed on the following recommendations:when it is a matter of translation, the text should be revisedin the language concerned; factual errors should be rectified;in some cases, the problem can be solved by adding adefinitional footnote; delegates should wait for agreement onthe Preamble and Principles; and adjustment may be needed inthe unbracketed text so that it is consistent. The Chairinvited any delegations who had concerns with unbracketed textto meet at 3:00 pm.

INFORMAL SESSION OF THE MAIN COMMITTEE

PARAGRAPH 7.2: More than 70 delegates commented on thisparagraph on sexual and reproductive rights. Canada pointedout that the text in the second set of brackets was misprintedand should read "sexual and reproductive rights" ratherthan "health."

Numerous delegates suggested removing all of the brackets inthe paragraph, including: Albania, Barbados (on behalf of theCaribbean countries), Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso,Cape Verde, Chile, China, C“te d'Ivoire, Cuba, Finland,Germany (on behalf of the EU), Guinea, Israel, Japan, Mexico,Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Slovenia, the SolomonIslands (on behalf of the Pacific Island States), Sweden,Tanzania, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Chad, The Gambia and Liberia agreed to delete the brackets ifvarious ambiguities in the text are clarified. Benin, Libya,Algeria, the Holy See, Honduras, Nigeria, Cameroon, Peru, theDominican Republic, Ecuador and Malta also asked forclarification of these ambiguities. Particular emphasis wasgiven to the need to clarify the types of international humanrights referred to in the first sentence.

There were a variety of positions on the first bracketedsentence, which reads: "Sexual and reproductive rights embracecertain human rights...." Iran, Argentina and Malta called forits deletion. Canada, Switzerland, the Holy See and Papua NewGuinea stressed that this sentence does not or cannot createnew rights. Egypt, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Uganda, Peru, SriLanka and Costa Rica called for reference to national laws andlegislation.

Switzerland and Pakistan proposed deleting the term "sexualrights," since it is encompassed in "reproductive rights."Austria, the Solomon Islands (on behalf of the Pacific IslandStates) and Zambia wanted to retain "sexual rights." TheCentral African Republic, the Holy See, Poland, Argentina,Ecuador and Malta could agree, if sexual and reproductiverights do not include abortion.

Malaysia, supported by Algeria and the WHO, suggested deletingreproductive health, reproductive rights, sexual rights andsexual health throughout the chapter, since sexual health ispart of reproductive health. The reference to "sexual health"in those sub-chapters dealing with AIDS and STDs should beretained.

Another area of controversy was the right of "couples andindividuals" to decide freely and responsibly the number,spacing and timing of their children, as well as the right tomake decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination,coercion and violence. Egypt, the Central African Republic,Libya, Iran, Jordan, and the Dominican Republic called fordeletion of the reference to "individuals." Zimbabwe pointedout that if the term "individuals" is removed, it would removethe right of individuals to remain celibate and he did notthink the Holy See would be happy about that. Furthermore,individuals should have the right to reject sexual advancesbecause of AIDS, STDs or unwanted pregnancy. The Chairresponded that the phrase "couples and individuals" has beenaccepted language since the 1974 Conference in Bucharest. Heagreed that the individual right is as much about saying "no"as saying "yes." Austria, India, the Solomon Islands, Nigeria,Haiti and South Africa also supported this position. Iran,supported by Belize, suggested that Australia's proposal inthe Friends of the Chair meeting on the principles, whichwould replace "individuals and couples" with "people," mightprovide a way out.

PARAGRAPH 7.3: The Chair said that the brackets around"fertility regulation" should not be considered since this isunder consideration in the working group. Nevertheless,delegates debated at length on replacing "fertilityregulation" with "family planning." Zambia proposed "fertilitydecisions" as an alternative, while Mali suggested "healthrelating to reproduction" and Zambia mentioned "regulation offertility" or "programme on the desirable number of births."Over a dozen more delegates took the floor to reiterate theirposition and the Chair twice commented that they were taxinghis patience. Benin said that the positions of developed anddeveloping countries were diametrically opposed and that aNorth-South divide was becoming apparent, since this issue isrelated to development. The Chair answered that, on thecontrary, this Conference is unique as it is not a North-Southconfrontation. He then concluded the debate on this paragraph.

PARAGRAPH 7.4: The participants agreed promptly toremove the brackets around "abortion" at the end of theparagraph, since it deals with the complications resultingfrom the procedure and not the procedure itself. Malaysia saidthat the reference to the prevention of female genitalmutilation should be covered under primary health care and notnecessarily under reproductive health care, and the text wasamended accordingly.

The Holy See, supported by a number of delegates, suggested anamendment replacing "of all ages" with "age-appropriate"before reproductive health, and to retain the brackets around"pregnancy termination." Others wanted to delete all thebrackets in this paragraph. The EU proposed a compromise,based on the agreement on paragraph 8.25, which would refer to"safe pregnancy termination in circumstances where it is notagainst the law." Nigeria, supported by Iran, Uganda, Jordanand Swaziland, suggested that reference be made to pregnancytermination required for medical reasons.

After further debate, the Chair noted that the working groupwas also working on this chapter and Egypt suggested that theMain Committee leave the remaining bracketed text for theworking group. It took delegates more than 20 minutes to agreeto this proposal, since they wanted to discuss some of theparagraphs -- in particular, those dealing with adolescentreproductive health care -- before the chapter was forwardedto the working group. At the request of some delegates, theChair made it clear that when the working group reports to theMain Committee on Saturday, the text will not be subject tofurther negotiation. He invited those States with particularconcerns to join the working group.

PARAGRAPH 8.25: Amb. Nicolaas Biegman had distributedtext on paragraph 8.25 in English in the Main Committee onThursday evening and it was available in all languages onFriday. At 6:00 pm, the Chair asked delegates to put thismatter to rest so that media attention could focus on theissues of population and development. He said the paragraph inits present form will be submitted to the Plenary withoutprejudice to the position of Governments until the finalProgramme of Action is adopted. He asked if there were anydelegations who wished to reserve their judgement before thefinal adoption of Chapter VIII. The only change was that thesequence of sentences three and four in the earlier version ofthe text is reversed. Several delegations noted translationproblems and Biegman said that the English version of the textwas the one that was negotiated by the working group and, ifthere are minor translations problems, they would beaddressed. El Salvador, Costa Rica (on behalf of the CentralAmerican States) and Guatemala said they could support thetext, but expressed concern about the Spanish translation.

The Holy See stated that it attaches great importance to thequestion of maternal death and endorses those aims ofparagraph 8.25 that address women's health, but for moralreasons it does not endorse legal abortion and will withholdits assent until the end of discussions on Chapters VII andVIII. The following delegations indicated similarreservations: Argentina, Peru, Malta and the DominicanRepublic.

The following delegations supported the text in the interestof consensus: Benin, the US, Senegal, Cameroon, Turkey,Turkmenistan, the Philippines, France, Uruguay, Zambia,Bolivia, Tunisia, China, Panama, Tanzania, Burkina Faso,Guinea, Cape Verde, Mali, the Central African Republic, India,Austria, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Israel, Mexico, Barbados (onbehalf of the Caribbean States), Spain, Germany (on behalf ofthe EU), The Gambia, Venezuela, Congo, Norway, the SolomonIslands (on behalf of the Pacific Island States), Japan, SouthAfrica, Colombia, Chile, Indonesia, Jordan and Brazil. Egyptand Bahrain accepted the text, but noted that it would beinterpreted in accordance with national and religious laws.

CHAPTER VIII -- HEALTH, MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY: TheCommittee easily agreed to unbracket the quantitative goals inparagraphs 8.5 (life expectancy), 8.16 (infant mortality) and8.21 (maternal mortality and morbidity). In paragraphs 8.17and 8.19 the term "safe motherhood" was bracketed. The Chairproposed adding a footnote containing the WHO definition forsafe motherhood: "Safe motherhood aims at attaining optimalmaternal and newborn health. It implies reduction of maternalmortality and morbidity and enhancement of the health ofnewborn infants through equitable access to primary healthcare including family planning, prenatal, delivery andpostnatal care for the mother and infant, and access toessential obstetric and neonatal care." The Chair hoped thatthis would allow delegates to unbracket "safe motherhood"throughout the text. The Chair also proposed that the lastsentence in paragraph 8.19 be amended to read: "Safemotherhood has been accepted in many countries as a strategyto reduce maternal morbidity and mortality." Numerousdelegates supported the Chair's proposal.

At the end of the evening's discussion on this chapter, theHoly See took the floor to remind delegates that although theyagreed to remove the brackets around "condoms" in paragraph8.35 (prevention of HIV infection), they will not join theconsensus on this specific word in this specific paragraph.

WORKING GROUP ON CHAPTER VII

A new working group, established to address the outstandingissues in Chapter VII, held its first meeting Thursdayafternoon and began with consideration of paragraph 7.1. Thegroup is chaired by Colombia and other members include: Benin,Brazil, El Salvador, Egypt, Germany (EU), the Holy See,Indonesia, Iran, Sweden, South Africa, the US, Canada,Pakistan and Poland. Since the working group was supposed tofinish all its work Friday night, many delegates wereexpecting a late night.

IN THE CORRIDORS

In addition to the working group on Chapter VII, other workinggroups and consultations filled the small conference rooms andcorridors on Friday. In one room, discussions were underway onfamily reunification (paragraph 10.12). In another, delegateswere working on the chapeau to Chapter II (Principles). The EUhad tabled a proposal in the morning, which was then reviewedby the G-77. The Friends of the Chair reconvened in theevening to, hopefully, finish their work on both the chapeauand the remaining outstanding principles. Since the chapeauaddresses the conditions for the implementation of theProgramme of Action (which could be affected by religious,ethical, cultural or traditional values), several delegatescommented that this could be one of, if not, the mostimportant paragraphs in the text. Main Committee Chair FredSai held a meeting during the day to address the issue ofamendments to unbracketed text. This group also reviewed theProgramme of Action to ensure that there was consistency inthe use of certain terms throughout the text.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR TODAY

MAIN COMMITTEE: The Main Committee is expected to meettoday in another informal session from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm andagain at 3:00 pm. The Committee will have to review theresults of the working group's consultations on Chapter VII,which were supposed to finish on Friday night. In addition,the Committee will have to address all of the remainingbracketed text. Once all the text is bracket-free, the Chairwill convene a formal meeting to adopt ad referendumthe Programme of Action and forward it to the Plenary ofthe Conference for formal adoption next week.

WORKING GROUP ON FAMILY REUNIFICATION: The workinggroup on paragraph 10.12 will meet at noon in Mycerenos C.