[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 688 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 688
Recognizing 25 years since the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt and reaffirming the
goals and ideals of the ICPD Programme of Action, including
comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 12, 2019
Ms. Frankel (for herself, Ms. Lee of California, Mrs. Napolitano, Mrs.
Lawrence, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Levin of Michigan, Mr. Espaillat,
Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. Norton, Ms. Wild, Mr. Pappas, Ms.
DeLauro, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Castor of Florida, Ms. Titus, Ms. Speier,
Mr. Schiff, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mrs. Torres of
California, Ms. DeGette, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Deutch, Mr.
Peters, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. McGovern, Mrs. Lowey, Mr. Hastings, Mr.
Kennedy, Mrs. Davis of California, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mrs. Watson
Coleman, Mr. Welch, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Keating, and Mr. Brown of
Maryland) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing 25 years since the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt and reaffirming the
goals and ideals of the ICPD Programme of Action, including
comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Whereas the United States played a central role in the creation of the United
Nations in 1945 following World War II to promote international
cooperation;
Whereas the United States encouraged the establishment of the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) in 1969 and continues to serve on its Executive
Board;
Whereas the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which
was attended by officials from the Executive Office of the President,
Congress, and United States civil society and private sector
organizations, was convened by the UNFPA and the Population Division of
the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Information and
Policy Analysis in Cairo from September 5 to September 13, 1994, for the
purpose of addressing critical issues regarding population, development,
and human rights;
Whereas the resulting ICPD Programme of Action, to which the United States is a
signatory, asserts that the focus of development policy must be the
improvement of individual lives, measured by progress in addressing
inequalities;
Whereas civil society played an indispensable role in shaping and executing the
ICPD Programme of Action and continues to do so today;
Whereas since the adoption of the ICPD Programme of Action in 1994, significant
progress has been made towards universal access to sexual and
reproductive health and rights, including but not limited to--
(1) a global increase in voluntary access to modern contraception by 25
percent;
(2) a decline in the number of deaths due to unsafe abortion from
69,000 in 1990 to 22,800 in 2014, due to liberalization of abortion laws
and increased access to safe and effective methods of abortion across the
globe;
(3) a decrease in maternal deaths by 40 percent globally; and
(4) enhanced access to medical advances such as the development of
antiretroviral therapies, which 23,300,000 people living with HIV accessed
in 2018, contributing to significant decreases in HIV acquisition and
transmission;
Whereas gaps and challenges in achieving the goals of the ICPD Programme of
Action remain as progress has been unequal and fragmented and new
challenges have emerged, such as--
(1) 214,000,000 women worldwide who still have unmet contraceptive
needs;
(2) 295,000 women who still die annually from complications during
pregnancy and childbirth globally, nearly all of which are preventable and
1 out of 4 of which could be prevented by access to contraception;
(3) up to 13.2 percent of maternal deaths that can be attributed to
unsafe abortion;
(4) more than 1,000,000 STIs that are--
G (A) acquired worldwide every day because access to education about
STIs and STI testing is not universally available due to a lack of trained
personnel, comprehensive sexual education, laboratory capacity, and
medicines; and
G (B) exacerbated by the separation of STI services from other
services, such as primary health care or family planning;
(5)(A) 1,700,000 people who became newly infected with HIV in 2018, 54
percent of which are among key populations and their sexual partners; and
(B) the risk of acquiring HIV is 22 times higher among men who have sex
with men, 22 times higher among people who inject drugs, 21 times higher
for sex workers, and 12 times higher for transgender people;
(6) adolescent girls and young women (ages 15-24) who are at a higher
risk of becoming infected with HIV and 4 out of 5 new infections among
adolescents (aged 15-19) in sub-Saharan Africa are among girls;
(7) 35 percent of women worldwide who have experienced physical or
sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence, or sexual violence by
a non-partner at some point in their lives, a vulnerability that may
increase as a result of characteristics such as sexual orientation,
disability status, HIV status, and pregnancy, or contextual factors, such
as humanitarian crises and conflict; and
(8) 35,000,000 women and girls of reproductive age who are in need of
humanitarian assistance;
Whereas the ICPD Programme of Action and other international human rights
standards recognize that access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health care, including abortion, is an essential human right, and that
ending gender-based violence and the prevention and treatment of HIV are
key priorities to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights
for all people, and attaining the ICPD Programme of Action milestones
and the Sustainable Development Goals;
Whereas the ICPD called on governments to commit themselves at the highest
political level to achieving the goals and objectives of the Programme
of Action and to take a leading role in coordinating the implementation,
monitoring, and evaluation of follow-up actions; and
Whereas the General Assembly of the United Nations endorsed the ICPD Programme
of Action in 1995, affirmed that governments should commit themselves to
their goals and objectives, and called upon all governments to give the
widest possible dissemination of the Programme of Action and seek public
support for its goals, objectives, and actions: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) commends the notable progress made in achieving the
goals set in 1994 at the ICPD and the follow up and outcomes of
subsequent review conferences;
(2) recommits to the achievement of these goals;
(3) champions the right to bodily autonomy and self-
determination for all, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion,
income, country of domicile or origin, migratory or refugee
status, sexual orientation or gender identity, disability, HIV
status, marital status, age, or socioeconomic status;
(4) recognizes sexual and reproductive health and rights,
including family planning, abortion care, maternal health, STI
and HIV prevention, testing and treatment, and freedom from
gender-based violence and discrimination, as key to achieving
gender equity, universal health coverage, sustainable
development, and economic empowerment;
(5) commits to advocating for and providing such services
and rights to marginalized and key populations, including men
who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people
who are incarcerated, people in conflict or humanitarian
settings, adolescent girls and young women, and people who
inject drugs;
(6) acknowledges that without a firm, rights-based approach
to development, reproductive health, and gender equality, it
will not be possible to meet the goals of either the ICPD or
the Sustainable Development Goals;
(7) acknowledges and condemns the recent backsliding that
has occurred globally, particularly regarding abortion access,
that is contrary to evidence-based health practices and
established human rights norms and could set back the progress
made on reducing unsafe abortions;
(8) accepts the responsibility of the United States, as the
largest funder of global health, to encourage the goals of ICPD
among other countries and set a global example through United
States funding and policies;
(9) urges the United States Government to demonstrate its
commitment to the vision outlined in the ICPD Programme of
Action by reinstating funding for UNFPA, the lead United
Nations agency focused on sexual and reproductive health, and
by rescinding harmful policies, such as the Mexico City Policy
and its multiple expansions; and
(10) encourages the international community to adopt a bold
vision for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and
rights at the 2019 Nairobi Summit to mark the 25th anniversary
of the ICPD Programme of Action.
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