Cuba Presents Experiences on Population and Development at UN

Parliamentarian and sexologist Mariela Castro Espin presents here Cuban experiences on youth development and access to sexual and reproductive rights, during the second day of the forum on population and development. Castro Espin, along with other delegates, participates in the 48th period of sessions of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, a five day meeting within the intergovernmental negotiations to outline in next September the 2015-2030 agenda of sustainable development.

Castro Espin, also director of the National Center for Sexual Education, participated yesterday in a side event on youth and its role in human development, in which she supported the political willingness of the countries as the key element for the full achievement of people´s rights and their prominent role in society.

The forum organized by France, Cuba and the organization Women Deliver, headquartered in New York, fostered the exchange of other countries´ experiences, opinions, challenges and goals, Castro Espin told the Prensa Latina news agency.

According to Castro Espin, also member of the High Level Working Group for the International Conference on Population and Development, the forum also included the current framework of measures in view of the post-2015 agenda, which will continue the millennium goals settled 15 years ago to reduce poverty, inequalities and exclusion.

According to experts, the millennium goal´s deadline will be met with a long path ahead on the reduction of maternal mortality rate and the international access to reproductive health, as well as millions of people suffering hunger and poverty and thousands of children whose lives are daily claimed by preventable causes.

For Castro Espin, such a situation must be monitored by the international community, following the strategies outlined in the past.