Today we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Human Rights Day. The theme“20 Years: Working for Your Rights” puts emphasis on the future and identifying the challenges that lie ahead.
A major result of this is that women’s rights are acknowledged as fundamental human rights. Finally, discrimination and acts of violence against women are at the forefront of the human rights discourse.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)-1978, is particularly pertinent to the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive rights. Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are the rights of all people to make choices regarding their own sexuality and reproduction, providing they respect the rights of others to bodily integrity. Article 16(1)(e) of CEDAW states that States Parties shall ensure on a basis of equality of men and women:
“the same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children, and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights.”
They include the right to life, liberty and the security of the person; the right to health care and information; and the right to non-discrimination in the allocation of family planning resources to health services and in their availability and accessibility. The rights to informed consent and confidentiality in relation to health services are also vital.
The reproductive ability of women has been transformed from an object of population control to a matter of women’s empowerment to exercise personal autonomy in relation to their sexual and reproductive health within their social, economic and political contexts. Autonomy is the right of a woman to make decisions concerning her fertility and sexuality without coercion and violence. In health care contexts, the rights to informed consent and confidentiality are instrumental to ensuring free decision-making.
The right to family planning education, information and services is key to reproductive choice, and central to women’s sexual and reproductive health, especially given the risk of maternal mortality and the illegality of abortion in many countries.
A woman’s right to reproductive autonomy is often impaired because of her status in society. Enjoyment of this right depends on her right to act as an independent adult of full legal capacity to participate in civil society and to be free from discrimination in its various forms.
If a woman cannot exercise her right to reproductive choice, all other human rights – civil and political, economic and social – have only limited power to advance her well-being.
SRHR has been increasingly integrated into global and national policy frameworks, especially those relating to gender equality and health. Examples are national health programmes, national AIDS plans and women’s health programmes. It is important to celebrate these victories.
Yet, gender-based discrimination, lack of access to education, poverty, and violence against women and girls can all prevent these rights from being realized for women and girls — challenges that are often particularly acute when it comes to sexual and reproductive health rights and safe motherhood.
The Maputo Protocol is a ground-breaking women’s rights legal instrument that expands and reinforces the rights provided in other human rights instruments.
The fulfilment of sexual health is tied to the extent to which human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. Sexual rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in international and regional human rights documents and other consensus documents and in national laws.
Rights critical to the realization of sexual health include:
the rights to equality and non-discrimination
the right to be free from torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment
the right to privacy
the rights to the highest attainable standard of health (including sexual health) and social security
the right to marry and to found a family and enter into marriage with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, and to equality in and at the dissolution of marriage
the right to decide the number and spacing of one’s children
the rights to information, as well as education
the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and
the right to an effective remedy for violations of fundamental rights.
Many women struggle to access education, information, and reproductive health care, all of which undermines their wellbeing as well as that of their families and communities.
Women who are empowered to manage the timing of their childbearing through family planning will be able to invest more resources in their children.
Sources: who.org, un.org/womenwatch-Dr.Carmel Shalev, CEDAW, pambazuka.org, soawr.org, at20.ohchr.org