The Politics of Population

Cairo 1994

Stanley Johnson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781134066179
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Social Sciences

The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 represented a remarkable watershed. Not only did it produce an unprecedented degree of agreement among the 179 countries and thousands of non-governmental organizations taking part, it also created a wide-ranging Programme of Action which for the first time offers real chances of progress, by putting population policies at the heart of the struggle for social development.

This book recounts what actually happened in Cairo and how it was achieved. The early chapters look in some detail at the preparations for Cairo, in the context of over three decades of attempts to integrate population, development and environmental issues. Focusing on the key controversial questions, including abortion, contraception and adolescent sex, it examines the ways in which attempts were made to reconcile opposing positions. Setting the discussion in a much wider context, it argues that Cairo witnessed a 'quantum leap' in the way the population issue is seen, and the need to give them control over their own lives, - central to the discussion about population, resources and development.

The Programme of Action which emerged from the conference, particularly the parts dealing with gender issues (included here in appendices), is the most forward-looking ever adopted. As a whole the Programme is probably one of the most important social documents of our time. This book captures both the drama and the detail of its creation.

Stanley Johnson edited The Population Problem (1974) and is the author of World Population and the United Nations (1987) and World Population Turning the Tide (1994), as well as numerous other books, including eight novels.

Originally published in 1995

Index

International conferences are indexed by the name of the city involved, e.g. Cairo, Copenhagen. Details of the Programme of Action text etc are to be found in the individual subject entries, e.g. abortion, adolescence.

abortion, 29, 36, 41, 78, 81, 203, 206

Brundtland on, 89–90

controversy, 101–121

developing agreement, 116–119

first press briefing, 101–104

plenary speeches, 104–109

and Islam, 72, 73

PrepCom II, 43–44

PrepCom III, 55–56, 60, 67, 69–70

Programme of Action, summary text, 226

see also Vatican

adolescence, 152–164, 203

Draft Programme of Action, text, 158–159

Programme of Action

summary text, 223

text, 159–160

adultery, 72–73, 118

Afghanistan, 24, 115, 127, 161, 202

Africa, 20, 24, 34, 52, 184–185

see also individual countries

African Development Bank (ADB), 34

African Population Conference, Third, 33–34

AIDS see sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)

Albania, 123

Algeria, 123, 127, 149–150, 172, 197, 201

Amsterdam International Forum on

Population in the Twenty-First

Century (1989), 21–22, 45

Antigua, 185

Arab Population Conference, 35

Argentina, 67, 123, 125, 201, 202

and abortion, 44, 69, 107, 112, 115, 119

Armenia, 209

Asia, 19, 20, 23, 24, 52, 181–184

Bali Declaration, 33

see also individual countries

Asian and Pacific Population Conference, Fourth, 33

Australia, 23, 42, 62, 63, 172, 178

and abortion, 112

and reproductive hea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Glossary
• Setting the Scene
• Preparing for the ICPD
• The Third Meeting of ICPD’s Preparatory Committee
• The Guns of August, 1994
• The Opening of the Cairo Conference
• The Controversy over Abortion
• The Empowerment of Women
• Adolescence
• International Migration
• Population Stabilisation
• Resources
• Closing Session - Looking Ahead
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Notes
• Index