China 
Africa 
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Women, assisted reproduction and the “natural”
Published in Wendy A. Rogers, Jackie Leach Scully, Stacy M. Carter, Vikki A. Entwistle, Catherine Mills, The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics, 2022
The interest in achieving reproduction, or in avoiding it, where either of these outcomes is desired, has been recognized in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) conception of reproductive health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes” (WHO n.d.). Around the time the Warnock Report was published, the WHO stated that reproductive health means (in part) “that people… have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so” (WHO n.d.). The WHO has produced a wealth of relevant materials and reports, and further work has developed this understanding in UN conferences, such as the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (Cook, Dickens and Fathalla 2003), such that the importance of protecting rights relating to reproductive and sexual health is now widely recognized in various international conventions. (Aspects of the earlier Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination against Women should also be noted; see UN General Assembly 1979.) Importantly, this work highlights that fertility problems are equally an issue in developing countries. Relatively recently, the WHO has observed that “enabling laws and policies that regulate third party reproduction and ART are essential to ensure universal access without discrimination and to protect and promote the human rights of all parties involved” (WHO 2020).
Lifestyle, periconception, and fertility
Published in David K. Gardner, Ariel Weissman, Colin M. Howles, Zeev Shoham, Textbook of Assisted Reproductive Techniques, 2017
Robert J. Norman, Lisa J. Moran, Sarah A. Robertson, Rui Wang
The global community recognizes the critical value of reproductive health and its necessity for health and resilience in our children. International commitment to reproductive health was declared at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (6), reaffirmed at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (7), and reinforced in 2000, when the UN Millennium Declaration specifi d the 5th Millennium Development Goal to “improve maternal health,” with a focus on sexual and reproductive health(8). The Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), today a United Nations (UN) Programme, co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), is the main instrument within the UN system for research in human reproduction, bringing together policy-makers, scientists, healthcare providers, clinicians, consumers, and community representatives to identify and address priorities for research to improve sexual and reproductive health (9). The year 2012 marked its 40th anniversary (10). While the quality of reproductive health in first-world countries is clearly higher than in developing countries, major opportunities for health gains exist there for women and future generations, particularly in economically disadvantaged or rural communities.
Sexuality and Technology
Published in Lenore Manderson, Elizabeth Cartwright, Anita Hardon, The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology, 2016
Anita Hardon, Lenore Manderson, Elizabeth Cartwright
At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo held by the United Nations, in response to a decade of campaigning by women’s health advocates on the violations of women’s reproductive rights in family planning programs that emphasized population control, the global community committed itself to programs to ensure that men and women might enjoy safe sex lives. Reproductive and sexual health was defined in the conference’s Programme of Action (section 7.2) as: a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating 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. … It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases.(ICPD [International Conference for Population and Development] 1994: 59)
In pursuit of the demographic dividend: the return of economic justifications for family planning in Africa
Published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2022
After several decades of concerted efforts by the United States and allies to lower fertility in developing countries, partially as an effort to spark modernisation and combat Communism, the deliberations at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994 produced a compromise in global population policy34 (Hartmann 1987). The acceptability and feasibility of achieving modernisation and economic growth through fertility decline were very much in question, which facilitated the shift to human rights language in the Cairo Platform of Action.36,37 Feminists and reproductive health experts often regard Cairo as an (imperfect) turn away from coercive population control to a rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health.4,38–40 Since 1994, global and national population programmes have emphasised women’s empowerment, human rights and bodily autonomy.
Married Men’s Perceptions of Their Wives’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights: A Study Conducted in the Rural Area of Waterberg District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
Published in Women's Reproductive Health, 2022
SRHR have long been advocated in various policies across the world. Many of the policies were based on the outcomes of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that was held in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt. ICPD was followed by intergovernmental declarations, including the Beijing Platform for Action (1995); the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health; the 48th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (2004); and other international human-rights conventions, declarations, and consensus agreements (International Planned Parenthood Federation [IPPF] & United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA], 2017; World Health Organization, 2016). Amnesty International (2010) declared SRH as an essential component of the universal right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. South Africa adopted the MDGs and SDGs with the intent to promote and protect SRHR, especially for women (Lince-Deroche et al., 2016). That effort is also enshrined in South Africa’s constitution, particularly chapter 2 (the Bill of Rights), which emphasizes gender equality. This includes ensuring that all genders’ SRHR are protected.
The Elephant in the Room – A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Older Adults’ Sexuality
Published in International Journal of Sexual Health, 2022
Adina Cismaru-Inescu, Stéphane Adam, Anne Nobels, Philippe Kempeneers, Marie Beaulieu, Christophe Vandeviver, Ines Keygnaert, Laurent Nisen
We hypothesize that the dearth of research on sexuality in old age is due to the lack of aging sexual health policies before 2013, as well as the uneasiness of communication of healthcare professionals with older adult patients regarding aging sexuality. For the moment, we identified only four policy documents that discussed the actual problems in sexual health and aging. They set a few objectives, including the promotion of sexual health and the rights of older people and the education and training of healthcare professionals on sexual health. However, these have appeared many years after the adoption of the Programme of Action at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994. This program emphasized the fundamental role of women’s interests in population matters and introduced the concepts of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.