Thanks Chair, Excellencies.
On the fifty fifth Session of the Fee on Inhabitants and Improvement, I’m happy that we’ve got come collectively to debate the crucial theme of ‘Inhabitants and Sustainable Improvement, specifically, Sustained and Inclusive Financial Progress’.
On behalf of the UK, I want to begin by thanking you, Mr Chair, and the opposite members of the Bureau on your management. I significantly need to thank El Salvador and the Netherlands for his or her co-facilitation of this 12 months’s textual content. The UK has each religion that we are going to obtain a consensus final result beneath their in a position management.
Everyone knows that sustained and inclusive financial progress can solely be realised when all ladies, adolescents and ladies have their full human rights revered, protected and fulfilled, together with complete sexual and reproductive rights. The human rights of ladies, adolescents and ladies in all their variety embody the precise to have management over and to determine freely and responsibly on all issues associated to their sexuality, freed from coercion, discrimination and violence.
We should do extra to make sure that these rights are protected, significantly in humanitarian contexts and for individuals who are most marginalised and face a number of and intersecting types of discrimination.
There’s nonetheless such a protracted method to go to attain this. There are 121 million pregnancies yearly which can be unintended in line with UNFPAs most up-to-date report. Most of those unintended pregnancies finish in abortion, and 45% of all these abortions are unsafe – many tragically resulting in dying.
And we’re going within the flawed course. The state of affairs is compounded by the rise of anti-gender actions, the devastating impression of the pandemic and different authorized, financial, and social boundaries that girls, adolescents, and ladies are going through, together with international battle, which additional restrict entry to contraception, protected abortion and well being companies.
Member States should act now to make sure ladies, adolescents and ladies around the globe can entry high quality and complete sexual and reproductive companies, together with protected abortion, key to unlocking their company and potential and contributing to sustainable financial progress. Member States must also prioritise strengthening well being programs, committing to Common Well being protection and exploring using modern supply fashions like telemedicine to enhance entry to and to attain the complete realisation of sexual and reproductive well being and rights.
The fitting to inclusive, equitable and high quality training is equally central to reaching extra sustainable growth.
We can not say usually sufficient that training improves ladies and lady’s lifetime earnings, helps with poverty alleviation, and brings financial advantages to households.
Now too many women should not returning to highschool after the Covid-lockdowns, which have led to rising charges of teenage being pregnant. However we need to stress that training should embody evidence-based complete sexuality training in order that adolescents and youth are empowered to make their very own knowledgeable selections about their well being, well-being and lives.
As we glance to ICPD 30 in 2024, the UK is dedicated to utilizing our place to take heed to and amplify the voices of ladies, adolescents, and ladies and people most marginalised, empowering them as decision-makers, advocates, and leaders, which is particularly pertinent to subsequent 12 months’s vital theme of training on the Fee on Inhabitants and Improvement. Thanks Chair, Excellencies on your time.
