The following is an excerpt from an article posted in the reliefweb in April 2018:
“The Commission on Population and Development convened governments, UN agencies, civil society actors, and others to its 51st Session (CPD51) in New York from April 9- 13th. The theme of this year’s Commission was “Sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration”.
Unfortunately, member states were unable to reach consensus on the outcome document as some member states did not want to agree on any clauses that would predetermine the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration currently under negotiation at the UN. This Commission however, saw strong cross-regional collaboration on advancing the issues of migration. Transnational support was expressed from member states that had never before spoken out strongly on these issues.
Action by Churches Together (ACT Alliance) was present at CPD51, with a delegation of ACT members and partners from around the world that are committed to working towards gender equality, and are leading programmes that incorporate sexual and reproductive health care services, advocacy or normative work in their settings. ACT Alliance recognizes that human dignity is a foundation to human rights, and that conceptions of human dignity have historically arisen out of faith and religious traditions. ACT also recognizes that gender equality and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of all human rights and for poverty reduction.
Access to SRHR which includes access to health care services, information, family planning, etc., is crucial and should be accessible to all regardless of migration status. Globally, there are 32.3 million women refugees, half of them being girls, who are affected disproportionately by emergencies.
Women, children and adolescents, especially girls, face an increased risk of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, human trafficking, child, early and forced marriage and other forms of sexual and gender based violence, and their needs and rights largely remain unprotected and unengaged. Considering these crucial times of international mobility, it was unfortunate that member states could not reach consensus on all aspects of social protection for all during CPD51.
ACT welcomed the opportunity to engage in CPD51 and to deepen the discussion around religion and SRHR in general, and in particular, in the context of human mobility and migration. ACT Alliance and partners including the World Council of Churches, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), German Justice Commission, and Islamic Relief USA hosted a public side event at CPD51. ”
Read the full post on reliefweb
