OREANDA-NEWS On April 4, 2017 Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Valentin Rybakov, took part in the 50th session of the Commission on Population and Development, which is being held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The priority theme of the current session is ?Changing population age structures and sustainable development?.

V.Rybakov informed the participants of the national measures taken in Belarus for overcoming population decline and promoting birth increase. The Belarusian diplomat noted that the Government of Belarus has taken a number of measures for social integration of older persons, such as amendments into labor legislation to prohibit discrimination on grounds of age, and implementation of various educational, health, cultural and sports programs for elder people.

V.Rybakov stressed that family support is one of the mechanisms which keeps the age balance of the population and ensures demographic security of the country. In this regard, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus called the attention to the need of promoting and strengthening of family values, creation of favorable and balanced conditions for motherhood and empowerment of women in socio-economic and socio-political life of the country.

The Belarusian diplomat drew special attention of the participants to the positive results in the national social policy in Belarus. It was noted that life expectancy has increased in recent years while population decline rate has been reduced to a minimum. V.Rybakov emphasized that increase in the birthrate and decrease in mortality creates the conditions for overcoming the trend of depopulation and promoting natural population growth.