After the Proclamation of Teheran, 1968 (Proclamation) at the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights, 'family planning' was recognised by the international community as both a right and a means of enabling other human rights. In this regard, paragraphs 16 and 17 of the Proclamation are relevant which read as under:-
"16. The protection of the family and of the child remains the concern of the international community. Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children;
17. The aspirations of the younger generation for a better world, in which human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully implemented, must be given the highest encouragement. It is imperative that youth participate in shaping the future of mankind;"
As obvious from the language of the above reproduced paragraphs, the right to freely and responsibly determine the number and spacing of children involves imparting sufficient information and means to the parents to control reproduction as well as providing them with adequate knowledge regarding the advantages and disadvantages of such determination. Also apparent from the above language is the interdependence of planned births with the right of the younger generation to be afforded all fundamental and human rights recognised by the international community. Thus, the right to well-informed and controlled pregnancies is a right that paves the path for enabling several other rights; for an overburdened economy cannot be expected to juggle with a growing population while struggling to provide a better facilities and opportunities for its progeny. This right, which forms part ofthe international commitments of Pakistan, originates from the right to life underArticle 9 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 (Constitution), and other fundamental rights such as the right to education, equality, speech, information and due process (Articles 4, 25, 25-A, 19, 19-A and 10-A ofthe Constitution respectively), which are in turn inevitably linked to the economic progress of the State expected to make such rights available to its people. Unfortunately, by failing to prioritise the provision of information and means of controlling unplanned and unwanted births, the country now faces a surplus of unskilled and unemployed manpower for whom basic human and fundamental rights are luxuries they can at best only hope for, but never attain.