Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (19-21 May, 2014 in Pattaya), the Asia-Pacific Civil Society Forum on Sustainable Development (15-17 May, 2014 in Bangkok), and an associated event

Please see information from Rae Kwon Chung, Director, Environment and Development Division, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP):

General Assembly Resolution 67/290 specifically invites the United Nations Regional Commissions to contribute to the work of the high level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF). A key aspect of this work is the identification of regional challenges and priorities for sustainable development,  and  the  post-2015 development agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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RESURJ's public statement on CPD 47 – 20 Years after Cairo: Women continue to reproduce but never mind about Sexuality

Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ) has been working hard since 2010 to advance global health and population policies to consider women’s and young people’s autonomy over their sexuality, and not merely their reproduction, as critical to realizing human rights, social justice and development objectives.  In the last four years, we have seen the landscape of global feminism working on sexual and reproductive health change leadership, generations, politics, and strategies. We feel triumphant at having shaped the spaces where we work and engage, even if governments haven’t changed theirs.

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Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals – Programme of Work up to August 2014

According to the Programme of Work for the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the next session, OWG-11 (5-9 May) the consultations will be based on the revised focus area document, after which the document will be revised again.

During OWG-12 (16-20 June) consultations will be held on the SDGs and targets and refined SDGs and targets will be produced. These will be edited and tweaked before OWG-13 (14-18 July) at which the consultations on the SDGs and targets will lead to agreement and adoption on the report. This will then be transmitted to the President fo the General Assembly and the Secretary-General in August.

Young People Speak up for their Sexual and Reproductive Rights at 47th CPD

Over 100 young people from across the globe came together during the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) to let governments know that their sexual and reproductive rights are non-negotiable. The weeklong Commission, which ended early Saturday morning, was convened at the UN headquarters in New York to assess 20 years of progress since the groundbreaking agreements made at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994. 

Throughout the week, young people representing civil society from all regions and diversities spoke up on sexual and reproductive rights issues ranging from comprehensive sexuality education to youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services; access to safe and legal abortion; and

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Amnesty International Public Statement on 47th Session of the Commission on Population and Development

Amnesty International has issued a public statement on the 47th Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD47) which welcomes the fact that the Commission urges Member States to ensure respecting, protecting, promoting and fulfilling all human rights, including gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. At the same time, however, it notes the Organization’s  disappointment that the Commission shied away from addressing the persistent and systemic discrimination and violence faced by individuals and groups on grounds of their perceived or actual sexual orientation and gender identity, and in recognizing the sexual rights of all individuals. 

For the full statement see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/IOR41/011/2014/en

Commission on Population and Development Ends – Governments Call for Increased Efforts to Promote Sexual and Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights in Development Policies

UN Commission on Population and Development Identifies Gaps in Human Rights and Health of Women and Young People

The 47^th session of the Commission on Population and Development ended in New York after dawn on Saturday morning with a call from governments to promote gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as key priorities for sustainable development. The Commission urged world leaders to integrate these rights into the new development framework that will replace the Millennium Development Goals, which are set to expire in 2015.

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Youth perspectives on CPD47

Young people have been active in the  47th Session of the Comission on Population and Development [CPD] in New York City all week. These are some of their perspectives on youth participation in this important event by members of YSAFE— Cecilie, Umid and Juraj:

Different world regions face different problems, but there is common ground for all the young people taking part in the 47th session of CPD. That common ground is found when it comes to  meaningful youth participation, SRHR and human rights for everyone. 

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Accelerating contraceptive choice post-2015

Jackson Chekweko, Executive Director of Reproductive Health Uganda, an IPPF Member Association, writes:

We must accelerate contraceptive choice Post-2015...

With the 47th Session of the Commission on Population and Development  (CPD47) now taking place, it's needless to emphasize how critical the issues that will be discussed are for people in developing countries and particularly in Africa. Today 90 per cent of women with unmet need for family planning live in developing countries with the greatest gap being in Africa. Although the continent has experienced much progress in universal access to family planning in the last decade, contraceptive choices are still largely limited to condoms, pills and injectables.

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Hopes for CPD47 – Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, Pakistan FPA

Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, of the Family Planning of Pakistan and a Member of the Provincial Parliament (Sindh Province), attending the 47th Session of the Commission of Population and Development (CPD47), writes: 

In Pakistan each year hundreds of women die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth and newborn babies continue to lose their lives because their mothers lacked basic maternal health care. My deepest personal hope is that at CPD47  we all agree on actions necessary to reduce the needless suffering and death which result from the lack of education, basic health care, and family planning and from the lack of control women have over their lives.

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Day 3 of the Commission on Population and Development

Day three of informal negotiations was long with discussion and interventions being wide ranging both in terms of content and the government interventions.

The morning was devoted to the most critical, but most contentious part of the document, namely the paragraphs relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights. The cluster of paragraphs relating to paragraph 5 took three hours to discuss. The listing and ordering of key sexual and reproductive health services was hotly debated, as was the additional language relating to violence and discrimination, comprehensive sexuality education and abortion. India and Nepal led the way to champion abortion language and were backed up by Papua New Guinea, who advanced the agenda by calling for the inclusion of language on the removal of legal barriers to abortion.

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