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Burning issue
48th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development
The 48th Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD48) was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 13th to 17th. This year’s topic was “Realizing the Future We Want: Integrating Population Issues into Sustainable Development, Including the Post-2015 Development Agenda.”
The informal sessions began one week before the session as the Financing for Development preparatory meetings were simultaneously taking place across the building. The week after the CPD the intergovernmental meeting on Means of Implementation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took place. The time is definitely a very busy one with the Post-2015 discussions happening at very advanced level and the many converging themes and processes.
The International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Caucus, of which ASTRA is a member, had the possibility to present an oral intervention during the CPD session calling for “respect and protection of our right to have control over our own bodies and our sexuality, without any form of stigma, discrimination, coercion, or violence. (…)It is critical that we build on the gains we have made so far, and build on the momentum that exists. This is the time; right here, right now, at CPD 48 and during this critical moment in the post-2015 process, more than twenty years after Cairo. It is high time that our language and policies adapt to the realities and needs of our people.”
The international SRHR coalition also came forward with a civil society statement to express its position as well as disappointment with the process as well as lack of outcome document At the end of two weeks of thought-provoking and intense discussions, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) concluded on April 17, 2015 without a resolution. On the final day, the chair produced a well-balanced text reflective of the various positions staked by governments, but to everyone’s surprise, this text was suddenly withdrawn by the chair only two hours after being distributed to delegates, without the chance for governments to engage in the normal fine-tuning that is routine at CPD negotiations. The ISRRC came forward with a statement of the civil society urging the UN Member States to “continue to work together at CPD to reach agreement on how best to address gaps and challenges in implementing the Programme of Action.
We hope that when the CPD reconvenes in April 2016 to review its methods of work, governments will use this opportunity to strengthen the CPD as a space to build consensus through negotiations, as they have for 20 years.” For the first time in the 21 years of CPD’s history the session ended without a resolution.
Извор: ASTRA Network - UN DESA – 05.05.2015
