Women's rights and overpopulation

Women's rights and overpopulation

The third International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), will be held in Cairo in September 94.

It has been billed by the Clinton administration and feminist groups as potentially one of the most significant turning points for the rights of women around the world.

The conference will attempt to set guidelines for programs for all UN member nations to address the world's population crisis. The aim is to stabilise the world's population at 7.2 billion by 2050.

The conference has been condemned by religious conservatives who claim it will sanction abortion as a form of birth control. In blatant opposition to women's rights, the Vatican and Islamic fundamentalist groups from Iran have formed an opposition alliance.

What is the agenda of the conference? Will its attempts to address world population growth really take into account social justice and the rights of women?

Women's organisations from developing countries have strongly criticised the conference's preparatory discussions.

Some have organised an "International Public Hearing on Crimes Against Women" to be held in Cairo at the same time. At this one-day hearing, women from across the world will give testimonies of their experiences with population programs and about the ways in which they have been abused and victimised.

The organisers of the public hearing claim that the ICPD will promote the false analysis that poverty, migration and environmental degradation are caused by "overpopulation". They reject this analysis and challenge its racist, eugenic and interventionist approach. They claim this ideology commits crimes against women by medicalising and mutilating the bodies of women to control women's reproductive organs and fertility.

They call this analysis "context-stripping", because it ignores the context in which population programs are planned and executed and the reasons for overpopulation. They point out that this "context-stripping" leads to coercive programs, including the introduction of dangerous drugs and devices such as Norplant and Depo Provera and forced sterilisations.

The real causes of overpopulation, they point out, are the lack of economic alternatives in the Third World, a consequence of the North's exploitative economic relations. Women bear the burden of these inequalities. Anti-fertility drugs and devices are promoted among the poor and women of colour in both the North and the South.

The public hearing will inject women's points of view into the debates on population and development. It has been organised in two sessions; the first on women's experiences of population policies and programs, the second on themes connected to population policies including racism, eugenics, genetic engineering, fundamentalism and international migration.

The organisers intend that the public hearing will contribute to the formulation of policies that will have some hope of empowering women and therefore really addressing the issues relating to overpopulation.

By Kath Gelber

From GLW issue 155