MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay hosts four-day long UN conference on population development

Mujica and Barcena will be making the opening speeches

Uruguay together with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are holding a four day conference in Montevideo as of Monday under the heading of First session of the regional conference on population and development in Latam and the Caribbean.

The meeting is scheduled to open on Monday at 6.00 p.m. in the attendance of the Uruguayan president Jose Mujica, Eclac Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena and UNFPA Executive Director of UNFPA, Babatunde Osotimehin. The meeting will be attended by official delegations from most Eclac member countries and associate members. Also expected are senior international officials, experts in population and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

The main purpose of the event is to examine 20 years of Latin American progress in implementing the objectives of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) - held in Cairo in 1994 - as well as identifying key measures for strengthening its implementation and tackling emerging population challenges for the region beyond 2014.

The priority themes to be discussed will include the rights and needs of children and young people, the opportunities and consequences of population dynamics, gender equality, reproductive and sexual rights, international migration, territorial inequality and environmental vulnerability, indigenous peoples and Afro-descendent peoples.

At the end of the meeting, delegates are expected to adopt a series of agreements on the priority themes for implementing the Program of Action beyond 2014, based on the lessons learned from its implementation in the past 20 years, regional and world trends in terms of economic and social development, and the socio-economic, cultural and institutional specific features of Latin America and the Caribbean.