Editorial Reproductive Health and Rights and the Quest for Social Justice This issue focuses on reproductive rights and health as a contribution to the Cairo +5 process that is reviewing the impact, achievements and goals set by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, September 1994. As the first issue of volume 42, the discussion on repro- ductive rights and health brings to the fore human centred and gender aware challenges to development policies grappling with the impact of globalization and economic crises. Continuing along the journal’s quest for social justice, the four issues of volume 42 aim to reassert the importance of reproductive rights, health, environment and politics alongside the development issues of trade, finance and economic policy. They are placed firmly at centre stage, analytically and practi- cally in global politics. Accordingly, we will be inviting readers to enjoy in future issues of volume 42 discussions on: environmental politics, continuing the debate around sustainable livelihoods (Development 42.2); the politics of aid in the age of globalization, looking at the political rationale for development cooperation given the realities of today’s world (Development 42.3); and, with the collaboration of the World Health Organization and the Rockefeller Foun- dation, a special issue on globalization and public health (Development 42.4). The focus of Development 42.1 on reproductive rights and health is strategi- cally timed as a contribution to the Cairo +5 process. It aims to show readers how the issue of population and development viewed from a cultural and gender perspective is not a peripheral women’s issue, but a vitally important contribution to new thinking about development policy as a whole. The process leading up to Cairo, and the years following the meeting, indicate how actors in the reproductive rights and health field have gathered a tremendous amount of new knowledge, undertaken worldwide advocacy through effective networking and shown great ability to accommodate sensitively diverse cultural positions. Development. Copyright © 1999 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (199903) 42:1; 7–10; 007328. Upfront WENDY HARCOURT