Stockholm Parliamentarians’ Meeting Follows Standard UNFPA Script

By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D. | April 28, 2014

From April 23-25, a meeting was held in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the 20-year review of the Cairo Programme of Action.

Co-hosted by UNFPA, the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development*, and the Swedish Parliament, the “6th International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action” concluded with the publication of the “Stockholm Statement of Commitment” and a “Declaration on Human Rights.”

The actual contents of the “Stockholm Commitment” follows the usual template seen at Bali and The Hague – both of which are conveniently referenced within it – see point 7 below.  Essentially, it’s nothing novel for the UNFPA and entirely too novel for the UN proper.  Among the things it includes that are outside the realm of agreed UN language are the (repeated) phrase “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” “comprehensive sexuality education” for youth “at all levels,” and references to sexual orientation and gender identity – which were the entire focus of the accompanying “Declaration on Human Rights” (PDF).

On the one hand, there’s not much new to see here.  On the other, there’s now yet another document floating around in search of resolutions to refer to it, which means one more thing UN delegates need to be aware of – the better to ignore it later.

The template followed by the Stockholm meeting has become very familiar to those following the ICPD beyond 2014 process:

1) UNFPA coordinates with co-sponsors to fund and arrange the meeting.

2) A group of of people are invited. They may be youth activists, parliamentarians, human rights experts, or whatever other demographic is the focus of the meeting.  Attendees are selected because they are a) already on board with the agenda UNFPA wishes to advance, or b) are considered to be potential recruits to the cause.

3) The meeting takes place over the course of a few days, during which like-minded people have the opportunity to network and form stronger coalitions and plan strategy.  Meanwhile, potential recruits are inundated with advocacy messages and social peer pressure.  Anyone not in agreement would find himself or herself in a definite minority.

4) A statement/declaration/commitment is issued at the conclusion of the meeting.  Generally, this is a summary document representing the views of the organizers, and is not a negotiated text, particularly as they are not binding and the attendees are not able to commit to anything on behalf of their entire governments anyway.  These outcome documents are generally packed full of references to other similar documents advancing the same position.

5) Attendees are encouraged to join their countries’ respective delegations to the UN for special events like ECOSOC commissions (like the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Population and Development, etc.)  They are encouraged to work from the talking points of the meeting in generating their statements and forming their negotiation positions.

6) Efforts are made to include references to the meeting’s outcome text in official UN statements.  This is important, because the practical value of the meeting document is effectively zero plus whatever attention it receives in more meaningful places.

7) Part of the reason these UNFPA-sponsored outcome documents typically reference each other is so that if any of them gets referenced in a UN resolution or the negotiated text of a commission, the references it contains are, by extension, given a higher platform.  It’s a bit like nesting dolls.

* This organization was a notable proponent of the infamous Estrela Report, ultimately rejected in the European Parliament.

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