The UK remains steadfast in our commitment to gender equality, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals: UK statement at the 58th session of the Commission on Population and Development
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-11)

Explanation of position by Tara Soomro, UK Ambassador to ECOSOC, at CPD58.

Thank you, Chair. The UK aligns itself with the statement delivered by South Africa.

We extend our appreciation to you and the co-facilitators for your commitment and steadfast efforts to progress this important agenda.

Despite the broad cross-regional commitment and goodwill demonstrated by many in this room, we are disappointed to have not achieved a consensus outcome that upholds and advances the mutually reinforcing principles and ambitions of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and Agenda 2030.

Neisha, the UK’s youth delegate to the CPD, came before this Commission and spoke with passion and conviction about the realities young people face, the unmet sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescent girls, the devastating impacts of humanitarian crises on their futures and the urgent need for policies that reflect their lived experience.

The inability to achieve consensus on this year’s CPD resolution is not just a procedural failure, it is a failure to uphold the commitments we have made to people around the world.

The ICPD Programme of Action recognises that investing in human rights, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights is central to sustainable development.

That truth has not changed.

Yet today, we stand at a crossroads where previously agreed principles are being questioned and hard-won rights are being chipped away.

Let us be clear, universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and reproductive rights are not an abstract debate.

This is about whether women and girls can make decisions over their own bodies, whether young people have access to comprehensive information that can save their lives, and whether those most at risk, especially in humanitarian crises, receive the care, justice and services they need.

Over 700 women a day die from preventable causes.

This is the reality of the issues we debate here in this room.

We are letting these women and girls down.

A text that weakens these commitments does not reflect progress, it signals retreat.

Ignoring the links between health, climate change, and inequality does not make them disappear.

The world’s most vulnerable populations, women and girls, migrants, those facing humanitarian crises continue to bear the brunt of these overlapping global challenges.

The UK and our many cross-regional partners, remain steadfast in our commitment to gender equality, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.

These are not just words on a page, they are promises we have made to future generations and to each other.

We recognise the progress made at all levels by grassroots organisations, civil society, national governments and also commend UNFPA’s leadership and remain committed to supporting this, making real change for women and girls around the world.

As we reflect on this outcome, we must ask ourselves, what kind of world are we building? One that advances dignity, equality, and progress? Or one that turns its back on those most in need?

The UK chooses to stand on the side of ambition, rights and the future we all committed to in 2015 when we pledged to leave no one behind.