REL 406: Religion and Reproduction

U.N. Cairo Conference

International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt

Welcome to the 1994 Cairo Conference exhibit!  This page was created by Natalie Abernathy, Eliana Burgin, Madeline Dierauf, and Safi El-Gamal.

Below, you will find our sources organized into five thematic categories: conference announcement, conference report, programme of action, domestic reactions regarding the conference, and international reactions regarding the conference. Happy scrolling!

The United Nations organized the first World Population Conference in Rome in 1954 to “exchange scientific information on demographic variables, their determinants and their consequences.” [1] At similar population conferences throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries (with the most recent one occurring in 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya as a 25 year review of the 1994 objectives), family planning, including the topics of contraception and abortion, became a key part of the conferences, especially as overpopulation became a global concern. At the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt, these issues, particularly abortion, took center stage. It is worth noting that abortion did not dominate the conference report nearly as much as it dominated the press leading up to the conference, representing the fact that it is a highly controversial issue in the public sphere, especially the religious public sphere, even though it is not a central issue for international policy. Additional objectives, as discussed at the 25-year review conference, were lowering maternal mortality and advancing gender equality, objectives that are closely related to the abortion debate. [2] Furthermore, The UN website states that “the Programme of Action called for making the rights of women and their reproductive health a central topic in national and international economic and political development efforts. It called for ensuring that all people have access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including voluntary family planning, safe pregnancies and childbirth services, as well as prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. It also recognized that reproductive health and women's empowerment are interdependent, and both are necessary for social progress.” Abortion can be a method of family planning and is part of women’s reproductive health and empowerment, meaning that, because it was already a social and religious hot-bed issue, it had to be addressed at the conference. Though the international press and religious discourse about the conference made abortion into much bigger of a part of the conference than it seems to have been, the conference report did release an official statement on abortion. Interestingly, the official language of the programme of action was English with the exception of the following paragraph on abortion, demonstrating that this was, though a small part of the report, an important one to the attendees.

“In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning. All Governments and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are urged to strengthen their commitment to women's health, to deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern and to reduce the recourse to abortion through expanded and improved family-planning services. Prevention of unwanted pregnancies must always be given the highest priority and every attempt should be made to eliminate the need for abortion. Women who have unwanted pregnancies should have ready access to reliable information and compassionate counselling. Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process. In circumstances where abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe. In all cases, women should have access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion. Post-abortion counselling, education and family-planning services should be offered promptly, which will also help to avoid repeat abortions.” [3]

Several voices from across the globe and religious lines shared opinions on the topic of abortion discussed at the Cairo Conference. Al Gore, who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, stated in his opening remarks, “The United States Constitution guarantees every woman within our borders a right to choose an abortion, subject to limited and specific exceptions. We are committed to that principle." [4] During a meeting at the Vatican with Nafis Sadik, the executive director of the U.N. Fund for Population Activities, Pope John Paul II criticized the final draft document prepared for the Cairo Conference. Pope John Paul II firmly declares, “Abortion, which destroys existing human life, is a heinous evil, and it is never an acceptable method of family planning, as was recognized by consensus at the Mexico City U.N. International Conference on Population.” [5] Additionally, many Catholic Priests in the United States also expressed their views on abortion discussed at the Cairo Conference. For example, at the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey, Father J. Michael Venditti voiced, “To make their stories digestible, the media tend to boil every story down to its least common denominator; so, rather than give a complete and nuanced presentation of Catholic teaching, they simply inform us that the Church is causing trouble at the conference because of its rigid stance on contraception and abortion, and leave it at that.” [6]

From the Cairo Conference, a new Programme of Action was internationally adopted for the next 20 years.  The program “placed emphasis on the indissoluble relationship between population and development and focused on meeting the needs of individuals within the framework of universally recognized human rights standards." [7]

In Connection to REL 406:

The 1994 Population Conference was sponsored by the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization committed to developing international cooperation.  The conference facilitated discourse on population control and family planning, and included participants consisting of politicians, religious leaders, intergovernmental organizations, and regional commissions representing various nations and traditions across the globe.  The document below includes the list of attendees:

The sources we have included in this archive follow the conference announcements, notes, and responses from various religious organizations, political institutions, and media outlets.  As we discussed in our seminar, conversations regarding family planning from varying religiously-motivated perspectives tend to conflict with one another, as expressed in the quote above.

“The Vatican, its Islamic allies, liberal Catholics, moderate Muslims, the Clinton Administration and the organizers of the U.N. conference appear to be headed for a collision on the road to Cairo.” [8]

Further, these sources demonstrate that the political climate often takes precedence over religious understanding, since tangible issues such as overpopulation were a pressing concern at the time of the conference and thus focused discourse accordingly.

 

 

1. United Nations Conferences, "70 Years of Development in 70 Seconds - Global Population," 1994, Cairo, Egypt. https://www.un.org/en/conferences/population. 

2. United Nations Conferences, "Nairobi Summit, 12-14 November 2019," 2019, https://www.un.org/en/conferences/population/nairobi2019

3. United Nations Conferences, "International Conference on Population and Development 5-13 September 1994, Cairo, Egypt." https://www.un.org/en/conferences/population/cairo1994.

4. Elliot, Colleen A., Janice E. Adams, and Gloria S. Beasley, eds. “UN International Conference On Population and Development Cairo, Egypt September 5-24, 1994.” US Department of State Dispatch Supplement 5, no. 8, September 1994. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02928624u&view=1up&seq=14.  

5. Pope John Paul II. “Population Conference Draft Document Criticized,” March 18, 1994. https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5492.

6. Fr. J. Michael Venditti. “The Church's Position Regarding the UN Population Conference,” 1994. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/churchs-position-regarding-the-un-population-conference-12194

7. United Nations. “Report of the International Conference on Population and Development.” In Report of the International Conference on Population and Development Cairo, 5-13 September 1994. New York, 1995.

8. "Ideological Crack-up on the Road to Cairo? : Vatican and Allies Take Aim at UN Population Conference." LA Times. September 2, 1994. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-02-me-33916-story.html