THE United Nations sponsored Conference on Population and Development was held in Cairo in September 1994. It was beset with conflict and disruption by Catholic and Islamic religious interests, but in the end backed a document which could be a turning point in the history of population control.

About 18,000 delegates attended the conference and one third of them were women. Promise of difficulties loomed before the beginning of the conference when the Vatican claimed that it would do everything in its power to prohibit any acceptance of abortion and some Islamic countries claimed that the draft statement traduced Islamic family conventions. Four Islamic countries -- Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan - decided not to attend.

The Vatican representatives turned the first half of the conference into a debate on abortion. They were not entirely supported by Muslims, who said abortion could be allowed in some circumstances. The Catholic obstruction infuriated many women delegates, who again and again asked, 'How come one issue, one set of religious values are dominating the entire conference?' The Vatican gave in after some small verbal compromises and an agreed statement that abortion should not be used as a means of contraception. In fact the Vatican -- which did not dare to push its policy of opposition to contraception -- was discredited in the eyes of the world by its performance.

The leading dissident Catholic theologian, Hans Kting, wrote afterwards: 'The Cairo document is the world's epitaph on Humanae Vitae, the encyclical on the pill. The special status of the Vatican "state" at UN conferences is questioned on many sides ... [the Catholic Church] is undergoing its worst crisis since the French Revolution: It is high time for it to return to the course begun by Vatican II. Cairo shows a central demand is the empowerment of women in church and society.'

The Islamic groups achieved the introduction of a clause stating that the final document should be consistent with 'full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds' of the signatory countries. Phrases which might refer to permission for homosexuality or promiscuity were removed.

A major contribution to the conference came from the Islamic leader Benazir Bhutto. She accepted fully the dangers of overpopulation, a serious problem in Pakistan, and stated that: 'I dream of a Pakistan, of Asia, of a world, where every pregnancy is planned and every child conceived is nurtured, loved, educated and supported.' She acknowledged Islamic concerns by pointing out that: 'This conference must not be viewed by the teeming masses of the world as a universal social charter seeking to impose adultery, abortion, sex education and other such matters on individuals, societies and religions which have their own social ethos.'

She emphasised that: 'By empowering our women, we work for our goal of population stabilisation and, with it, promotion of human dignity.' It was a constant theme of the conference that population control was not just a matter of contraception but a matter of women's rights.

The Norvegian woman Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, protested that 'a vocal narrow-minded minority should not be allowed to dictate an agenda of backwardness'. She said; 'Religion should not be used to prevent women having access to family planning services.'

The most remarkable aspect of the final agreed document was that it was a complete package linking population control to women's emancipation and to integrated development policies. There was an abandonment of an emphasis on 'family planning' in favour of the 'concept of reproductive health' described as 'complete physical, mental and social well-being ... in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.' Humanist groups working in the Third World have always taken this attitude. For instance a leading humanist social reformer, Mrs Indumati Parikh in Bombay, has for many years introduced a programme that includes education, child care, women's education, health education, as part of a complete approach. The spending on population control was agreed to be increased from $5 billion now to $17 billion by the year 2000.

A leading American liberal Jesuit theologian, Daniel Maguire, said that, 'Never before in history have women been able to sit in somewhat equal positions with men to accomplish a major enterprise in ethical thinking... The call for a shift in power between the genders is the main event at this conference.'