ICPD and its aftermath: throwing out the baby?

This article concerns the aftermath of the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994. The discussion focuses on the visible paradigm shift accomplished at the Cairo conference. Previously, the concern was on population size relative to resources, and about the impact of population growth on the tempo and type of economic development. In the post Cairo era, rhetoric is overwhelmingly concerned with human rights, reproductive health, and individual choice with the predominant voices belonging to health professionals and human right activists. Some activists have clearly wished to push the denial of societal interest further than what had occurred at the Cairo conference. The expression of demographic targets seems to be the crunch point. And the report of the conference seems to affirm the principle of free choice in the use of planning services, prescribing coercion, and discussing the role of state incentives and disincentives. It is thus reasonable to suppose that the opposition to demographic targets is perceived as a buttress to the condemnation of coercion.