29/01/2010 Session
At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in , 179 countries adopted a Twenty-year Programme of Action, which focused on individuals’ needs and rights rather than on achieving demographic targets. Sixteen years later, the Assembly today noted that “while some progress has been made, achievements on education enrolment, gender equity and equality, infant child and maternal mortality and morbidity and the provision of universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning and safe abortion services, remain mixed”.
Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Christine McCafferty, United Kingdom, SOC), the Assembly called on European governments to “review, update and compare Council of Europe members states’ national and international population and sexual and reproductive health and rights policies and strategies”, as well as to review and compare funding to ensure the full implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action by 2015.
The Committee of Ministers, the organisation’s executive body, should address specifically the challenges of maternal mortality and morbidity, with a particular emphasis on reducing unsafe abortions; age-appropriate, gender-sensitive sexuality and relationship information and education in schools; demographics, including migration; HIV/Aids and STI pandemics; gender equality and relations and funding the ICPD Programme of Action.
The Assembly encouraged the Committee of Ministers to start developing a European convention on sexual and reproductive health.