20 November
I arrived in Bangkok early in the morning, very tired from the long flight, but also very excited to experience the city and to meet colleagues from all over the world. I just had time to check in to the hotel and register before the first meeting began - a preparatory meeting of the European Parliamentarians and the European Parliamentary Forum (EPF), which is the regional organization for all our parliamentary groups in Europe.
This was a very important meeting for me, as Denmark for the first time was going to join EPF as a member. We have only established an All Party Parliamentary Group on Reproductive Health in Denmark last month, so it was a great pleasure for me to officially to be able to apply for Danish membership of the EPF as chair of the Danish All Party Group. Fortunately, none objected to our membership so we are now formerly part of the European cooperation in this field.
We also had to elect a new Executive Committee and president. Anne Van Lancker from the European Parliament was elected president - she is a very powerful woman with a good knowledge of the area of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, so I wish her all the best.
Despite my jetlag I came along to the opening reception in the evening, where the Thai hosts had a fantastic show prepared for us with local dance performances and speeches. And a really nice Thai buffet! At 10 pm I was back at the hotel ready to catch up with my sleep deficit.
21 November
First official meeting day of the conference: We left the hotel at 7:15am to be at the conference centre in due time, as we had to be seated when the royal princess of Thailand arrived to give the opening speech.
There were a number of prominent speakers in the morning session, but one in particular touched my heart. The new Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Dr. Gill Greer from New Zealand, gave a sincere and moving speech on the challenges we still face in reaching the goals set out at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994 on access to reproductive health. She mentioned that 74 per cent of all maternal deaths could be prevented if all women had access to help when they face problems in pregnancy or birth. But still some 200 million women lack access to contraception to control pregnancy.
Dr. Greer pointed towards the huge responsibility that lies with parliamentarians. “We can be the bridge between people and government,” she said. “And we can advocate for peoples rights.” I think all the 180 parliamentarians that are present here in Bangkok feel that responsibility, and I hope everyone will go home and translate their visions and words into action.
This afternoon the regional groups met again to discuss particular issues and actions that we can engage in to make progress. We should all look at how we can continue to raise funding for improving access to health care, contraception and strengthening rights of women in the world.
In the European group we were particularly worried about the increasing opposition to reproductive health and rights, both in Europe, the United States and the developing world. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to counter this opposition and insist that we protect the rights that we have already obtained. We have already made good progress today and the day is not over yet. I am sure that we will come out of this conference with a lot of concrete work to do when we come home.
I have met many inspiring colleagues from around the world, and it is always a pleasure to encounter people who are passionate about their work. I don't know if it characterizes people who are engaged in reproductive rights, but I feel a very strong commitment and enthusiasm about the agenda here. I will do my best to translate that into action!
22 November
Day Two
Last day of the conference. We began the day in thematic working groups to dig deeper into an area of special interest. I chose to be in the group that looked at the opposition to the reproductive rights agenda – not because opposition is that strong in Denmark, but in other countries, the opposition is substantial, powerful and in some places increasing.
We therefore drew up a comprehensive action plan on how to counter opposition. We agreed that sharing information and raising public awareness about the issues where important, as well as including sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in development cooperation.
In the afternoon we adopted a statement from the conference that commits each of us to further promote access to reproductive health in our home countries. There are specific measures so we can evaluate our progress next time we meet.
The next conference will be held in Cairo, Egypt, in 2009. The year will mark the 15th anniversary of the Cairo plan of action from 1994, when the first International Conference on Population and Development was held. So we will return to the place where it all began and take stock of progress again in three years.
It has been wonderful and inspiring to take part in this conference, which indeed helped to get a picture of the challenges we face in securing women’s rights and access to health services in the world. I hope next time we meet we will be one step closer to meeting the targets we have set out for reducing maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and violence against women, which are all preconditions of achieving development in the world.
Tomorrow I'm off to Vietnam for a short study tour of youth projects on sexual education. I can't wait to see how some of these policies actually work in real life.
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