Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development of the thirty-first session of ECLAC

The ECLAC sessional Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development met in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 20 and 21 March 2006, as part of the thirty-first session of the Commission. At the beginning of the meeting, the Chair of the Presiding Officers of the ECLAC sessional Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development provided a general report on the implementation of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Plan of Action on Population and Development, the execution of the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) and the activities carried out by the Presiding Officers during the period between June 2004 and March 2006, especially considering what was agreed in ECLAC resolution 604(XXX) (2004). 
In response to the request from member countries, the secretariat had produced a document on "International migration, human rights and development", which it submitted to the delegations for their consideration. The document provides guidelines to the Governments of the region for addressing the most significant challenges and opportunities for development posed by migration. In addition to analysing the main features of international migration, the document puts forward proposals are put forward for a migration agenda that considers the specific characteristics of the region and considers protection of the human rights of migrants as the guiding principle in this area. Emphasis is placed on the need to promote and strengthen multilateral cooperation as a legitimate way of ensuring that international migration contributes to the development of the Latin American and Caribbean countries
The meeting provided follow-up to the Regional Strategy for the Implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (Santiago 2003). The secretariat presented the modalities for the review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002, as approved at the forty-fourth session of the Commission for Social Development. In this context, the ECLAC member countries are called upon to define the mechanisms and activities to be developed in the region in connection with the first review meeting. Lastly, countries presented their national activities relating to the follow-up of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and the Regional Strategy. Countries reported on the advances made and actions planned in these areas.