C-Fam Statement during the 55th Session of the Commission on Population and Development

By C-Fam Staff | January 10, 2022

The Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) is a non-profit educational organization that interacts withdiplomats and the general public about issues related to human rights. For over twenty years, we have worked todefend human life at all stages and the family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society within internationalinstitutions.

The theme of the fifty-fifth session of the Commission on Population and Development relates to the third chapterof the Programme of Action adopted in Cairo, Egypt at the 1994 International Conference on Population andDevelopment. This chapter focuses on the imperative to lift people out of extreme poverty avoiding environmentaldegradation.

The consensus of the International Conference on Population and Development was pivotal in that it marked achange away from the population-control mindset of the past and envisioned a world in which protecting people’shuman rights and fundamental freedoms, rather than taking them away, was not only the right thing to do, but also the best way to achieve sustainable development. As people rise out of poverty, they have access to better nutrition andhealth care, better education, and greater social and financial security. This has been accompanied by a reduction inchild and forced marriage, and as more women are receiving more years of education, they are marrying as adults andbearing fewer children across their lifetimes than previous generations. While this may be a natural result of povertyreduction and development, it must not be seen as an end in itself.

Columbia University’s professor Matthew Connelly wrote in his book Fatal Misconception, “if the idea ofplanning other people’s families is now discredited, this very human tendency is still with us.” As global leadersgather to discuss strategies to address climate change and sustainable environmental practices in an increasinglyglobalized world, there is a temptation to seek a panacea in family planning or “reproductive health” more broadly.

Family planning, which includes but is not limited to contraceptive methods, is often promoted as key toachieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the Programme of Action of the International Conference onPopulation and Development, and the goals of empowering women and girls and achieving gender equality. Much ismade of the claim that over 200 million women in developing regions have an “unmet need” for family planning, afigure that is frequently misinterpreted as measuring lack of access to modern methods. In fact, a lot has changed sincethe ICPD. Before 1990, when women were surveyed regarding their fertility intentions, a quarter of those designated as having an “unmet need” for family planning expressed a lack of knowledge regarding the subject as a reason for non-use.Today, family planning advocates proudly say that knowledge of family planning methods is near-universal.Furthermore, those citing lack of access as a reason for non-use only account for about five per cent of “unmet need.”

Despite this, eliminating all “unmet need” remains a United Nations agency’s target and increasing use of family planning methods has been cited as one of the top environmental priorities by experts. Such strategies repeat thecommon error of equating non-use with lack of access, and equating “unmet need” with unsatisfied demand. In fact,most women who described having a “need” cite concerns about the side effects and the risks of contraceptivemethods, religious or other opposition to using them, or consider themselves at low risk of becoming pregnant.Pursuing the elimination of all “unmet need” would seem to require an element of coercion, or else risk wastingvaluable money and resources to satisfy a demand that is not there.

There is also the danger of policies that are harmful to women and girls being promoted as a way of empoweringthem. The decriminalization of prostitution, for example, would provide legal cover to those who traffic vulnerablewomen and children to sell their bodies, as opposed to combating human trafficking and offering safety and legitimateeconomic opportunities for those who have been victimized.

Sustained and inclusive economic growth cannot be achieved without security and resilience against bothmanmade and natural disasters. Stable societies require good governance and accountability for those in leadershipas well as policies and laws that create the optimal conditions for human flourishing in all sectors of society. As theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states, “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit ofsociety and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” It is therefore crucial that the family be carefullyconsidered when enacting laws and policies to increase economic growth. Much of the work that takes place within a family, including care for children and elders, is not accounted for in the formal economy, but is essential not only to ensure the physical wellbeing of all members of a family, but also as a critical social tie between its members.

Human beings do not live best in isolation. The COVID-19 pandemic has created further pandemics of mentalhealth problems, substance abuse, and increased domestic violence. It has also resulted in the departure from theworkforce of many people, especially women who are mothers, due to the closure of schools and the need to providecare for children. For many women, this was a setback in terms of income and career advancement. Yet in many wealthy societies, the need for two incomes to maintain a decent lifestyle prevents mothers and fathers from staying home with their young children who would otherwise would do so. As developing regions continue to grow their economies,steps must be taken to ensure that the goal of economic growth does not come at the expense of family life and drivethe alienation of individual persons who increasingly live apart from family and have been hard-hit by the effects ofthe pandemic.

The theme of this year’s session of the Commission on Population and Development is a wide-ranging andimportant one. There is much that has already been agreed upon by the global community that, if fully achieved,would go a long way toward improving people’s lives around the world. It is therefore critical that the Commission’swork focus on these areas of prior agreement and fulfilling the promises already made, and not become endlessly embroiled in debates over divisive issues as in years past – and risking the absence of an agreed outcome. There isnot, nor will there be, consensus over issues like abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity, comprehensive sexualityeducation, and other similar issues that have stymied negotiations in this and other fora for decades. The way forward is through consensus and recommitment to what has already been decided but requires greater will and effort to achieve.

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