The Second Latin American Population Conference.

Abstract

The 2nd Latin American Population Conference took place in Mexico City in March of 1975 at which time Latin America took a new approach to population - a conscious assumption of responsibility for its own destiny. Stress is laid on national autonomy and responsibility in dealing with problems of population as with all other aspects of development. Ideally, development and population policies in Latin America are guided by the following principles: 1) the aim of all economic and social development is human well-being; 2) the family must be protected; 3) each couple should be able to decide the number of children they want to have; 4) improvement should be made in the condition of women. The conference agreed that each country should establish an appropriate organization to carry out population policy. Recommendations were made too for enabling the national population agencies to carry out their objectives. The countries represented in Mexico City all supported measures for reducing mortality but not all agreed that natality should also be reudced. Another demographic variable that received special attention was international migration. In general, the Latin Americans have agreed on the basic principles underlying population policy, established a framework for analysis, and isolated the most important population-related issues.