[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               COMMENDING STATEMENT OF MR. WERNER FORNOS

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, the International Conference on Population 
and Development, which was recently held in Cairo, Egypt, was one of 
the most successful U.N. conferences in recent memory. The Cairo 
conference, I believe, will make a significant contribution toward 
addressing the critical global population and development issues for 
the next 20 years.
  The program of action which was finalized at the Cairo conference 
produced statements addressing a wide range of issues, including, for 
example, universal access to modern family planning services. The Cairo 
conference issued the strongest international statement yet crafted for 
empowering women to make vital decisions in their personal lives and in 
the development process.
  The U.S. delegation to Cairo, under the skillful leadership of Vice 
President Al Gore and under Secretary of State Tim Wirth, made 
significant contributions to the consensus-building process that 
ultimately produced the notable final document. In addition, the U.S. 
delegation was assisted by numerous representatives from 
nongovernmental organizations [NGO] whose experience and dedication 
proved enormously helpful to the U.S. effort.
  I would like to commend to my colleagues the statement of Mr. Werner 
Fornos, which Mr. Fornos delivered at the Cairo conference. Mr. Fornos, 
a nongovernmental organization representative to the conference, is 
president of the Population Institute, a nonprofit, Washington-based 
organization.
  There being no objection, the remarks were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

    Remarks by Werner Fornos, President of the Population Institute

       During these still early hours of the 1994 International 
     Conference on Population and Development, many of us sense 
     that we are participating in more than the third decennial 
     United Nations conference on population.
       It is our sense and our vision that the final Cairo 
     document will become a milestone in the annals of humankind.
       This very meeting may be the last best chance for the 
     nations of the world to shape the principles and the 
     strategies that will result in an equitable balance between 
     the world's population, its environment and resources.
       My own expectation is that we will focus sharply on the 
     issue of universal access to family planning. I firmly 
     believe we can develop at this meeting a definitive strategy 
     to achieve such access within the next 5 to 10 years.
       Slowing down the rapid growth of human population must be 
     the first and foremost item on our agenda.
       Consider that we live today in a world of some 5.7 billion 
     people that last year increased by 93 million--the equivalent 
     of adding to our planet the populations of the United 
     Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
       But only 5 million of these people were added to the 
     industrialized world, where there might have been some hope 
     that they could be reasonably accommodated.
       Some 88 million people, however, were added to the world's 
     very poorest countries--those where mere survival is too 
     often a day-to-day struggle.
       It is in these countries where each year reproductive 
     related complications claim the lives of up to 1 million 
     women--the equivalent of a World War II Holocaust every 6 
     years.
       It is high time for an iron-clad global commitment to the 
     proposition that every woman who wants to control her own 
     fertility has both the right and the means to do so.
       It is high time for the world to ensure universal access to 
     voluntary family planning.
       Within this context, we must always reject coercion and we 
     must keep in mind that there are two sides to the coercion 
     coin.
       We must neither condone nor tolerate coercion as a strategy 
     for reducing population growth.
       At the same time, we must never condone nor tolerate 
     coercive pregnancies that women are subjected to when they 
     are denied access to the methods and means to control their 
     own fertility.
       There are two special matters that this conference must 
     deliberate in a courageous and forthright manner.
       First, there is the issue of male responsibility. There is 
     virtual worldwide acceptance of an apparent axiom that both 
     the burden of fertility regulation and the burden of rearing 
     children rest solely with women.
       Male attitudes must change if there is to be gender 
     equality and a meaningful improvement in the quality of life 
     for the next generation, and generations yet unborn.
       Governments can assist in this endeavor by instituting 
     information, education and communication programs that 
     emphasize the importance of male participation, both in the 
     planning of the family and in family life thereafter.
       Though serious concern has been directed toward the 
     breakdown of the family unit, I believe the basic family unit 
     can not only survive but actually thrive, as it never has 
     before.
       But only if the status of women can be substantially 
     raised. And only if men throughout the world can be convinced 
     that assuming responsibilities in family planning and in 
     family life enhances rather than threatens their masculinity.
       Secondly, it is essential that there be a modification of 
     unsustainable consumption practices.
       Developing countries are implored to reduce their 
     population growth to avoid an erosion in development gains.
       But these same developing countries have every right to 
     question the wasteful consumption habits of industrialized 
     countries--patterns that contribute to draining resources 
     available to the developing as well as the industrialized 
     world.
       There can be neither prevention of environmental 
     degradation nor the realization of sustainable development 
     until there is considerable progress in reducing population 
     growth and in reversing current consumption and production 
     patterns.
       Finally, each and every one of us must resolve that the 
     1994 ICPD Program of Action will have a life beyond Cairo. 
     The stakes are too high for this document to remain mere 
     words on paper.
       I implore each of you here today to extend your very best 
     effort toward transforming the words we write in Cairo into 
     deeds: viable programs in the cities, towns and villages 
     across the length and breadth of this planet.
       We simply cannot afford the luxury of waiting for someone 
     else to follow through on what we have begun.
       If the next billion people join us on this planet in 10 
     years, measurable improvements through development will not 
     be achieved.
       Time lost in the struggle to stabilize world population 
     before it doubles again can never be recovered.
       We must address the goals of development and slowing 
     population growth simultaneously.
       It is by our ability to convert the Cairo Program of Action 
     from rhetoric into reality the work of this conference will 
     be ultimately judged.
       The reward for our success in this endeavor will be a 
     better quality of life for people everywhere. The penalty for 
     failure is unthinkable.

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