PRESS
RELEASE
United Nations Population
Fund
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Contact: |
in New
York:
Alex
Marshall
Fax: (212)
557-6416
in Rennes:
Corrie Shanahan
Tel: +33 2 99 02
2715
Fax: +33 2 99 02
2649
William A. Ryan
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The ICPD+5 review
process
Technical Meeting to
Examine Provision of
Reproductive Health Care to
Refugees
New York, 30 October 1998 --
Protecting the reproductive health of refugees will be the
focus
of an international meeting organized by the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) in Rennes,
France, from 3-5 November.
Experts from the world’s leading relief organizations will
assess
progress in meeting the reproductive health needs of
people displaced by war and disaster, including
pregnant women
and victims of rape.
Over 50 million people worldwide have
been forced to flee their homes as a result of war, civil
strife,
famine or persecution. About 25 per cent of the displaced are women
of reproductive age,
15-45 years; of these, one in five is likely
to be pregnant at any one time. Pregnant refugees are
often at
risk of malnourishment, violence and infectious diseases, and face
hazardous conditions
when giving birth.
Rape by soldiers,
paramilitary forces and members of organized mobs has been used as
a
premeditated act of war to terrorize civilian populations, as
happened recently in Bosnia and
Rwanda. But the vulnerable
position of refugee women and children puts them all at heightened
risk
of rape and sexual violence.
The breakdown in family
ties in crises often leads to increased unprotected sexual activity,
especially
among young persons, raising the risk of unwanted
pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases
including HIV/AIDS.
Methods of family planning including emergency contraception are not
always
available. As a result, many women resort to unsafe
abortions.
The Technical Meeting on Reproductive Health
Services in Crisis Situations will address all of these
issues in
the context of providing reproductive health care in refugee camps.
Participants will
examine how far the world has come towards
achieving the emergency-related objectives endorsed
by 179
countries at the 1994 International Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD) in
Cairo, which called for comprehensive
reproductive health care for all, including displaced persons.
The meeting is part of "ICPD+5", a series of conferences and
workshops to review progress since
the Cairo conference,
culminating in an international forum in The Hague from 8-12
February 1999,
and a 30 June-2 July 1999 Special Session of the
United Nations General Assembly.
The meeting at the National
School of Public Health in Rennes will involve experts from
UNFPA,
the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, the World Health Organization,
the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and
non-governmental
organizations, with varied experience working
with refugees in places like Africa’s Great Lakes
region, Bosnia
and Afghanistan. They will identify lessons learned and constraints
in meeting
refugees’ reproductive health needs, including:
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