POP/CAI/16 9th Meeting



9 September 1994




         POLITICAL MANIPULATION OF POPULATION, NOT DEMOGRAPHIC
          PRESSURE, IS PROBLEM IN RWANDA, REPRESENTATIVE SAYS


     Population and Development Conference
     Continues Discussion of National Experiences


     Patrick Mazimhaka, Minister for Youth, Sports and Cooperatives of Rwanda
told the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) this
morning that the problem in Rwanda has not been demographic pressure; it has
been the political manipulation of the population.


     Representing the new Government in Kigali for the first time before an
international conference, Mr. Mazimhaka stated that the genocide in Rwanda can
be seen as "a political response to challenges to established order and as yet
another attempt to manipulate demographics to serve political ends". In
addition to rehabilitating a devastated population, Rwanda now must embark on
development policies that would promote population stabilization.
     The fifth day of discussion on national experiences with population
issues was highlighted by statements from several African countries that faced
serious health care problems and high fertility rates.  High infant and
maternal mortality rates were cited as primary factors in attempting to form
population policies.


     Mariama Ali, Minister for Social Development, Population and Women's
Promotion of the Niger, stressing high migratory movements in her country
which have put two thirds of the population in one quarter of the territory,
said those trends would threaten the economy and the democratization process
in the Niger.  She joined several countries in affirming that no matter how
committed her Government was to the population issue, it could not implement
all its programmes without the help of the international community.
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     Press Release POP/CAI/16 9th Meeting (AM)




     9 September 1994


     Justin C. Malewezi, Vice State President of Malawi, said that his
country's social indicators were among the worst in the world, with a life
expectancy of only 48 at birth.  The many factors contributing to poor health
were poverty; high illiteracy rates, especially among women; too early, too
many, too frequent and too late pregnancies; and a high fertility rate of 6.7.
Malawi was one of the many countries in the world where "safe motherhood" had
been accepted as a strategy to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.


     Offering a Latin American perspective, Humberto de la Calle, Vice-
President of Colombia, called attention to his country's "great social jump",
where economic policy will be carried out with social criteria, and social
policy will be carried out with gender criteria.  The new social strategy had
seen significant advances in the demographic field with a sharp drop in the
fertility rate, a reduction in the child mortality rate and an increase in
women's life expectancy, he said.


     Statements were also made by the Minister for Labour and Home Affairs of
Botswana; Minister for Culture and Education of Estonia; and the Minister for
Justice, Culture and Women Affairs of Vanuatu, The Executive Director of the
Population Activities Fund Agency of Nigeria and the Permanent Representative
of Libya to the Arab League also addressed the Conference.


     The Conference will meet again at 3 p.m.today in an afternoon and evening
session to continue its review of national experiences with population
policies.
























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     9 September 1994


     Conference Work Programme


     The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) met
this morning to continue discussing national experiences in the population
field.


     Statements


     MARIAMA ALI, Minister for Social Development, Population and Women's
Promotion of the Niger:  The Niger launched its national population policy in
1992 to cut its population growth rate of 3.2 per cent, high infant mortality
of 123 per thousand, high migratory movements and uncontrolled urbanization of
15.2 per cent.  Those trends had led to the unequal distribution of the
population. More than two thirds of Niger's population lives in one quarter of
its territory.  If those trends continue, they will threaten the economy and
the democratization process in the Niger.  To forestall such dangers, the
Niger developed plans of action on population that were finance and
implemented by the Government.  Its commitment to the population issues led to
the creation of the Ministry for Social Development, Population and Women
Promotion.  Without emphasis on the education, health and training of the
population, especially young women, development is not possible in the Niger.


     No matter how committed the Niger is to the population issue, it cannot
implement all its programmes without the help of the international community.
 Therefore, the donor community, non-governmental organizations and other
groups should attend the forum the country will host later this year to
generate support for its population programmes.  The Conference should adopt
viable programmes in the final document.


     JUSTIN C. MALEWEZI, Vice State President of Malawi: Malawi's social
indicators are among the worst in the world.  Population growth stands at 3.2
per cent per annum.  Infant and child mortality rates stands at 135 per 1,000,
and 240 per 1,000 live births, respectively. Life expectancy is 48 and among
the lowest in the world.  In addition, this year 53,400 deaths are projected
due to HIV/AIDS, and an estimated 1 million carry the HIV/AIDS virus.  "The
many factors contributing to poor health are: poverty; high illiteracy rates,
especially among women; too early, too many, too frequent and too late
pregnancies; and a high fertility rate of 6.7."


     Aware of these critical issues, the new Government has identified poverty
alleviation as its top developmental objective.  Within this objective,
population and development issues, the implementation of a comprehensive
reproductive health care programme, safe motherhood and primary health care
are top priorities.  The Government has established policies that are
consistent with the draft programme of action.  Malawi's first


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     9 September 1994

 multi-party Government has a population policy that is based on the principle
that couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and
responsibly the number and spacing of their children, take into account the
needs of their living and future children, as well as their responsibilities
towards the community.  The challenges are to ensure that the majority of
Malawians have access to efficient and effective reproductive health services.
 The Government's efforts will have little impact, however, "unless the
underlying factors such as poverty, food insecurity and high illiteracy --
especially among women and girls -- are addressed concurrently".


     Nearly 35 per cent of all maternal deaths in Malawi are due to induced
abortions.  Noting that a significant proportion of the abortions carried out
are self-induced or, otherwise, unsafe, Malawi is one of the many countries in
the world where "safe motherhood" has been accepted as a strategy to reduce
maternal morbidity and mortality.  The draft programme of action does not, in
any way, promote or attempt to legalize abortion.  "Such an interpretation is
not only incorrect, but also dangerous because we are talking about the lives
of women who, together with our children, are the core and fabric or our
society."
     HUMBERTO DE LA CALLE, Vice-President of Colombia:  The plan of action
that comes out of the Conference must meet the complex conditions of the
moment and generate alternatives which enable the international community to
deal with several aspects of the topic in future.  For this, the
implementation of the financial commitments which the developed countries have
made should be honoured. They should be oriented towards "promotion of a
favourable economic context, an open and non-discriminatory commercial system,
strengthening of direct foreign investments, the reduction of the foreign debt
and the allocation of new and additional resources".


     The Colombian Government has undertaken a "great social jump" which means
that economic policy will be carried out with social criteria, and social
policy will be carried out with gender criteria.  The new social strategy
grants attention to trends in its population's structure and special
distribution.  Colombia is now the third most populated country in Latin
America, with 36 million people.  It has made significant advances in the
demographic field.  Fertility of 6.8 children per woman in the 1950s was cut
to 2.9 in the 1990s. There was 123 per thousand reduction of child mortality
from the 1950s to 1990.  Currently, the rate was 8 per cent in 1991.  Women's
life expectancy has risen from 52 years in the 1950s to 71 years in the 1985
to 1990 period.  That of men has risen from 49 to 65 years in the same period.
 Female illiteracy was cut from 25 per cent in 1963 to 12 in 1991.  About 52
per cent of the students at universities are women.


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     9 September 1994


      There has been agreement on a wide range of issues at the Conference.
The major task before it are the specific topics in which no consensus has
been reached.  In order to reach consensus on such controversial issues, the
national sovereignty of States should be acknowledged. "Divergence usually
produces more news than convergence. But faced with the agreements already
attained, it is realistic to think that when this Conference ends, the
millions of families which live in the developing world will have well-founded
reasons for believing in a better world."


     PATRICK K. BALOPI, Minister for Labour and Home Affairs of Botswana: The
cornerstone of Botswana's development policies since independence has been the
alleviation of poverty and the provision of basic social services. In
Botswana, the population grows at a rate of 3.5 per cent per annum. The
population will double between 1991 and 2011.  There has been a marked
increase in unwanted and teenage pregnancies, which sometimes end in unsafe
abortions. The Government has undertaken policies to address such problems,
including the provision of safe abortions under exceptional circumstance where
the life of the mother, child or both, are at risk.


     To keep population growth in line with the future rate of economic
growth, Botswana has undertaken measures to check rapid population growth.
With almost half of the population under the age of fifteen, current
programmes attempt to reach young people through education and health
services, while providing meaningful employment.


     The population programme works to coordinate all efforts in the
population field and works to improve the quality of family life. Programmes
have made progress, with the infant mortality rate falling to 45 per 1,000.
There is 95 per cent awareness among women of modern family-planning methods.
 In 1991, there was a 33 per cent contraceptive prevalence rate. The total
fertility rate fell from 6.5 in 1984 to 5.0 in 1988.


     Since the inception of the current plan in 1991, attempts have been made
to formulate an explicit population policy; to enhance the national
institutional capacity for integration of population factors into development
planning; and to strengthen the information base needed for planning,
monitoring and evaluating ongoing and future programmes.

     O. ADEGBOLA, Executive Director of the Population Activities Fund Agency
of Nigeria:  The country has a comprehensive national population policy, but
infant, child and maternal mortality rates are still too high.  Nigeria has
come to the Conference with high expectations of global consensus-building and
concerted action to improve the lives of people in all nations, particularly
the developing countries.  It expects much from the Conference.  Therefore, it
endorses the integration of population environment,


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poverty alleviation and development strategies which place peoples' welfare
and well-being at the centre of the development process.  It upholds gender
equity, which should be promoted as part of national and international
policies. It supports all measures to improve the health of women.


     Nigeria has designed a social crusade known as the Family Support
Programme, which is a socio-economic regeneration of society that leaves no
one out.  It will include education even for the adult population of the
country so that they can acquire skill and learn trades.  The aim of the
crusade is also to support the family morally and materially as the basic unit
society.


     The Conference should stress the need for peace as a vital ingredient for
development and growth.  "Our dreams of sustainable growth and development
would be an exercise in futility if we do not address the issue of the
promotion of peace among nations, States and within countries and
territories." The United Nations should set aside a day each year to be
observed as International Peace Day for promoting global peace and resolution
of conflicts.


     IBRAHIM M. ALBISHIRI, General Coordinator of Libyan/Egyptian Relations
and Permanent Representative of Libya to the Arab League:  "The human being is
the central object and the central means of development."  The society of
freedom, justice and equity in Libya is anxious to ensure the central role of
the human being and to raise the standard of living and quality of life
without any sort of discrimination.  All available means, all human and
material resources must be utilized to that one.
     Libya has been able to achieve higher standards of living through higher
levels of education, especially for women.  Record levels have been achieved
in the availability of health care and education.  Housing has been provided
on a substantially increased scale.  In order to provide potable water, Libya
has completed a number of projects, including the creation of a man-made
river.  There is also a project to irrigate 180,000 hectares of land.


     The Libyan objective to achieve a sufficient quality of life for its
people has been hampered by the "unjust blockade" initiated by the resolutions
of the United Nations.  The unjust resolutions that have created the sanctions
have caused untold suffering for the Libyan people.  It violates the
inalienable right to development that should be available to all the people of
the world.  The sense of common responsibility calls for providing the means
to all people to achieve a sufficient quality of life and sustainable
development.


     Serious measures must be adopted by the Conference in the fields of
health and social welfare.  The religious teachings of
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     9 September 1994

 the Libyan people reaffirm population policies that achieve a balance between
the needs of containing population growth and responsibility to the
traditions, beliefs and cultures of the peoples of all countries. Libya will
not support any measures that will be in conflict with its beliefs and
traditions.  A prosperous community is one in which an individual flourishes
within his family in a natural manner.  The Conference must find the best
means to preserve family cohesion.  The Libyan people believe in the sovereign
right of each country to fashion the fabric of the lives of its people.  Libya
has always supported all international efforts that seek to ensure all
fundamental human rights.


     PATRICK MAZIMHAKA, Minister for Youth, Sports and Cooperatives of Rwanda:
 The Cairo Conference is the first of its kind to be attended by the new
broad-based Government of Rwanda as established on 19 July 1994.  A number of
factors constrain Rwanda's present capacity to develop, let alone implement, a
meaningful national population action plan.  First of all, "a planned mass
genocide was carried out in Rwanda by the former President's political party,
its militia and the armed forces.  Over 1 million people were killed between
April and July -- that is, close to 20 per cent of the resident population of
Rwanda".

     Contrary to some claims that Rwanda has suffered from centuries of ethnic
strife, the fact is that Rwanda was not a victim of such conflict before 1959.
 Demographic pressure is not new to Rwanda and successive Governments,
including colonial authorities, have responded to this challenge basically by
"off-loading the excess population on neighboring countries".  "Thus, it was
Belgian policy to entice or coerce Banyarwanda to emigrate to Congo, Uganda
and Tanzania as mine and agricultural workers."  The problem in Rwanda has,
thus, not been demographic pressure; it has been the political manipulation of
the population.


     Post-independence governments continued the same policy, but added the
dimension of forced exile.  None of those policies have served to stabilize
the population of Rwanda.  They have, on the contrary, led to serious
destabilization of Rwanda and now threaten neighbouring countries.  The
genocide in Rwanda can be seen as "a political response to challenges to
established order and another attempt to manipulate demographics to serve
political ends". Rwanda now must embark on development policies that will
promote population stabilization.


     The population structure of the country has changed so much that Rwanda
now finds itself without valid, reliable, timely and culturally relevant
population data which is needed to form the basis for policy and programme
development.  There is an urgent need to address this constraint.  One
pressing issue involved the repatriation and integration of up to 2 million
refugees from neighbouring countries.  The Government should try to attract


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     9 September 1994

 qualified personnel to the country to provide the full range of semi- and
skilled technical, professional and administrative skills that are so much
needed after the recent genocide and mass exodus.  The Government has little
capacity to rehabilitate a devastated population, and support from the
international community is vital to handle that enormous task.
     PEETER OLESK, Minister for Culture and Education of Estonia: Estonia
currently has a population of 1 million, and its population growth rate has
been declining since 1991.  In order not to die out, families in Estonia must
have more children. However, that places Estonia in a paradoxical situation,
since an increased population will complicate the development process.


     The mortality pattern in Estonia is similar to other eastern European
countries, with a life expectancy being close to 65 years for men and 75 for
women. Compounding the situation caused by the declining birth rate, the
number of abortions conducted in Estonia is higher than the number of live
births. The high price of contraception in Estonia is a major problem. None
the less, Estonia maintains that women should be allowed to decide freely the
number and spacing of their children. A modern data base containing statistics
on population is needed to help form adequate population policy.


     JOHN SETHY REGENVANU, Minister for Justice, Culture, Religion and Women's
Affairs of Vanuatu: For the Conference to be successful, the programme of
action should contain practical measures which are acceptable and easy to
implement.


     Vanuatu has a population of approximately 150,000 people. With a growth
rate of 2.8 per cent per year, the population will more than double by 2010.
The urban population is increasing at a rate of 8 per cent per year. Vanuatu's
national development plan incorporates population objectives. It works to
increase awareness in government and private sectors of the influence of
population on development; to institutionalize a system to monitor
demographics; and to develop a programme of action that will ensure an
equitable distribution of opportunities and resources between the urban and
rural population.


     Health, education and infrastructure are priority areas of Vanuatu's
population and development programmes. Family-planning information is
distributed as widely as possible. Choice is a fundamental right of
individuals which should be exercised without coercion. Abortion is not an
option for family planning, but, when necessary, it should be safe. The
success of Vanuatu's population policy will depend partly on assistance from
international partners, both bilateral and multilateral.




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