• by IPS Correspondents (united nations)
• Thursday, December 15, 1994
• Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 15 (IPS) - The United Nations is turning its oldest commission into a watchdog body to guard agreements made at a global conference on population and development last September.

The 184-member General Assembly agreed this week to revamp the 47-year-old Population Commission to monitor action on decisions taken in Cairo at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

The body will be renamed the Commission on Population and Development and will be expanded from its 27 members to 53. The name change reflects the link drawn by more than 170 nations in Cairo between population and such development issues as economic policies, the environment, and women.

The nations approved a 20-year programme of action that seeks to stabilise population growth by enhancing the participation of women and minorities into basic decision-making and by improving health and education services.

The inter-governmental Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the United Nations' main coordinating body for development activities, is to approve guidelines for the new commission at its session in July next year.

U.N. officials predict a tough fight ahead for ECOSOC, with nations contesting issues like representation within the new commission, financing costs, and the revised mandate. ECOSOC will also have to spell out the conditions under which non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will participate.

According to Joe Chamie, director of the U.N. Population Division that serves as the secretariat for the Population Commission: "No one knows how it will work as yet."

Still, Chamie said the revitalised commission will focus largely on monitoring data, resources, and mechanisms at both the national and international level that are aimed at realising the Cairo action plan.

In the past, the Population Commission has provided technical data and studies on trends in population, the effects of economic policies on population growth, and reports on other demographic questions. The commission, which brings together experts nominated by their countries once every two years, has also monitored the follow-up to past U.N. conferences on population.

But the new General Assembly resolution makes clear that the numbers-driven approach of the Population Commission was inadequate to monitor the more holistic Cairo programme of action.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement