{"id":2131,"date":"2013-10-21T15:33:58","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T10:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2014-02-07T10:43:51","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T05:13:51","slug":"icpd-beyond-2014-an-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/icpd-beyond-2014-an-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"APPC Commentaries: ICPD beyond 2014 – An Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog was originally published on Kumari: A Feminist<\/a>, Shreejana Bhajracharya’s Personal Blog on Reproductive and Sexual Rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Being a SRHR youth advocate, I frequently come across an important event: ICPD, UN International Conference on Population and Development.<\/a> ICPD was held in Cairo in 1994 which was a turning point in the way to approach population issues. ICPD is actual a new paradigm which marked and addressed human reproductive health and rights. Before ICPD, the conference only talked about population increment and its control but ICPD clearly focused on the needs of the individuals and on the empowerment of women, and the emergence of an evolving discourse about the connection between human rights with sexual and reproductive health rights, linking new conceptions of health to the struggle for social justice and respect for human dignity.<\/p>\n

The Program of Action<\/a> adopted by the ICPD established a firm link between population, development and human rights, health and gender equality and set an agenda that would:
\n\u2022 Respond to population dynamics within a human rights framework
\n\u2022 Advance gender equality and empowerment of women
\n\u2022 Promotes sexual and reproductive health, including maternal health
\n\u2022 Increase access to education, especially for girls
\n\u2022 Address issues of urbanization, migration and environment
\n\u2022 Ensure that everyone experiences the benefit of sustainable economic development, and
\n\u2022 Promote participation of civil society<\/p>\n

Although ICPD talks in favor of women\u2019s sexual and reproductive health and rights, there are still many loopholes to achieve the targets. Women were treated as object and as instrument before ICPD to implement population programs and policies. Then women\u2019s reproductive capacity was transformed from an object of population control to a matter of women\u2019s empowerment to exercise personal autonomy in relation to their sexual and reproductive health within social, economic and political contexts. Therefore ICPD remarkably announces women\u2019s sexual and reproductive health rights are the human rights of women which should be included in population program to achieve sustainable development in the future.<\/p>\n

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This year, including me four of Youth Champions of ASAP, got opportunity to be part of Asia and Pacific Regional ICPD beyond 2014 <\/a>meeting convened by UNESCAP<\/a> in Bangkok, from 11-20th September 2013.<\/p>\n

The meeting was ten days long with different segments as follows:<\/p>\n