Honouring Human Rights in Population

Policies: From Declaration to Action

Reed Boland
Research Associate, Department of Global Health and
Population, Harvard School of Public Health, USA

Sudhakar Rao
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies,
New York, USA.

George Zeidenstein
Visiting Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Center for
Population and Development Studies

Presented By
Muhammad Khalid Rashid
  In this article, the authors review the relevant aspects
of major international documents on human rights,
population and women’s rights. They propose an
alternative approach to population policies that
places human rights and emphasizes full sexual and
reproductive rights for women, their empowerment
and their exercise of social and economic rights.
Such an approach, in author’s view, is also the most
effective way to lower population growth rates.

Basic Human Rights Documents

 Concepts of human rights and equality originated
during the period of the French and American
revolutions. These concepts grew significantly in the
years following the First World War.
 The United Nations Charter, adopted in 1945,
encoded international human rights in international
law and was followed by the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights in 1948. These documents provide the
modern foundation for establishing the relationship
between individuals and the nation state.
The United Nation Charter (1945)
 The charter was the first international treaty to
enunciate the principle of equality in specific terms. It
reaffirmed “Fundamental human rights, the dignity
 and worth of the human person, equal rights of men
and women” as aims of the UN. It listed the
promotion and encouragement of respect by member
countries for “human rights and fundamental freedom
for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or
religion.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

(1948)
 The principle of equality and non-discrimination was
formalized as the central theme of the declaration.
 Article 1 state that “all human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights.”
 Article 16 states that “men and women of full age,
without any limitation due to race, nationality or
religion, have the right to marry and to found a family”
and that “marriage shall be entered into only with the
free and full consent of the intending spouses.”
 Article 25 speaks of every person’s right “to a
standard of living adequate for the health and well
being of himself and of his family” and states
“motherhood and childhood are entitled to special
care and assistance. All children whether born in or
out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
protection.” The declaration designates the family as
 the “natural and fundamental group unit of society.”
And are entitled to protection by society and the
state.

The political and Economic Agreement (1966)

 A fundamental conflict between the UN Charter and
the human rights documents is the simultaneous
assertion of unconditional national sovereignty and of
universal individual human rights.
 The UN itself is based upon the sovereignty of
nation-states; yet a human right is an individual
entitlement that does not recognize national
boundaries.
 These two apparently conflicting principles have
surfaced in debates within sovereign member states
of the UN.
 Another ambiguity in these international documents
concerns women’s rights. As these documents show
that women’s rights have generally been neglected
because these rights have been treated as social or
second-generation rights.
 Furthermore, the declaration and the covenants have
been faulted for lack of gender sensitivity, unqualified
endorsement of “the family” as the most important
 social group and failure to articulate reproductive
rights (Holmes 1983).
 Because of such shortcomings, the equality
prescribed in international instruments has limited
significance for women in the real world.
 In 1968, the international Conference on Human
Rights, held at Teheran, passed resolution 18 which
states “Parents have a basic human right to
determine freely and responsibly the number and
spacing of their children and a right to adequate
education and information in this respect” (United
Nation 1968).

Human Rights in International Population Policy

Documents.
 The two major population documents are the World
Population Plan of Action adopted at the 1974 World
Population Conference and Recommendations for
the further implementation of the plan of action
adopted at the 1984 International Conference on
Population, held in Mexico City.
 The original draft prepared by the organizers was
devoted solely to the need to limit fertility while the
WPPA is a much more comprehensive statement,
 explicitly addressing development, population, status
of women and human rights.
 Both documents make specific reference to
reproductive rights. Drawing on language originally
formulated at the 1968 Teheran conference, they
provide, that “all couples and individuals have the
basic right to decide freely and responsibly the
number and spacing of their children and to have the
information, education and means to do so.”
 At first glance, both documents appear to require that
population policies be carried out with full respect for
human rights and to establish women’s unrestricted
right to control their own fertility. The 1984
recommendations even declare that this control
“forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other
rights.”
 Scrutiny of these statements, however, reveals a
number of problems:
 The first is language, which is ambiguous. One
example is the repeated linkage of “individuals and
couples.” Although this language is preferable to that
of the Teheran conference’s final document, which
referred only to the right of “parents” to determine the
spacing and number of children, it still avoids
focusing on individual reproductive rights. Implicitly, it
 suggests that when couples, particularly married
couples are involved in reproductive decisions, and
partners should make the decisions jointly, not
individually. In practical terms the documents do not
guarantee women, the persons who bear most of the
reproductive burden, the right to decide by
themselves. At best, they oblige women to consult
with their husbands or other partners; at worst, given
gender inequalities, they leave women susceptible to
being strongly forced to do what their husbands or
partners tell them.
 The complements language in the WPPA stating that,
in exercising reproductive rights, individuals and
couples “should take into account the needs of their
living and future children and their responsibilities
towards the community.” In other words, the right to
decide on the number of children is a limited right,
balanced by significant responsibilities to others.
 The theory of responsibility described here raises
another question; who is to decide whether persons
are acting responsibly?
 Both documents state that while population policies
should be consistent with human rights, they should
also be consistent with “national goals and values”
and recognize the “national sovereignty” of each
 nation to establish its own population policy. It
provides that the right of each nation to formulate
population policy is to be exercised in accordance
with national objectives and needs and without
external interference.
 Despite their references to human rights, the two
documents are not in any sense human rights
documents. Rather, they responded to international
perceptions that developing countries face
overpopulation and social and economic
underdevelopment (Finkle and Crane 1975, 1985).
 Most of their specific recommendations are directed
toward lowering rates of population growth, not
toward ensuring that individuals are free to determine
their fertility.
 Equal status or women is accorded high priority in
the WPPA language, but “status” is not defined and
does not necessarily include rights. “Equal status of
men and women in the family and in society
improves the overall quality of life. This principle
should be fully realized in family planning where each
spouse should consider the welfare of the other
members of the family, improvement of the status of
women in the family and the society can contribute,
 to smaller family size and the opportunity for women
to plan births also improves their individual status.”
 Although the family is recognized as the basic unit of
society, requiring protection by appropriate legislation
and policy. However, implicitly recognizing that the
family may not be a loving and caring entity, the
WPPA suggests “family ties be strengthened by
giving recognition to the importance of love and
mutual respect within the family unit”.
 The 1984 conference noted that in developing
countries, on average, over half of the women who
wanted no more children and were exposed to the
risk of pregnancy did not have access to family
planning. The ability of women to control their fertility
is essential for the exercise of other rights. They
urged governments to adopt measures to enable
women to take responsibility for their reproductive
lives.
 The formulators of human rights and population
documents have overwhelmingly been men, who
have often under recognized women’s concerns. For
example, very recently, international human rights
organizations focused almost exclusively on the
investigation and reporting of violations of the civil
and political rights of men, involving such issues as
 torture, unjust imprisonment and political persecution
rather than on the equally serious abuses that are
perpetrated against women in less public settings
(Bunch 1990; Cook 1993; Martin1993).
 Moreover, human rights as a whole have in some
sense were a casualty of international power
struggles between competing national blocks. For
years they were merely another arena of battle for
Leninist and capitalist states which expended
enormous energy debating first, whether the concept
of individual human rights was only an invention of
capitalism and then whether the only true rights were
social and economic ones (Murphy 1981; Robertson
and Merrills 1989).
Basic Women’s Rights Documents
The Women’s Convention (1981)
 It was only in 1981, with the UN General Assembly’s
adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It
was the first international treaty designed specifically
to address the concerns and rights of women was
codified. Even though the movement for international
human rights had articulated the importance of
equality between men and women from its inception,
 in practice women’s rights had received little
attention.
 CEDAW is the first legally binding international treaty
in which states assume the duty to eliminate all forms
of discrimination against women, but only those
states that ratify are bound by the treaty.
 CEDAW provisions are specific and direct.
Discrimination against women is defined in article 1
as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on
the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of
impairing or nullifying he recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by women, irrespective of their marital
status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of
human rights and fundamental freedoms in the
political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other
field.”
 Article 2 calls on governments to “embody the
principle of the equality of men and women in their
national constitutions or other appropriate
legislation.”
 Article 3 requires that states parties take, “all
appropriate measures, including legislation, to
ensure the full development and advancement of
women.”
 Article 16 requires that “States Parties shall take all
appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination
against women in all matters relating to marriage and
family relations.”
 As an international instrument prescribing normative
standards, the Women’s Convention has far-reaching
implications. It covers a vast range of issues relevant
to women up to now such as inequalities within the
family and in marriage and cultural, religious and
social practices that has a bearing on gender
discrimination.
 Some countries allow husbands, but not wives, to
obtain contraceptives without the spouse’s
authorization. Some make access to voluntary
sterilization conditional on the number of caesarean
sections that a woman has undergone of her age and
the number of children that she has. Other examples
of discrimination are laws prescribing a lower
minimum age at marriage for women than for men.
 In many societies, women are stereotyped into
childbearing and service roles and the value of their
work is neither recognized nor given due respect.
Equal status within marriage and family life and
elimination of stereotyped roles for men and women
 are among CEDAWS’s stated goals. (Cook and
Haws 1986)
Human Rights and Population Policy and
Programs to Date
 The weakness of human rights language in the
WPPA and the 1984 recommendations has had
several results. One is that many subsequent
population policy documents have constrained little
on human rights other than the reiteration of this
language or broad statements about ensuring
equality for women.
 A second is the emergence of a view of human rights
and population in which individual rights are required
to be subordinated to perceptions of the generalized
social and economic welfare rights of the society.
 The rapid growing environment and population
movement has argued that overpopulation poses one
of the greatest environmental threats, undermining
health, threatening life systems and making
increased economic and social welfare impossible for
the future. (Brown et al. 1984; Ehrlich and Ehrlich
1990; Shelton 1991-1992).
 The logical conclusion is that in order to sustain the
environment and protect future generations, limiting
population growth may be more important than the
 protection of individual rights. (Callahan 1981; China
1991).
 Some countries have proclaimed their adherence to
human rights; they have carried out repressive
population policies (policies that have not conformed
to even minimal human rights standards). For
example, Romania was hosting the 1974 population
conference; Romania was implementing a campaign
to raise the rate of population growth. The campaign
included the prohibition of abortion and
contraception. It even forced gynaecologic
examinations for women in the workplace and
monitoring of pregnant women until delivery to
ensure that they would not attempt abortions.
 The result of these measures was the second highest
infant mortality rate in Europe; 500 deaths a year
associated with illegal abortions; and by 1989, some
20,000 women hospitalised for complications of
unsafe, mostly illegal abortions. (Boland 1990; David
1992)
Proposal for a new Population Policy
 In our view, human rights, particularly women’s
reproductive rights, must be moved from the
periphery to the center of concern.
 Moreover, the language used to describe human
rights must be altered to remove ambiguities and
generalities that have allowed abuses. A policy
incorporating these changes would explicitly grant full
reproductive rights to women, that is, it would
acknowledge that each woman has a right to liberty
and security of person, including an absolute right to
bodily integrity and to decide herself on matters of
sexuality and child bearing with no interference from
her partner, family, health care professionals,
religious groups, the state or any other actor.
 To achieving these reproductive rights, the policy
would guarantee access to a wide range of family
planning choices, including barrier methods, such as
diaphragms, condoms, IUDs, hormonal method, such
as the birth control pill; traditional methods; and
sterilization.
 It would also guarantee access to safe and affordable
abortion so that women would not be forced to make
the choice between bearing unwanted children and
undergoing an illegal and unsafe procedure.
 Finally, it would ensure the availability of sex
education, preventive treatment for sub fertility and
treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and
reproductive tract infections.
 In addition to reproductive rights, the policy would
guarantee broad equal right for women with respect
to other spheres of life, such as education, training,
employment, family relations, property rights, political
life, land tenure and inheritance. It would also ensure
that women are free from harassment, abuse and
gender based violence.
 This approach to population policy could have a
number of important benefits. First, it would both
improve the general welfare of the population and aid
in lowering the rate of population growth. It would
also promote more democratic societies and
encourage individual initiatives so as to permit
individuals, in particular women, to view the fulfilment
of their own rights as contributing to the general
welfare. Moreover, there is evidence that emphasis
on such factors as the status of women and improved
education and health are the most important factors
in reducing fertility, not the single-minded provision of
family planning services.

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