In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that 11 July be observed by the international community as World Population Day, a day to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. This year, on World Population Day, UNFPA will celebrate the theme "Family Planning is a Human Right."
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights, where family planning was, for the first time, globally affirmed to be a human right. The Teheran Proclamation states, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children."
Tragically, reliable family planning methods are out of reach for hundreds of millions of people around. Many resort to unsafe, unreliable methods, some of which can be dangerous.
UNFPA has collected dozens of examples of harmful and ineffective strategies people employ while trying to prevent pregnancy. Together, these examples highlight the urgent need to improve access to, and information about, modern, reliable family planning.
See more in our photo feature on the topic:
