Resumen : The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) is part of an ongoing political process that is overseeing a shift in the population paradigm from a demographic to a human rights perspective. Since the 1970s in Brazil, women's advocates have framed reproductive and sexual health in terms of citizenship rights, and the 1988 constitution recognizes some reproductive rights and the state's responsibility in providing the means of exercising these rights. Because they had also been building international coalitions and networks since the early 1990s, women were fully able to assume a leading political role at the ICPD. The agreements of the ICPD, thus, responded to women's proposals for a new, broader conceptualization of human rights. Now, the momentum leading up to the ICPD is over, resources are scarce, and the political forces that opposed the ICPD agreements have regained with power. This was manifest in Brazil when efforts to make states comply with the federal regulation of provision of abortion services in cases where the mother's life is at risk or of rape were circumvented by a carefully timed visit by the Roman Catholic Pope. In this case, the fact that no ground was lost was important because sometimes the struggle to maintain a position changes the ground even if it fails to advance the cause. While gaps remain between what has been gained in principle and in reality, it is important to avoid undervaluing the importance of the limits and possibilities inherent in legislative achievements. The next priority is to rebuild a coalition of women to face the challenges inherent in efforts to close the gap between ideology and reality.
Web site : http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/pal/dev/2001/00000044/00000003