World Population Day for Equality
In a special statement on World Population Day, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed to the world to empower women and girls through a commitment to gender equality.

World Population Day is being celebrated around the globe today under the theme Equality. It has been held annually since July 11, 1987, to raise awareness about population and development issues.

It is an occasion "to stress the empowering effect of gender and the fact that respect for this human right benefits everyone - men, women, boys and girls alike," he underline in his statement posted on the website of the United Nations Population Fund.

He noted that more girls than boys were not attending school, and addressed the effect of poverty and gender discrimination on the rising HIV infection rate among women and adolescent girls.

"Let us remember that every society that wishes to overcome hunger, armed conflict and disease must draw fully on the talents and contribution of all its members," Annan concludes.