A/RES/S-21/2 Page 2 development. The objective of the landmark agreement reached at the Conference was to raise the quality of life and the well-being of human beings and to promote human development by recognizing the interrelationships between population and development policies and programmes aiming to achieve poverty eradication, sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development, education, especially for girls, gender equity and equality, infant, child and maternal mortality reduction, the provision of universal access to reproductive health services, including family planning and sexual health, sustainable patterns of consumption and production, food security, human resources development and the guarantee of all human rights, including the right to development as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights. 2. The Programme of Action acknowledges that the goal of the empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status is a highly important end in itself and is essential for the achievement of sustainable development. Greater investments in health and education services for all people, in particular women, to enable the full and equal participation of women in civil, cultural, economic, political and social life are essential to achieving the objectives of the Programme of Action. 3. The Programme of Action emphasizes that everyone has the right to education, which shall be directed to the full development of human resources, and human dignity and potential, with particular attention to women and the girl child, and therefore everyone should be provided with the education necessary to meet basic human needs and to exercise human rights. It calls for the elimination of all practices that discriminate against women, and affirms that advancing gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women, the elimination of all kinds of violence against women and ensuring women’s ability to control their own fertility are cornerstones of population and development-related programmes. It affirms that the human rights of women and the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. It further affirms that reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents, and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community. The promotion of the responsible exercise of those rights for all people should be the fundamental basis for government- and community-supported policies and programmes in the area of reproductive health, including family planning. 4. The International Conference on Population and Development and its implementation must be seen as being closely related to the outcome of and coordinated follow-up to the other major United Nations conferences held in the 1990s. Progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action should be supportive of and consistent with the integrated follow-up to all major United Nations conferences and summits. 5. The implementation of the recommendations contained in the Programme of Action and those contained in the present document is the sovereign right of each country, consistent with national laws and development priorities, with full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of its people, and in conformity with universally recognized international human rights. /...