United Nations Conference on Population and Development: The Road to a New Reality for Reproductive Health

This article provides an overview of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994. Specifically, it focuses on the international developments that led to the conference, the various restrictions on reproductive rights found throughout the world at the time of the conference and their relation to the overall problem of population growth, as well as the substantive content of the agreement reached at the conference, and the factors that can foster the implementation of the conference's plan of action. According to the author, the ICPD offered a new and qualitative approach to population control centered around human development and education. Further, the conference recognized the crucial role women play in the realization of population objectives as well as the importance of women's empowerment through human rights - including reproductive rights - in the development process.