47th Session Issues
UN Policy on Population
The major issue in global population is whether or not the international community has the political determination and resources to stabilize world population.
To date, the LJN has held five major conferences to project the global population until the year 2050 and to establish a framework for possible solutions. Statistics by the Population Newsletter state, that in the year 2050 the global population will be somewhere between 7.9 and 11.9 billion persons. The most recent and significant UN Conference to date was the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in September of 1994.'I'he ICPD is generally considered to be the most productive conference. One such reason, is that the member nations had a more personal and deeper understanding of the gravity of global population, its modem control methods, and how they bear upon the agendas of the other four major conferences. Projected implementation of the ICPD's 20 year Programme of Action would theoretically result in the global population being about 9.8 billion. At the Fourth Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, two principal documents with regards to how Family Planning emerged, the Platform for Action and the Beijing Declaration. These documents complemented the language of the and in some cases went further than the ICPD Programme of Action. The major areas of deviation were reproductive health and rights. The most important assertion in the Beijing documents regarding reproductive health was the recognition that, "the human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination, and violence." Other advances from the Fourth World Conference on Women was the recognition of the need to balance the needs of young people's need for confidential reproductive and sexual health service and the responsibilities of parents for their children's health care.
Despite early setbacks in financial resources, the United Nations has operated swiftly in the implementation of the Cairo initiatives and pursuing the organization of the agenda. In December of 1994, the General Assembly unanimously agreed to adopt the ICPD implementation. The resolution put forth by the General Assembly stressed the importance of a three-tier operation with relevant organizations including the General Assembly itself, ECOSOC, and a revitalized Population Commission. It also approved text that would be considered for approval by ECOSOC that focuses on the need for upgraded reporting on annual financial assistance provided for population activities.
Therefore the recent focus of UN efforts on population has been geared toward the implementation of the ICPD initiatives and is spearheaded by the Population Commission which was renamed to the Commission on Population and Development. Another important committee, is the task force, Inter-Agency Task Force on Basic Social Services.
The major problem of the supporting and providing world’s population is still not completely resolved or settled. There are gaps and problems with the current plans that need to be scrutinized and evaluated in terms of each nation-state and the global community. This committee is charged with this task of understanding the current plan as well as, finding new solutions.