Pay Special Attention to Adolescent Sex and Reproductive Health and Rights
Speech by Zhang Weiqing, Minister of the State Population and Family Planning Commission,
to mark the World Population Day on July 11, 2003July 11, 2003
Friends, comrades,
July 11, 2003 marks the 14th World Population Day. This year, the United Nations designated the theme for the day as Adolescent Sex Health, Reproductive Health and Rights". Currently, there are more than 1 billion adolescents aged 15-24 in the world. To grow healthily, adolescents need love, understanding, support and respect from society; conversely, the world needs them for their active participation in socioeconomic development, intellectual growth and overall development.
On July 11 every year, China marks the World Population Day with various kinds of activities. Please allow me, on behalf of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, to take this opportunity to extend my warm greetings to young friends all over China and the world, my sincere appreciation to international organizations that have supported and contributed to China's population and family planning cause such as the UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and the Ford Foundation, and my high respect to my colleagues both within China and outside China!
Adolescents are the future and hope of a nation. Puberty is an important stage of growth for adolescents which lays the foundation for a person's physiological, intellectual and professional growth. It is also a period of time when a person's views on life and the world take shape. Enhanced education on puberty health and sex health, therefore, will help adolescents grow healthily both physiologically and mentally. It will also lift them out of sexual ignorance and help them form a healthy mentality toward sex. Finally, sex education also helps adolescents develop sound interpersonal relationships in the future and form happy marriages and families.
Since the discovery of the first AIDS case in the United States in 1981, the epidemic has spread rapidly around the world, threatening human health. Currently, AIDS has entered a period of rapid transmission in China, causing disastrous consequences to society, the national economy, families and individuals. Incomplete statistics show that more than 60% of the HIV carriers in China are young people aged 15-29. This is a grave challenge to us. We must face the reality and disseminate scientific sex knowledge and ethics to young people. We must also improve our legal structure and mitigate the negative impact of drugs and pornography on people. Understanding the channels of AIDS transmission is crucial for effective prevention of AIDS.
We must pay special attention to sex and reproductive health education for adolescents. We must also take seriously and respect adolescents' rights. Clause 3, Article 13 of the Population and Family Planning Law of the People's Republic of China states, "Schools shall, in an appropriate way that is compatible with the characteristics of those receiving education, offer courses in physiological health, puberty health and sex health to students in a planned manner." This provides a legal basis for us to conduct adolescent sex and reproductive health education. The government's mid- to long-term plan for AIDS control already lists adolescent sex and reproductive health as an important objective, calling for efforts to maintain sex and reproductive health rights for adolescents and provide them with more and better services.
Friends and comrades, the 21st century is a century of opportunities and challenges. We will further promote exchanges and cooperation with other nations in the population and family planning field, implement the action plan adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, adhere to our basic state policy of family planning, create a sound demographic climate for building an "all-out well-off society", and contribute to world peace and development.
Thank you.