REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL
WOMEN'S HEALTH CONFERENCE FOR CAIRO'94

JANUARY 24-28,1994 RIO DE JANERIO

INTRODUCTION

The Rio Conference - "Reproductive Health and Justice: International Women's Health Conference for Cairo '94"- took place from January 24 to 28, 1994, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In five short days, the 215 women from 79 countries who gathered in Rio generated a twenty-one-point statement and strategies and activities to ensure that women's perspectives and experiences are considered and acted upon by the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) to be held in Cairo in September 1994.

Just as important as these tangible accomplishments, and perhaps even more so, were the processes that took place amongst participants at both the personal and the broader political levels. The effects of these processes are hard to capture in words. Progress, empowerment, solidarity, challenge, hopefulness, change, diversity, courage, friend ship, learning, and listening were some of the words used by participants in the concluding session of the Rio Conference to describe their experiences there. This introduction hopes to convey the spirit of the meeting by explaining how it was organized, and its structure and process.

Many women's meetings were convened during 1993 at national and regional levels in which reproductive health and population issues were discussed. Following from these, one of the aims of the Rio Conference was to "search for and identify common ground and universalities in women's perspectives on reproductive health and justice, "while recognizing and respecting the diversity that exists in the women's movement. In the words of Jacqueline Pitanguy of the Secretariat, conference participants sought "to create a chorus, where the different voices can come together in harmony."


THE CONFERENCE PLANNING PROCESS

Diversity was present from the beginning of the conference planning process in the international Organizing Committee (OC). The OC included fourteen women from women's organizations and networks with diverse perspectives and experiences, and from eleven countries. The OC envisioned this conference as a political event with two purposes: to develop tools and strategies to influence the process of the ICPD, and to build solidarity and strengthen the women's health movement as an important political actor in the ICPD and beyond. The OC was supported by a Secretariat comprised of Citizenship, Studies, Information, Action (CEPIA) in Brazil, and the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) in the United States.

The OC wanted to have the meeting in a Southern country, and Brazil seemed most appropriate as CEPIA, in Rio de Janeiro, was part of the Secretariat and willing to serve as host. In addition, Rio had hosted the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, where discussions on population policies were intense and heated at times. At UNCED, it seemed difficult for women to develop a common agenda for reproductive health, and women's dissatisfaction with existing programs was understood by many in the population and family planning fields to mean that women were "against family planning." Many women present at UNCED, and those who subsequently have been involved in some of these discussions, decided that it was necessary to continue the efforts to achieve broader solidarity among women.

The process of planning the Rio Conference was extremely enriching, even if painstaking and at times slow, as all OC members were consulted on major decisions. Differences were negotiated, and agreements were reached by communicating over long distances, which was not always easy. One of the more difficult tasks the OC faced was developing the invitation list. Early on, it was decided that the meeting had to be limited to two hundred participants to allow for in-depth discussion and to achieve its purposes. In fact, the OC faced budgetary and organizational constraints to meet even this number. They wanted to be as inclusive as possible, while recognizing that some very talented women with important contributions to make to the conference would inevitably be left out. The OC therefore decided that, rather than invite individuals, they would ask organizations to nominate a representative to attend.

Criteria for invitations were designed to elicit participation from a wide cross-section of women that recognized diversity of region, nationality, culture, age, sexual orientation, income level, profession, and philosophy. Special efforts were made to find organizations active in the processes leading to the ICPD. The meeting was successful in achieving diverse representation. Women from regions like North Africa, francophone West Africa, and Eastern Europe, which are usually under-represented in international meetings, were present in good numbers. Despite these efforts, there were few women from organizations of indigenous peoples (see Appendix VII, "Statement by Indigenous Women,") and none from organizations of women with disabilities. On the other hand, and of great significance, was the strong presence of women of color, notably from the United States, who said that this was the "first time" so many of them had been in an international meeting.


RIO CONFERENCE STRUCTURE

The meeting was carefully planned to ensure plenty of time for debate, and much of the week was spent in working groups, which followed panels on various topics. (See the Summary of the Rio Conference Agenda, page 8). Every evening and one half day in the middle were left free for unstructured discussion and meetings amongst participants. The importance of cross-regional interaction was stressed throughout, and this was facilitated by deliberate efforts to combine regions in the working groups, and by having translators. Translation for plenaries was available in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, and three of the six working groups also had translation.

The conference started off with a review of the issues raised by women organizing for reproductive health and justice in different regions (South-east Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America), in networks (Women Living under Muslim Laws, women of color in the United States), and at the international level. The first two and a half days were designed around topical panels, each followed by working-group discussions on the topics covered. The presentations were deliberately kept very brief, and presenters were asked to highlight key issues for discussion in the working groups. The plenary sessions were: Population Policies and Their Impact on Women, North-South Relations, Gender-based Power and Sexuality, Reproductive Health and Rights, and Strategizing for Cairo.

Conference rapporteurs produced a daily summary based on the reports of the working groups. These summaries included issues on which there was general agreement, major debates and other issues, and suggestions for strategies. Working group membership stayed the same for the first three days, which gave continuity and depth to the discussions. For the discussions on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, different working groups were formed to develop strategies for the ICPD based on people's particular interests. Participants reviewed the summaries from the first three days as a starting point, and then focused on the following themes:




THE RIO STATEMENT

The reports from the working-group discussions on Thursday afternoon, together with the summaries of the first three days, provided the basis for the draft "Rio Statement," which was circulated on Friday morning for discussion. Following presentations in plenary, and working-group discussions that morning, revision of the twenty-one point document began. The statement was read and revised line-by-line in plenary, in what was a remarkable exercise in democracy and building of solidarity with diversity. The document was completed and adopted after five hours of sometimes difficult discussion and negotiation. Participants worked hard to find wording that encompassed diverse perspectives while moving forward to develop a viable agenda for reproductive health and justice.

Some differences of opinion still exist. Recognizing that population policies are a reality, a majority of participants agreed that women's health advocates should engage in making them more democratic, women-centered, and integrated with health and development priorities. Some argued that all population policies are inherently detrimental to women, and that women should instead promote social and development policies. Contraceptive technologies were another issue on which there are different views. These differences did not prevent the meeting from reaching agreement on a range of important issues that formed the basis of the Rio Statement. There was unanimity amongst the participants on a great number of themes, including the need to:

It was agreed that the participants could use the Rio Statement as they wished; in whole, excerpted, or sumrmarized form, with the press, for lobbying government delegations, for public education, and for mobilizing women's organizations or other non governmental organizations. See also the List of Goals, Strategies, and Activities.


NEXT STEPS

We were all aware at the end of the conference that in many ways this was only a beginning. Debates, clarification, and solidarity-building must continue amongst those present in Rio and others, during the next Preparatory Committee meeting, at ICPD itself, and in many other meetings at both national and international levels. We hope that each of us who was present in Rio will take responsibility to cultivate the seeds that sprouted there and continue to work together to improve the situation of women, and to ensure their reproductive health and rights, and justice and dignity for all human beings.


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