World Population Day 2018 – “Family Planning is a Human Right”
World Population Day 2018 – “Family Planning is a Human Right”: World Population Day, which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, was established by the then-Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987. By resolution 45/216 of December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly decided to continue World Population Day to enhance awareness of population issues, including their relations to the environment and development. The Day was first marked on 11 July 1990 in more than 90 countries. Since then, a number of UNFPA Country Offices and other organizations and institutions commemorate World Population Day, in partnership with governments and civil society.
2018 theme: “Family Planning is a Human Right”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights, where family planning was, for the first time, globally affirmed to be a human right.
The conference’s outcome document, known as the Teheran Proclamation, stated unequivocally: “Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”
Embedded in this legislative language was a game-changing realization: Women and girls have the right to avoid the exhaustion, depletion and danger of too many pregnancies, too close together. Men and women have the right to choose when and how often to embrace parenthood — if at all. Every individual has the human right to determine the direction and scope of his or her future in this fundamental way.
Nine standards to uphold the human right to family planning:
- Non-discrimination: Family planning information and services cannot be restricted on the basis of race, sex, language, religion, political affiliation, national origin, age, economic status, place of residence, disability status, marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Available: Countries must ensure that family planning commodities and services are accessible to everyone.
- Accessible: Countries must ensure that family planning commodities and services are accessible to everyone.
- Acceptable: Contraceptive services and information must be provided in a dignified manner, respecting both modern medical ethics and the cultures of those being accommodated.
- Good quality: Family planning information must be clearly communicated and scientifically accurate.
- Informed decision-making: Every person must be empowered to make reproductive choices with full autonomy, free of pressure, coercion or misrepresentation.
- Privacy and confidentiality: All individuals must enjoy the right to privacy when seeking family planning information and services.
- Participation: Countries have an obligation to ensure the active and informed participation of individuals in decisions that affect them, including health issues.
- Accountability: Health systems, education systems, leaders and policymakers must be accountable to the people they serve in all efforts to realize the human right to family planning.
Current estimates indicate that roughly 83 million people are being added to the world’s population every year. The global population is expected to reach almost 10 billion in 2050.
Family planning allows people to attain their desired number of children and determine the spacing of pregnancies. Access to safe, voluntary family planning is a human right.
Some family planning methods, such as condoms, help prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. By preventing unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortions, family planning also prevents deaths of mothers and children.
Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children. WHO SEARO
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