From: Elizabeth Hartmann <ehSS at hampshire.edu>
Join us in opposing the "DAY OF 6 BILLION"!
Stop Demographic Alarmism !!! Support Women's Rights, Not Population Control !!!
The Committee on Women, Population and the Environment (CWPE), an alliance of feminist activists and scholars, supports women's rights to safe, voluntary birth control and abortion, while strongly opposing demographically driven population policies. We take on the double challenge of resisting fundamentalist forces opposed to abortion as well as the theory and practice of population control, for both violate women's rights, especially affecting poor women and women of color.
We are writing to alert you to an intensive and well-funded media campaign presently underway to raise alarmism about world population reaching an estimated 6 billion on October 12, 1999. The Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) in Washington, DC has launched this campaign in consultation with the UNFPA and the World Population Foundation in the Netherlands. Is it a coincidence that it happens to fall on Columbus Day? Christopher Columbus represents imperialism, exploitation and the beginning of Native American genocide in the Americas. A logic of domination also underlies population control policies which target women's fertility as a major cause of poverty, environmental degradation and political instability.
It appears as though members of the international population establishment are currently experiencing an ideological schizophrenia. On the one hand, they say they support reform efforts associated with the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (ICPD), which call for women's empowerment and reproductive health to be the centerpiece of population policies. A recent instruction sheet to journalists, produced by UNFPA for the Cairo +5 event in The Hague, demonstrates the extent of the rhetorical shift since the ICPD. It reads, "The term (population control) is now out of favor with experts in the field, because it implies force-a negative thing to most. To some it evokes men trying to control women, industrialized nations trying to weaken the power of developing nations' increasing numbers, or whites trying to reduce the future numbers of people of color." (Journalist's Notebook: What's in a Word?) Critics both within and outside of the ICPD process have denounced the use of coercion and demographic targeting in population policies. They have questioned whether the emphasis on human numbers, and their reduction, would not inherently undermine a human rights and human needs agenda.
On the other hand, members of the population establishment still promote demographic alarmism, despite ICPD reform efforts and the fact that birth rates are declining worldwide faster than anticipated. "Day of 6 Billion" reinforces demographically driven population messages, even if it does not explicitly call for population control. It uses numbers to instill fear and give the impression that population increases are out of control. Not only is it a definitive step backward from strategies that prioritize gender and development issues, it reflects the contradictions of attaching progressive agendas to population control. (over)
Various organizations promote the day in vastly different ways. For example, the organizations, Zero Population Growth and Facing the Future, have strong population reduction messages. Zero Population Growth popularized the expression, "Y6B", to prey on the fear already generated by potential computer problems in "Y2K". The editor of the ZPG Reporter writes, "(We) at ZPG know that Y6B, the year that world population reaches 6 billion, is a much bigger-and more threatening problem-than this computer glitch." (ZPG Reporter, Vol. 31, No. 2, April 1999, pg. 4). The action kit prepared by the CCMC and the UNFPA website, however, adopt a more careful approach. Their messages include "Population is not about numbers-it is about people", or "We all know that the number of people on earth is not the real story." At the same time, they consistently relate the number of people living in the world to problems such as resource depletion, contamination of the environment, social security coverage and unemployment. Never mentioned are the real causes of these problems: exploitative economic and political systems, inappropriate technologies, disproportionate consumption patterns, and hyper-militarization.
Abuse and human rights violations related to population control have continued unabated, countering the optimism after the emergence of the much-celebrated document at the ICPD in Cairo. These include sterilization abuses among indigenous peoples in Peru; mandatory pregnancy testing in US companies in Mexico; unethical testing of contraceptive and sterilization methods (Quinacrine is a prime example); and the continued development and aggressive promotion of long-acting, provider-controlled, and hazardous contraceptives such as Norplant all over the world. Therefore, it is imperative that we continue to resist demographically driven population control messages and analyses, which inevitably undermine health and rights. CWPE opposes the current "Day of 6 Billion" media blitz that clearly reverts to a demographic rationale in its representation of global problems.
Speak out against the "Day of 6 Billion" campaign:
Write a letter to Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UNFPA, expressing your concern at the alarmism of the "Day of 6 Billion" campaign. (Please send a copy to CWPE at the address listed at the bottom of the page).
Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of UNFPA 220 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10017
Endorse this statement! Fill out the attached form and mail it to CWPE, or E-mail your endorsement to cwpe at hampshire.edu
CWPE Population and Development Program/SS Hampshire College Amherst, MA 01002-5001 Join us in opposing the "DAY OF 6 BILLION"!
Stop Demographic Alarmism !!! Support Women's Rights, Not Population Control !!!
Betsy Hartmann Director, Population and Development Program Social Sciences Hampshire College Amherst, MA 01002 USA phone: 413-559-5506 fax: 413-559-5620 ===========================================
I, _________________________________________, endorse the Committee (sign here) on Women, Population and the Environment (CWPE's) statement opposing the "Day of 6 Billion".
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CWPE Population and Development Program/SS Hampshire College Amherst, MA 01002-5001