Author: EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Pakistani doctor Nafis Sadik, who championed the ground-breaking action plan adopted by 179 countries at the 1994 United Nations Population Conference, was on four days before her 93rd birthday, her son said. day passed away.
Omar Sadiq said his mother died of natural causes at his home in New York on August 14.
Nafis Sadiq joined UNFPA in 1971, became its Assistant Executive Director in 1977, and was killed by then Secretary-General Javier Pere in 1987 following the sudden death of its head, Rafael Salas. S. de Cuellar was appointed executive director. She is the first woman to lead a voluntary funded major UN project.
In June 1990, Pérez de Cuellar named Sadiq Secretary-General of the Fifth United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, and she was the architect of its groundbreaking plan of action, which recognized for the first time that women have the right to control their reproductive and sexual health and to choose whether or not to become pregnant.
The Cairo meeting also agreed on a set of goals, including universal primary education in all countries by 2015 — a goal that remains unmet — and expanding women’s access to secondary and tertiary education. It also sets targets for reducing infant and child mortality and maternal mortality, and provides reproductive and sexual health services, including family planning.
While the conference broke taboos about discussing sex, it failed to recognize that women have the right to control their decisions about when they have sex and when they marry.
Natalia Kanem, the current executive director of UNFPA, called Sadiq a “proud champion and tireless advocate for women’s health, rights and empowerment”.
“Her bold vision and leadership in Cairo set the world on an ambitious path,” she continued at the 1995 UN Women’s Conference in Beijing, a journey that has since 2000 adopted UN development goals, which include achieving Gender equality and many issues in countries around the world. Cairo Programme of Action.
Since Cairo, Kanem said, “millions of girls and young women have grown up knowing that their bodies belong to them and that their futures can be shaped.”
“The first sign of respect for women is to support their reproductive rights,” Sadik told delegates at the Beijing Women’s Congress a year later in Cairo.
“Reproductive rights are not just about reproduction rights,” she said. “They’re about supporting women to engage in activities other than reproduction, actually liberating women from a value system that insists that reproduction is their only function.”
After retiring from UNFPA in 2000, Sadiq served as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General and Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sadiq will be remembered “for her significant contributions to women’s health and rights and population policy, as well as her tireless efforts to fight HIV/AIDS,” his remarks People say. “She has been calling attention to the importance of addressing women’s needs and the importance of involving women directly in the formulation and implementation of development policies, which she believes are particularly important for population policies and programmes.”
Nafis Sadik was born in Jaunpur, British-ruled India, the daughter of Iffat Ara and former Pakistani finance minister Muhammad Shoaib. After graduating from the Dow Medical School in Karachi, she started her career in the Women and Children ward of the Pakistan Armed Forces Hospital from 1954 to 1963. The following year, she was named head of the health department of the government’s planning committee.
In 1966, Sadiq joined Pakistan’s Central Family Planning Commission, the government agency responsible for implementing the national family planning program. In 1970, she was promoted to Director General.
She also practiced obstetrics and gynecology at Baltimore City Hospital and continued her medical education at Johns Hopkins University.
Sadiq is survived by her five children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
“Mum loves her way of life: open, hospitable, wonderful, generous, incredible, kind and giving – always giving in every way,” Omar Sadik said. “Our home is not big. , but Mom always finds a way to make it look infinite, and she manages to accommodate anyone who needs a bed, a sofa, a meal, or a family.”
“She transcended age and time and was loved by people much older than her, like little children – because they recognized her heart,” he said. “She fits a day better than most of us do in a year—she’s unmatched, unmatched.”
