Citizens in donor countries call for recommitment to Cairo consensus

Fulfilling global commitments made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development is essential to protecting the health and rights of women around the world.

Today at the United Nations, representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from more than a dozen countries will present a petition to the head of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, calling on governments to reaffirm the 1994 ICPD Programme of Action created at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. 

The Programme of Action, or Cairo Consensus, is a blueprint for nations working together to help secure for every woman access to basic health care, a clean environment, education and the right to make the private, personal choices about childbearing that are best for her family.

The petition effort was led by nearly 50 organizations in the United States and Europe, who with thousands of citizens, have called on governments to reaffirm the Programme of Action.  In the United States, the groups are joined together in a campaign, A Mother’s Promise the World Must Keep, of which Ipas is a sponsor; in Europe, the coalition is Called to Account. Together the campaigns demonstrate that individual citizens value and support the promises donor nations have made to support and implement the Cairo consensus.

Among other achievements, the Cairo conference marked the first time that the international community recognized unsafe abortion as major public-health concern and pledged to address it, including by ensuring that abortion is safe in circumstances in which it is not against the law.

The petition has been signed by 35,000 citizens in more than a dozen countries. It has also been endorsed by political and cultural leaders, including 41 U.S. mayors, five U.S. governors, 110 members of the U.S. Congress, dozens of European parliamentarians, and 60 international celebrities. Notable signatories include Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), whose district includes the United Nations; Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago; German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter; British author Nick Hornby; and British actress Dame Helen Mirren.

In addition, Ipas has gathered more than 200 signatures on a petition expressing global NGOs’ support for the Cairo Programme of Action, and in particular for its commitments to address unsafe abortion. That petition calls on governments, civil society and international agencies to:

• meet their financial and political commitments to translating the Programme of Action into reality by 2015;
• ensure that women around the world have access to voluntary, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education and services, regardless of class, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and place of residence; and
• to meet the U.N. Millennium Development goal of reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters between 1990-2015, by guaranteeing that all women have access to safe abortion services to the fullest extent allowable under the law.

Culminating a series of events this week in New York to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, hundreds of activists will hold a candlelight vigil at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 14, at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the United Nations. Participants will stand in memory of the 530,000 women who die every year – one every minute – from pregnancy-related causes, as a visual reminder to the United States and other governments to fulfill their commitments to the Cairo agenda. Similar vigils will be held in other cities around the world, including Washington, DC, London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

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