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February 11, 2004
A Mother's Promise the World Must Keep

More than 30 organizations, including Ipas, have launched a nationwide campaign to reaffirm and celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Cairo consensus - an historic global agreement on an integrated approach to health and development that values individuals ahead of demographic objectives.

Along with 178 other nations, in 1994 the United States promised to ensure that all people have access to health care, family planning and basic education, so that they can make healthy decisions for themselves, their families and the environment. The global consensus that resulted from the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, Egypt, represented an important new approach to health, development and the environment.

It also heralded unprecedented recognition of women's sexual and reproductive rights and of unsafe abortion as a major public-health concern. Among its other provisions, the Programme of Action from the Cairo conference affirmed that in circumstances where it is not against the law, abortion should be safe.

But now the U.S. government is backing down from those and other commitments underlying the Cairo agreement and pressuring other governments to do the same. Its failure to uphold its pledges to ensure the health and well-being of all the world's people has grave consequences, particularly since the United States is the leading international donor in the field of population and reproductive health.

"The U.S. government's current position undermines the truly global consensus that emerged after painstaking work in Cairo in 1994," said Leila Hessini , Ipas's Senior Policy Advisor. "And it risks undermining the considerable progress that has been made in the last few decades in the areas of family planning, HIV-prevention and reducing deaths and injuries of women related to pregnancy."

In the belief that the government's stance contradicts the values and beliefs of most Americans, Ipas and its colleague organizations are asking citizens and institutions to reaffirm the Cairo consensus by signing petitions, passing resolutions and declarations and otherwise calling on the government to keep its promises to the world's women. The campaign, called "A Mother's Promise the World Must Keep," will culminate in presentation of all such petitions and other instruments at a September 2004 conference in London commemorating the ICPD and assessing progress toward its goals.

Detailed information about the contents of the Cairo Programme of Action and the commitments governments worldwide have made to address poverty, disease, ignorance and injustice are available at www.amotherspromise.org.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258