Over the past 30 years, remarkable gains have been made in the achievement of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.
At the 1994 International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the world came together to define a bold agenda: to put people, their dignity, and their sexual and reproductive rights at the heart of development.
We take this for granted today – but 30 years ago, States agreeing to uphold the sexual and reproductive rights of all people was groundbreaking. It meant recognizing the role of the health system as an enabler of human rights, and, as UNFPA’s then-Executive Director Nafis Sadik said, “liberating women from a system of values which insists reproduction is their only function”.
1954
First World Population Conference, Rome
1974
Third World Population Conference, Bucharest
Feminist researchers used human rights frameworks to carve a role for themselves
1975
The United Nations Decade for Women begins
1976
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is drafted and approved
CEDAW is drafted and approved
1977
First International Women and Health Meeting (IWHM), Rome
First International Women and Health Meeting, Rome
1979
CEDAW is adopted by the General Assembly
1981
Third International Women and Health Meeting, Geneva
1984
Fourth International Women and Health Meeting, Amsterdam
International Conference on Population, Mexico
1990
Preparations for ICPD 1994 in Cairo begin
Women’s organizations mobilize to influence the existing population agenda
1992
Women’s Declaration on Population Policies is signed
1994
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Cairo
Preparatory Conference, Rio de Janeiro
1995
Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing
1999
ICPD+5: Youth movements are engaged to help advance the ICPD agenda among a new generation
2000
The Millenium Declaration is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, followed by the Millenium Devolopment Goals
2005
MDGS+5: Advocates succeed in having universal access to reproductive health included in the Millenium Development Goals
2014
ICPD+20: Once again, experts, feminists, youth, NGOs and governments mobilize around the ICPD agenda
2015
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is adopted, leading to the Sustainable Development Goals
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is adopted, leading to the SDG Goals
The #NiUnaMenos movement emerges across Latin America, calling for an end to femicide and ultimately leading to the Green Wave
2017
The SheDecides movement is launched in support of reproductive health and rights, and the #MeToo movement erupts in response to millions of women decrying sexual abuse and harassment
The SheDecides movement is launched and the #MeToo movement erupts
2019
Nairobi Summit on ICPD25
2021
The Generation Equality Forum takes place
Feminist and reproductive rights movements have grown in numbers and in strength and many gains have been made – but our work is far from over. The strength of the international women’s movement lies in our ability to imagine and re-imagine, to build and rebuild, to preserve and persevere, to bring in new generations, new constituencies, new ways of thinking and organizing.
What women workers wanted was for the labour movement to ensure gender-related issues are part of the core agenda; it’s not just about wages.
Nandita Shivakumar, India Read story
What have we achieved?
- Between 2000 and 2020, global maternal mortality declined by 34 per cent, a success story that can be credited largely to better access to skilled and emergency obstetric care.
- There has been a 19 per cent decline in the unintended pregnancy rate between 1990 and 2019.
- From 1990 to 2021, the number of women using modern contraception doubled.
- Births among girls aged 15 to 19 years have fallen by around a third since 2000.
- HIV infection rates have dropped significantly. The number of new infections in 2021 was almost one-third fewer than in 2010.
- The proportion of girls subjected to female genital mutilation has decreased significantly due to shifting attitudes about the practice.
- An historic 162 countries have passed laws against domestic violence.
- At the start of the AIDS pandemic, most countries criminalized same-sex sexuality, while today two-thirds of countries do not – and this progress may be accelerating, with more countries eliminating punitive laws in 2022 than in any single year in the past 25 years.
What is the ICPD?
In 2024, the world marks the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
The 1994 conference produced a watershed global agreement putting people at the centre of development, one that committed to realizing better health, rights and choices for all. It affirmed a vision of human potential that has inspired significant progress ever since, echoed and amplified by the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development agreed in 2015.
The conference’s thirtieth anniversary is an opportunity to pivot health and social systems towards providing services that empower people, respect their diversity, uphold their dignity, and support them to realize their rights and bodily autonomy.
Artwork
Textiles blur the boundary between art and function, practicality and beauty. Women’s movements have long used textiles to draw attention to a range of issues – from body positivity to reproductive justice and systemic racism. Contemporary artists and women-led textile collectives continue this tradition by producing artwork which reflects their local environments and traditions. As it has for thousands of years, textile art continues to offer women around the world the means to connect with previous and future generations of women in their families and communities.
We would like to thank the following textile artists who contributed to the artwork for this report:
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Nneka Jones
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Rosie James
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Bayombe Endani, represented by the Advocacy Project
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Woza Moya
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The Tally Assuit Women’s Collective, represented by the International Folk Art Market
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Pankaja Sethi
