PRESS RELEASE
First event in the
ICPD+5 review process
Report on Day One of the
UNFPA RoundTable on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive
Health
NEW YORK, 14 April
(UNFPA) -- Many of today's adolescents are sexually active,
and urgently need reproductive health information and services. But
acknowledging and addressing these needs is still a very sensitive
issue in most countries, and is one of the most difficult aspects of
implementing the decisions of the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD).
Speakers and participants
in the round-table meeting on "Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive
Health and Rights: Assessing the Impact of ICPD" stressed the need
to overcome attitudes and other barriers that prevent young people
from receiving support and protection. Several also emphasized that
young people should help shape the programmes that aim to serve
them.
The four-day meeting, sponsored
by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), began this morning
with a statement from UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Nafis Sadik, and
panel presentations on the theme of "Promoting an Enabling
Environment for Adolescent Reproductive Health".
The meeting
was opened by Virginia Davis Floyd, Director of the Ford Foundation.
The foundation is hosting the meeting, which brings together experts
and advocates on adolescent health from more than two dozen
countries to review progress in implementing the Cairo Programme of
Action with respect to adolescent reproductive and sexual
health.
"The biggest obstacle facing adolescents exercising
their right to reproductive health may lie not in resources or
delivery systems; nor infrastructures, but in the minds of other
people," Dr. Sadik told the group.
She pointed out that many
members of the world's largest-ever generation of youth--some 1.2
billion people--are marrying later and starting sexual activity
earlier, often without the knowledge or services to prevent unwanted
pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. Adolescent women account
for an estimated 4.4 million abortions each year. In some countries,
girls still marry at an early age and face health risks from early
pregnancy; their reproductive health needs also are not being met.
The ICPD explicitly addressed these issues for the first
time, Dr. Sadik noted, and "extended the concept of the right to
reproductive health to cover sexual education, information and
services to adolescents." But the topic "continues to be, one of the
most contentious and difficult areas in which to work," she added,
and many "myths and misunderstandings were not totally
dispelled."
Controversy continues regarding parental
responsibilities, and whether to provide reproductive health
information and services to young people. Parents are often
unwilling to admit their own children may be sexually active.
"Parents carry the ultimate responsibility for the well-being of
their children, but the way they exercise it must be flexible and
subject to change as their children grow up, and as society changes
around them. Dr. Sadik said.
"The most difficult, the most
intractable concerns are those which are considered private or
family matters," she observed, including sexual abuse and violence,
incest and female genital mutilation.
"We know from our
experience and our research that adolescents want to take
responsibility for their own lives, including their sexuality and
their reproductive health." Adults need to learn that young people
are not merely "children in need of protection," she said. Youth
need to "help make and implement the policies that will shape their
lives."
"Legal, religious and social barriers remain," Dr.
Sadik added, "but the main battle in most countries now is to
concentrate policy makers' attention on the urgency of the issue, to
make resources available, and to remove the conceptual barriers
still in the minds of many service providers at all
levels."
Dr. Pramilla Senanayake, Assistant Secretary-General
of the International Planned Parenthood Federation started the
morning's panel discussion. "To perceive young people as sexual
beings still seems to be one of the hardest things to accept in most
societies," she pointed out. She emphasized the need to think about
adolescent reproductive health in terms of human rights, and to
recognize the harmful consequences of violating young people's
rights. Giving adolescent services, education, support and guidance
is not enough: "The real challenge is to relinquish our control over
young people and to work with them to implement their
rights."
Kwame Ampomah, a Director of Ghana's National
Population Council, informed the meeting of the progress made
in his country in the field of adolescent reproductive health. A
national assessment had showed an urgent need to improve adolescent
reproductive health programmes in Ghana. An Adolescent
Reproductive Health Summit had led to the formation of groups
working on programme strategies. A coalition had also been formed to
promote adolescent reproductive health, and the Population Council
was working with religious groups towards the same ends.
The
issue had acquired greater momentum since 1996, with the President
of Ghana's repeated calls for better programmes and the proposal of
a draft policy on ARH. Mr. Ampomah also reported that UNFPA was
working in support of some of the programmes for ARH in his country,
and that Ghana's National Youth Council had been strengthened and
placed at the centre of reproductive health issues related to young
persons.
Wendy Thomas, the Chief Executive of the British
group Population Concern, spoke of the need to allay adults'
concerns that discussing adolescent reproductive health would lead
to greater sexual activity by young people. Those fears are
unfounded, she said, and are preventing meaningful discussions of
the issue. Open discussion would clear the way for adequate training
of young people about reproductive and sexual health. She
assailed the "hypocrisy" of some large corporations that exploit
young people's sexuality to sell their products, but are reluctant
to contribute towards the provision of ARH information and
services.
There were more panellists in the afternoon: Dr.
Charlotte Gardiner of UNFPA's Technical and Policy Division gave
examples of the Fund's support for adolescent reproductive health
programmes. Claudio Stern, coordinator of research on adolescent
sexuality and reproductive health at El Colegio de Mexico, spoke of
the need to view teen pregnancy in its sociocultural context and not
simply a health problem. And Seema Chouhan of the Centre for
Development and Population Activities talked about her group's
advocacy programme in support of adolescents' sexual and
reproductive health and rights.
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