ICPD Definitions and Goals

Reproductive Health and Rights

In 1994, 179 countries met in Cairo at the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) to forge an international commitment to improving reproductive health and protecting reproductive rights. The following definition of “reproductive health,” adopted at the conference, illustrates that commitment:

"Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters related to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), achieving good reproductive health requires attention to nine issues: sexual development, maturation and health with special reference to adolescents; fertility regulation; maternal health; perinatal health; unsafe abortion; infertility; reproductive tract infections, including HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, and cervical cancer; violence and its consequences for sexual and reproductive health; and female genital mutilation and other harmful practices.

At the ICPD in 1994, and at a conference to review progress held in 1999, the following reproductive health goals were agreed upon:

• Reduction of maternal mortality ratios (MMR) to half of 1990 levels by 2000, and by another half by 2015. In countries where maternal mortality is exceptionally high, the goal is to reach fewer than 60 maternal deaths per 100,000 births by 2015.
• Universal access by 2015 to the widest possible range of safe and effective family planning methods, including barrier methods, and to the following related reproductive health services: essential obstetric care, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections including sexually transmitted infections.
• Expansion of skilled delivery services to at least 60 percent of all births in countries where maternal mortality is high, and to 90 percent worldwide, by 2015.
• Elimination of unmet need for family planning by 2015.
• Reduction of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection. By 2010, at least 95 percent of men and women aged 15 to 24 should have access to preventive methods such as female and male condoms, voluntary testing, counseling, and follow-up. Global HIV infection rates in this age group should be reduced by 25 percent by 2010.