Civil society gathered at the consultation prior to the UNECE regional ICPD+25 conference in Geneva reflected on the progress made during the past five years since ICPD Beyond 2014 in the region and deliberated on how to translate commitments into action and considered priorities for the follow-up.

ASTRA Network representative from Georgia presented the statement of the civil society gathered at the consultation prior to the UNECE Regional Conference on ICPD+25, Enabling Choices: Population Dynamics, on October 1st in Geneva.

The statement talks about sexual and reproductive health and rights and calls on Member States to remove all legal and policy obstacles that undermine human rights in relation to sexuality, reproduction and gender, and that hamper women’s access to reproductive health services, including legal abortion. It also touches upon shrinking space for civil society organizations and calls on Member States, UN entities and the private sector to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment where civil society organizations and free academic thinking can participate meaningfully and feed into societal development processes. The statement pushes for creating linkages between the ICPD framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and calls on Member States to show their political will by reaffirming their commitment to mobilise more and predictable funding, as agreed in the ICPD Programme of Action; to accelerate its implementation which will in turn contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.