Reproductive rights are the legal rights and freedoms associated with reproduction and reproductive health vary among countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:
Reproductive rights depend on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the amount, distance and time of their children and to have information and means to do so, and the right to achieve the highest sexual standards. and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning free reproduction of discrimination, coercion and violence.
Women's reproductive rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal and safe abortion; the right to control birth; freedom from forced sterilization and contraception; the right to access good quality reproductive health; and the right to education and access to make free and informed reproduction choices. Reproductive rights also include the right to receive education on sexually transmitted infections and other aspects of sexuality, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Reproductive rights began to flourish as part of human rights at the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights of the United Nations. The non-binding result of the Tehran Proclamation is the first international document to recognize any of these rights when it states that: "Parents have basic human rights to determine freely and responsibly the number and distance of their children." Countries, though, have been slow in incorporating these rights in instruments that are internationally legally binding. Thus, while some of these rights have been recognized in harsh laws, that is, in legally binding international human rights instruments, others have been mentioned only in non-binding recommendations and, therefore, have soft legal status within international law. while further groups have not been accepted by the international community and therefore remain at the advocacy level.
Issues related to reproduction rights are some of the most contested rights issues around the world, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the population, religion or culture.
The issue of reproductive rights is often presented as very important in discussions and articles by population concern organizations such as Population Matters.
Reproductive rights are part of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Video Reproductive rights
History
Teheran Proclamation
In 1945, the Charter of the United Nations included an obligation "to promote... universal respect for, and adherence to, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without discrimination such as race, sex, language, or religion". However, the Charter does not define these rights. Three years later, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first international legal document to describe human rights; UDHR does not mention reproductive rights. Reproductive rights began to emerge as part of human rights in the Tehran Proclamation of 1968, which states: "Parents have basic human rights to determine freely and responsibly the number and distance of their children".
This right is affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly in the 1969 Declaration of Social Progress and Development which states "The family as the basic unit of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, especially children and youth, shall be assisted and protected so as to fully assume its responsibilities in society. "Parents have the exclusive right to freely and responsibly determine the number and distance of their children." The 1975 United Nations International Conference echoed the Tehran Proclamation.
Cairo Action Program
The "Cairo Action Program" for twenty years was adopted in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. The Non-binding Action Program confirms that governments have a responsibility to meet individual reproductive needs, rather than demographic targets. It recommends that family planning services be provided in the context of other reproductive health services, including services for safe and healthy delivery, care for sexually transmitted infections, and post-abortion care. ICPD also deals with issues such as violence against women, sex trafficking, and adolescent health. The Cairo program is the first international policy document to define reproductive health, stating:
Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease or weakness, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and processes. Therefore, reproductive health implies that people can have a satisfying and secure sex life and that they have the ability to reproduce and the freedom to decide whether, when and how often to do it. Implicit in these latter conditions are the right of men and women to be informed [to] and have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of birth control, and other methods for unlawful fertility arrangements, and the right of access to appropriate health services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy baby [para. 72].
Unlike previous population conferences, various interests from the grassroots level to the government are represented in Cairo. 179 countries attended ICPD and overall eleven thousand representatives from governments, NGOs, international agencies and citizen activists participated. ICPD does not address the widespread implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 1999, recommendations at ICPD 5 expanded to include commitments to AIDS education, research, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, as well as the development of vaccines and microbicides.
The Cairo Action Program was adopted by 184 UN member states. However, many Latin American and Islamic countries make official reservations for the program, in particular, for the concept of reproductive rights and sexual freedom, for the treatment of abortion, and potential incompatibility with Islamic law.
Beijing Platform
The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in its non-binding Declaration and Platform for Action, supports the definition of the Cairo Reproductive Health Program, but establishes a broader context of reproductive rights:
Women's rights include their right to have control over and to decide freely and responsibly for matters relating to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, freedom from coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in terms of sexual intercourse and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences [para. 96].
The Beijing Platform limits the twelve important areas of women's human rights that require advocacy. This platform frames the rights of women's reproduction as "an inalienable, universal and irrevocable human right."
Yogyakarta Principles
The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, proposed by a group of experts in November 2006 but not yet incorporated by the State in international law, stated in its preamble that "the international community has recognized the rights of persons to decide freely and responsibly for matters relating to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, freedom from coercion, discrimination and violence. "In relation to reproductive health, Principle 9 on the" Right to Treatment with Humanity in Detention " that "States should... [p] provide adequate access to medical care and counseling appropriate to the needs of those in detention, recognizing the special needs of persons on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity, including with regard to reproductive health, access to information i and HIV/AIDS therapy and access to other hormonal or therapeutic treatments and gender treatment treatments where desired. "Nonetheless, African, Caribbean and Islamic Countries, as well as the Russian Federation, object to the use of these principles as a standard of human rights.
Country violations
Abuse of the state of reproductive rights has occurred under both right-wing and left-wing governments. Such offenses include attempts to increase the number of forced births - one of the most famous policies of the 20th century is what happened in communist Romania in the period 1967-1990 during the communist leader Nicolae Ceau? Escu, who adopted a very aggressive policy that included banning abortion and contraception, routine pregnancy tests for women, childless taxes, and legal discrimination against non-children - as well as efforts to lower fertility rates - the one-child policy of China (1978- 2015). The state mandated by forced marriages was also carried out by authoritarian governments as a way to meet population targets: the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia systematically forced people into marriages, to increase populations and continue the revolution. Some governments have implemented a policy of forced sterilization of 'undesirable' population groups. Such a policy was undertaken against ethnic minorities in Europe and North America in the 20th century, and more recently in Latin America against Native populations in the 1990s; in Peru, President Alberto Fujimori (in the office from 1990 to 2000) has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity as a result of a sterilization program implemented by his government targeting indigenous peoples (especially the Quechu and Aymaras tribes).
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The first legal textbook on reproduction rights, the Case of Reproduction and Justice Rights by Melissa Murray and Kristin Luker, was published in 2015 by the Foundation Press.
Maps Reproductive rights
Prohibition of forced sterilization and forced abortion
The Istanbul Convention, the first legally binding instrument in Europe in the area of ​​violence against women and domestic violence prohibits forced sterilization and forced abortion:
Article 39 - Forced abortion and forced sterilization
- The Parties shall take the appropriate legislative or other measures necessary to ensure that the following intentional acts are criminalized:
- have an abortion on a woman without her prior consent and be informed;
- b performs surgery that has a purpose or effect to stop a woman's ability to reproduce naturally without prior and informed consent and understanding of the procedure
Human rights
As most of the legally binding international human rights instruments do not explicitly mention sexual and reproductive rights, a large coalition of NGOs, civil servants and experts working in international organizations has promoted the reinterpretation of these instruments to link the embodiment which is internationally recognized. human rights with the realization of reproductive rights. An example of this relationship was provided by the Cairo Action Program of 1994:
Reproductive rights include certain human rights recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other relevant United Nations consensus documents. These rights depend on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to freely and responsibly determine the number, distance and time of their children and to have information and means to do so, and the right to achieve the highest sexual standards. and reproductive health. It also includes the right of all to make informed decisions about the free reproduction of discrimination, coercion and violence as stated in the human rights document. In exercising this right, they must consider the needs of their lives and the future of children and their responsibilities to society.
Likewise, Amnesty International believes that the realization of reproductive rights is linked to the realization of a recognized set of human rights, including the right to health, the right to freedom from discrimination, the right to privacy, and the right not to be subject to torture or ill-treatment. However, not all countries have accepted the inclusion of reproductive rights in an internationally recognized body of human rights. At the Cairo Conference, some countries make formal reservations either for the concept of reproduction rights or their specific content. Ecuador, for example, states that:
With regard to the Cairo International Conference Program on Population and Development and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and Ecuadorian law and the norms of international law, the Ecuadorian delegation reaffirms, inter alia, the following principles embodied in the Constitution: life that can not be contested, protection of children from the moment of conception, freedom of conscience and religion, the protection of the family as the basic unit of society, the responsible father, the right of parents to raise their children and the formulation of population and development plans by the Government in accordance with the principles of respect for sovereignty. Therefore, the Ecuadorian delegation enters the reservation in respect of all terms such as "fertility regulation", "pregnancy disorder", "reproductive health", "reproductive rights" and "undesirable children," which, in one way or another, context of the Program of Action, may involve abortion.
Similar reservations are made by Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Malta, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and the Holy See. Islamic countries, such as Brunei, Djibouti, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen make extensive reservations on any element of the program that can be interpreted as contrary to Sharia. Guatemala even questioned whether the conference could legitimately proclaim new human rights.
Women's rights
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) advocate for reproductive rights with a major emphasis on women's rights. In this regard the United Nations and WHO focus on various issues from access to family planning services, sex education, menopause, and reduction of obstetric fistula, to the relationship between reproductive health and economic status.
Women's reproductive rights advance in the context of the right to freedom from discrimination and the social and economic status of women. Alternative Group development with Women for a New Era (DAWN) explains the links in the following statement:
Control over reproduction is a basic and basic right for all women. As it relates to the health and social status of women, as well as the strong religious social structure, state control and administrative inertia, and personal gain, it is from the perspective of poor women that this right can be understood and affirmed well. Women know that childbirth is a social phenomenon, not purely personal; we also do not deny that world population trends tend to put enormous pressure on resources and institutions by the end of this century. But our bodies have become pawns in the struggle between country, religion, male household head, and private company. Programs that do not consider women's interests may not succeed...
Women's reproductive rights have long maintained the status of key issues in the debate over overpopulation.
"The only ray of hope I can see - and that is not much - is that wherever women are in control of their lives, both politically and socially, where medical facilities allow them to handle birth control and where their husbands allow them to making that decision, the birth rate falls.Women do not want to have 12 children of whom nine will die. " DavidÃ, Attenborough
Efforts have been made to analyze socio-economic conditions that affect the realization of women's reproductive rights. The term reproductive justice has been used to describe these broader social and economic issues. Proponents of reproductive justice argue that while the right to legalize abortion and contraception applies to all, this choice is meaningful only to those with resources, and that there is a growing gap between access and affordability.
Male rights
Male reproductive rights have been claimed by various organizations, both for reproductive health issues, and for other rights related to sexual reproduction.
Three international issues in male reproductive health are sexually transmitted diseases, cancer and exposure to toxins.
Recently male reproductive rights related to father have been the subject of much debate in the US. The term "male abortion" was coined by Melanie McCulley, a South Carolina lawyer, in a 1998 article. The theory begins with the premise that when a woman becomes pregnant she has a choice of abortion, adoption, or parent; he argues, in the context of gender equality that is legally recognized, that in the early stages of pregnancy, the father (allegedly) allegedly has the right to release all parental rights and financial responsibilities in the future, leaving the mother informed with the same three options. This concept has been supported by former president of the National Women's Organization feminist organization, lawyer Karen DeCrow. The feminist argument for male reproductive choice argues that the unbalanced ability to choose which men and women experience in parenting is evidence of state-imposed coercion supporting traditional sex roles.
In 2006, the National Center for Men brought the case in the US, Duby v. Wells (dubbed by some " Roe v. Wade for men"), who argue that in case of unplanned pregnancy, when an unmarried woman informs a man that she is pregnant by him , he must have the opportunity to give up all rights and responsibilities of the father. Proponents argue that this will allow women time to make decisions and give men the same reproductive rights as women. In the case of his dismissal, the US Court of Appeal (Sixth Circuit) states that "The Fourteenth Amendment does not refuse to [declare] the power to treat different classes of people in different ways."
The opportunity to give men the right to Paper Abortion is very discussed.
Intersex and reproduction rights
Intersex, in humans and other animals, is a variation in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that do not allow a person to be clearly identified as a male or female. Such variation may involve genital ambiguity, and a combination of chromosome genotypes and sexual phenotypes other than XY-male and XX-female. Intersex people often experience surgical and hormonal treatment "forcibly" during infancy and childhood, often including sterilization.
UN agencies have begun taking notes. On 1 February 2013, Juan E Mendà © à ©, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, issued a statement condemning non-consensual surgical interventions on intersex people. The report states, "Children born with atypical sexual characteristics are often subject to irreversible sexual duties, forced sterilization, unintentional normalization of genital surgery, done without their consent, or their parents," in an attempt to improve the type their genitals ", leaving them with permanent, irreversible infertility and causing severe mental distress". In May 2014, the World Health Organization issued a joint statement on Eliminating forcible coercion, forced and unintentional, interagency statements with OHCHR, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF. This report refers to "normalization procedures or other unplanned procedures" to "intersex people". It questions the medical needs of the treatment, the patient's ability to approve, and the weak base of evidence. The report recommends guiding principles to prevent mandatory sterilization in medical care, including ensuring patient autonomy in decision making, ensuring non-discrimination, accountability and access to recovery.
Rights and access of youth
Minors
In many jurisdictions minors require parental consent or parental notices to access various reproductive services, such as contraception, abortion, gynecological consultation, tests for STD etc. The requirement that minors have parental consent/notification for HIV/AIDS testing is highly controversial, especially in areas where the disease is endemic, and that is a sensitive subject. Balancing the rights of minors versus parental rights is considered an ethical issue in medicine and law, and there are many court cases on this issue in the US. An important concept recognized since 1989 by the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the growing ability of minors, namely that minors should, in accordance with their maturity and level of understanding, engage in decisions that affect them.
Adolescents are often denied equal access to reproductive health services because health workers view teenage sexual activity as unacceptable, or view sex education as the responsibility of parents. RH providers have little accountability for juvenile clients, a major factor in avoiding adolescent access to reproductive health care. In many countries, regardless of the law, minors are rejected even the most basic reproductive care, if they are not accompanied by parents: in India, for example, in 2017, a 17-year-old girl who was rejected by her family because of her pregnancy, as well rejected by the hospital and give birth on the street. In recent years the lack of reproductive rights for adolescents has been the concern of international organizations, such as UNFPA.
Compulsory parental involvement in cases where minors have sufficient maturity to understand the situation is perceived by the health organization as a violation of minor rights and detrimental to their health. The World Health Organization has criticized parental consent/authorization laws:
Discrimination in health care settings takes many forms and is often manifested when an individual or group is denied access to health care services available to others. This can also happen through denial of services that are only needed by certain groups, such as women. Examples include specific individuals or groups targeted by physical or verbal abuse or violence; involuntary treatment; breach of confidentiality and/or refusal of autonomous decision making, such as terms of approval for care by parents, spouse or caregiver ; and lack of free and informed consent. [...] Laws and policies must respect the principle of autonomy in decision-making on health care; guarantee free and informed consent, privacy and confidentiality; prohibit mandatory HIV testing; prohibit screening procedures that are not beneficial to individuals or the public; and blocking unintentional maintenance and mandatory authorization and third-party notification requirements . "
According to UNICEF: "When dealing with sexual and reproductive health, the obligation to inform parents and obtain their consent is a significant deterrent with consequences for adolescent life and general health in general." One particular issue that is seen as a form of hypocrisy of legislators is that it has a higher age of medical consent for reproductive and sexual health purposes than the age of sexual consent - in such cases the law allows youth to engage in sexual activity, but does not allow them to agree medical procedures that may arise from being sexually active; UNICEF states that "On sexual and reproductive health issues, the minimum age of medical consent should not be higher than the age of sexual consent."
Africa
Many unwanted pregnancies come from traditional contraceptive methods or no contraceptive action.
Teens sexual education in Uganda is relatively low. Comprehensive sex education is generally not taught in schools; even if it is, the majority of young people do not stay in school after the age of fifteen, so information will be limited.
Africa is experiencing high levels of unwanted pregnancies, along with high levels of HIV/AIDS. Young women aged 15-24 are eight times more likely to have HIV/AIDS than younger men. Sub-Saharan Africa is the world's most affected area of ​​HIV/AIDS, with approximately 25 million people living with HIV by 2015. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for two-thirds of the global total of new HIV infections.
Unsafe abortion and abortion efforts are a risk to young people in Africa. On average, there are 2.4 million unsafe abortions in East Africa, 1.8 million in West Africa, over 900,000 in Central Africa, and more than 100,000 in South Africa each year.
In Uganda, abortion is illegal unless it saves the mother's life. However, 78% of teenagers report knowing someone who has an abortion and the police do not necessarily prosecute all those who have an abortion. It is estimated that 22% of all maternal deaths in the area come from illegal and unsafe abortions.
European Union
More than 85% of European women (all ages) have used some form of birth control in their lives. Europeans as a combined report using pills and condoms as the most commonly used contraceptives.
Family planning has become prominent throughout the region and most taboos about sexuality have been revoked or diminished. Center for sexual and reproductive health of adolescents has been established in most areas. In Sweden, about 80% of girls and 17% of boys have visited these youth centers, providing all or nearly all of the services teenagers need with little or no cost. Sweden has the highest percentage of lifetime contraceptive use, with 96% of the population claiming to have used birth control at some point in their lives. Sweden also has a high rate of post-marriage pill use. Anonymous surveys of 2007 from 18-year-old Swedish teenagers showed that three out of four teenagers were sexually active, with 5% reporting having an abortion and 4% reporting STI contractions. Similar centers exist in Estonia, Finland, and Portugal.
Views about sexual practices vary across regions. For example, in the UK (UK), sex among teenagers is generally seen as low and seen as a problem that requires a solution. In the Netherlands, sex among young people is seen as normal and therefore not addressed in terms of solutions, but rather in terms of ensuring safe practices. That being said, the British tend to focus on stopping sexual behavior, while the Netherlands focuses on building self-esteem and healthy relationships.
Latin America
Latin America has become an international concern due to the harsh anti-abortion laws. Latin America is home to some of the few countries of the world with a full ban of abortion, without exception to saving mother's life. In some of these countries, specificity in Central America, law enforcement is very aggressive: El Salvador and Nicaragua have attracted international attention for the firm enforcement of their complete ban on abortion. In 2017, Chile relaxes its total ban, allowing abortion to take place when a woman's life is in danger, when the fetus is unfit, or in case of rape.
In Ecuador, education and class play a major role in the definition of pregnant and non-pregnant young women - 50% of pregnant women are illiterate, compared with 11% of girls with secondary education. The same applies to the poor - 28% become pregnant while only 11% of young women in wealthy households. Furthermore, access to reproductive rights, including contraception, is limited, due to the age and perception of women's morality. Health care providers often discuss theoretical contraception, not as a device to be used on a regular basis. Decisions about sexual activity often involve secrecy and taboos, as well as lack of access to accurate information. Even more, young women have easier access to maternal health care than they do with contraceptive assistance, which helps explain high rates of pregnancy in the region.
The teenage pregnancy rate in Latin America amounts to more than one million every year.
Jordan
In Jordan, there is basically no sex education in the school system; even when curricula incorporate information about sexual issues, teachers tend to skip over it, for fear of disappointing the elderly or feeling uncomfortable. Youth in this country want comprehensive, correct, and correct information from health care providers, although they rarely report experiencing it. Many teenagers equate reproductive health with maternal health, not recognizing connections for themselves before pregnancy.
Accessibility and availability of clinics in Jordan vary depending on the location. Some villagers have difficulty bringing them to the clinic, due to the high cost of transportation and the distance to be borne. Health care centers are often overcrowded and understaffed, with limited hours of operation. Youth reported long waiting times and unhygienic conditions in the clinic. Personal experiences with health care workers vary, with some teenagers feeling as if they are receiving unfair and unjust treatment.
United States
Among sexually experienced adolescents, 78% of adolescent girls and 85% of adolescent boys used contraception when they first had sex; 86% and 93% of the same women and men, respectively, reported using contraception the last time they had sex. Male condoms are the most commonly used method of having first sex, although 54% of young women in the United States depend on the pill.
Young people in the US are not more sexually active than individuals in other developed countries, but they are significantly less knowledgeable about contraception and safe sex practices. In 2006, only twenty countries required sex education in schools - of these, only ten information was needed on contraception. Overall, less than 10% of American students receive sex education that includes topical coverage of abortion, homosexuality, relationships, pregnancy, and STI prevention. Abstinence education was only used in many places in the United States in the 1990s and early 2000s. Based on the moral principle that extramarital sex is unacceptable, programs often mislead students about their right to have sex, its consequences, and the prevention of pregnancy and STIs.
According to 2006 statistics, one in three people in the US will contract STIs at age 24 and by age 20, forty percent of pregnant women. According to the Centers for Disease Control, young people ages 15-24 account for 50% of all new STIs, the most prevalent being HPV and Chlamydia. Family planning in the United States can be expensive and often not covered by insurance plans. However, effective September 23, 2010, following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, prevention services, including contraception, and STI screening and counseling, are available to all uninsured women without co-pay.
In 24 states, legislation is passed that requires women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours before that. In addition to the ultrasound requirements, some states such as Texas have passed laws requiring facilities that provide abortions to be classified as outpatient operations centers, although the rate of abortion complications is very low every year. Many people see this type of legislation as a way to prevent women from having an abortion. The US Supreme Court has overturned the latest law of Texas that will reduce the number of facilities that can have only eight abortions in the state.
Lack of knowledge about rights
One of the reasons why reproductive rights are poor in many places is that most people do not know what the law is. Not just ordinary people who do not know, but also medical doctors. A Brazilian study of doctors found great ignorance and misunderstanding of the law of abortion (which is severely restricted, but not completely illegal). In Ghana, abortion, although restricted, is permitted for some reason, but only 3% of pregnant women and 6% of those seeking abortion are aware of the legal status of abortion. In Nepal, abortion was passed in 2002, but a study in 2009 found that only half of women knew that abortion was legalized. Many people also do not understand the laws on sexual violence: in Hungary, where marital rape was illegal in 1997, in a 2006 study, 62% of people did not know that marital rape was a crime. The United Nations Development Program states that, in order to promote gender justice, "Women should know their rights and be able to access the legal system", and the 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women states in Art. 4 (d) [...] "States should also notify women of their right to seek redress through such mechanisms".
Gender equality and violence against women
Addressing gender-based violence issues is critical to achieving reproductive rights. The United Nations Population Fund refers to "Equality and equality for men and women", to enable individuals to make free and informed choices in all spheres of life, free from discrimination by sex "and" Sexual and reproductive security, including freedom from sexual and coerced violence , and the right to privacy, "as part of the achievement of reproductive rights, and states that The right to liberty and security of persons constituting the basis of reproductive rights requires states to:
WHO states:
Amnesty International writes that:
- Violence against women violates women's rights to life, physical and mental integrity, to the highest attainable standard of health, freedom from torture and violates their sexual and reproductive rights. "
One of the key issues to achieve reproductive rights is the criminalization of sexual violence. If a woman is not protected from forced sexual intercourse, she is not protected from forced pregnancy, which is the pregnancy of rape. In order for a woman to have reproductive rights, she must have the right to vote with whom and when to reproduce; and first of all, decide whether, when, and under what circumstances to become sexually active. In many countries, these women's rights are not respected, as women have no choice in matters, with forced marriage and child marriages common in the world; and they also have no rights whatsoever regarding sexual activity, since many countries do not allow women to refuse to have sexual intercourse when they do not want (because marital rape is not criminalized in those countries) or engage in sexual consensus. sexual intercourse if they wish (because sex outside marriage is illegal in those countries). In addition to legal barriers, there are also social barriers, because in many countries there is a thorough sexual subordination of a woman to her husband (for example, in one survey, 74% of women in Mali say that a husband is justified in beating her husband if she refuses to relate sex with him, while sexual/romantic relationships that are not approved by family members, or in general extramarital sex, can lead to serious violence, such as honor killing.
HIV/AIDS
According to the CDC, "HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus, it weakens one's immune system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection, there is no effective drug for HIV, but with proper medical care, HIV can be controlled." Ameliorizing HIV is an important aspect of reproductive rights because viruses can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy or birth, or through breast milk.
WHO states that: "All women, including those with HIV, have the right" to decide freely and responsibly for the number and distance of their children and to have access to information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights "". The reproductive rights of people living with HIV, and their health, are essential. The relationship between HIV and reproductive rights exists in relation to four major issues:
- unwanted pregnancy prevention
- help plan the desired pregnancy
- health care during and after pregnancy
- access to abortion services
Child marriage and forced
WHO states that the reproductive rights and health of girls in child marriages are negatively affected. UNPF calls child marriage a "human rights violation" and states that in developing countries, one in three married girls before reaching the age of 18, and one in nine married under the age of 15. Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more parties are married without their consent or against their will. The Istanbul Convention, the first legally binding instrument in Europe in the field of violence against women and domestic violence, requires states that ratify it to prohibit forced marriage (Art 37) and to ensure that forced marriages can be easily revoked without further victimization (Article 32).
Maternal mortality
Maternal death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, regardless of duration and location of pregnancy, of any cause related or aggravated by pregnancy or management but not for reasons intentional or unintentional. "It is estimated that by 2015, about 303,000 women die during and after pregnancy and childbirth, and 99% of such deaths occur in developing countries.
Problem
Cairo Program Action Implementation
The implementation of the Cairo Action Program varies widely from country to country. In many countries, post-ICPD tensions arise when a human rights-based approach is implemented. Since ICPD, many countries have expanded their reproductive health programs and are trying to integrate maternal and child health services with family planning. More attention is paid to adolescent health and the consequences of unsafe abortion. Lara Knudsen observes that ICPD succeeds in getting feminist language into government literature and population population, but in many countries the underlying concept is not widely applied. In two preparatory meetings for ICPD 10 in Asia and Latin America, the United States, under the George W. Bush Administration, is the only country against the ICPD Program of Action.
Abortion
According to a study by WHO and Guttmacher Institute worldwide, 25 million unsafe abortions (45% of all abortions) occur annually between 2010 and 2014. 97% of unsafe abortions occur in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In contrast, most of the abortions occurring in Western and Northern Europe and North America are safe.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considers the criminalization of abortion as "a violation of women's health and sexual and reproductive rights" and a form of "gender based violence"; paragraph 18 of the General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendations no. 19 states that: "Violations of women's health and sexual and reproductive rights, such as forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced pregnancy, criminalization of abortion, refusal or delayed abortion and post-abortion care, forced pregnancy, harassment and abuse against women and girls seeking information, goods and services of sexual and reproductive health, is a form of gender based violence which, depending on the circumstances, may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. "Same <
An article from the World Health Organization called safe, legal abortion as "the basic right of women, regardless of where they live" and unsafe abortion "silent pandemic". The article states "ending a silent pandemic of unsafe abortion is a public health imperative and urgent human rights." It also states "access to safe abortion improves women's health, and vice versa, as documented in Romania during the Presidential regime of Nicolae Ceau" Escu "and" legalized abortion on demand is a necessary but not enough step to improve women's health " some countries, such as India where abortion has been legal for decades, access to competent care remains constrained by other obstacles. The WHO Global Strategy on Reproductive Health, adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2004, notes: "As a preventable cause of maternal death and morbidity, unsafe abortion should be addressed as part of the MDGs to improve maternal health and other international development goals. and targets. "The WHO Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), whose research concerns sexual and reproductive health and life, has an overall strategy to combat unsafe abortion consisting of four interrelated activities:
- to compile, synthesize, and produce strong scientific evidence about the prevalence and practice of unsafe abortion;
- to develop improved technology and implement interventions to make abortion safer;
- to translate the evidence into norms, tools, and guidelines;
- and assist in the development of programs and policies that reduce unsafe abortion and improve access to safe abortion and high quality post-abortion care
The UN estimates in 2017 that abrogating the anti-abortion laws will save the lives of nearly 50,000 women per year. Unsafe abortions occur especially in countries where abortion is illegal, but also occurs in countries where it is abortion, but women can not access it for various reasons (doctors' refusal of conscience, high prices, lack of knowledge that abortion is legal). Indeed, there are countries where the legislation is liberal, but in practice it is very difficult to have an abortion, because most doctors are opponents of conscience. The fact that some countries where abortion is legal, it is very difficult to have access to any of the controversial; UN in 2017 resolution on Intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: domestic violence encourages states to ensure access to "safe abortion in which the service is permitted by national law". Secure and legal abortion services are often very difficult to access by women from rural areas or from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. In 2008, Human Rights Watch stated that "Even when abortion is permitted by law, women often have very limited access to safe abortion services due to lack of proper regulation, health care, or political will" and estimates that "Around 13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide are due to unsafe abortions - between 68,000 and 78,000 deaths annually. "
When negotiating the Cairo Action Program at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the issue was so controversial that delegates finally decided to ignore any recommendations to legalize abortion, instead suggesting the government provide appropriate post-abortion care and to invest in program that will reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.
On April 18, 2008, the Council of Parliament of the Council of Europe, a group of members from 47 European countries, adopted a resolution calling for the decriminalization of abortion within reasonable pregnancy limits and ensuring access to safe abortion procedures. The non-binding resolution was adopted on April 16 with a vote of 102 to 69.
During and after ICPD, some interested parties try to interpret the term 'reproductive health' in the sense that it implies abortion as a family planning tool or, indeed, the right to abortion. This interpretation, however, does not reflect the consensus reached at the Conference. For the European Union, where the abortion law is clearly less stringent than elsewhere, the Presidential Council has clearly stated that the Council's commitment to promoting 'reproductive health' does not include the promotion of abortion. Likewise, the European Commission, in response to questions from Members of the European Parliament, clarified:
"The term 'reproductive health' was defined by the United Nations (UN) in 1994 at the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development All the Member States of the Union supported the Program of Action adopted in Cairo The Union never adopted an alternative definition of 'health' reproduction 'with those given in the Program of Action, which do not make references to abortion. "
With regard to the US, it should be noted that, just days before the Cairo Conference, the head of the US delegation, Vice President Al Gore, has stated for the record:
"Let's get a fake problem from the table: the US is not trying to establish new international rights for abortion, and we do not believe that abortion should be encouraged as a family planning method."
Several years later, the position of the US Administration in this debate has been re-confirmed by US Ambassador to the UN, Ellen Sauerbrey, when she declared at a UN Commission on Women's Status meeting that: "non-governmental organizations are trying to assert that Beijing several ways of creating or contributing to the creation of internationally recognized rights for abortion ". He added: "There is no fundamental right to abortion, and it continues to be largely driven by NGOs who are trying to hijack the term and try to make it a definition" .
The collaborative research of the Institute of Development Studies states that "access to safe abortion is a matter of human rights, democracy and public health, and the denial of access is a major cause of death and disruption, at significant costs for [international] development". The study highlights the inequity of access to safe abortion both globally and nationally and emphasizes the importance of global and national movements for reform to address this. The shift by reproduction rights campaigns from the issue-based agenda (the right to abortion), to safe and legal abortion not only as a human right, but tied to democratic rights and citizenship, has become an important way to reframe debate abortion and reproductive justice agenda.
Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights complicates the question even further through landmark decisions (cases AB and C. v. Ireland), where it is stated that the rejection of abortion for health and/or welfare reasons is disruption of the right of individuals to respect personal and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, a disorder which in some cases may be justified.
Population control
The desire to reach specific population targets has resulted throughout history in very harsh practices, in cases where governments ignore human rights and enforce aggressive demographic policies. In the 20th century, some authoritarian governments have sought to increase or decrease birth rates, often through strong interventions. One of the most famous natalist policies is what happened in communist Romania during the period 1967-1990 during the communist leader Nicolae Ceau? Escu, which adopts a very aggressive policy that includes banning abortion and contraception, routine pregnancy tests for women, taxes on no children, and legal discrimination against people who have no children. Ceau Policy? Escu resulted in more than 9,000 women who died of illegal abortion, a large number of children were admitted to Romanian orphanage by parents who could not cope with raising them, street children in the 1990s (when many orphanages were closed and children ended up in street), and jostle at home and school. The irony of Ceau escu's aggressive natalist policy is that a generation who may not be born will eventually lead the Romanian Revolution that will overthrow and get him executed.
In a sharp opposition to Ceau's natalist policy? Escu is a Chinese one-child policy, enforced from 1978 to 2015, which includes offenses such as forced abortion. This policy is also considered to be responsible for the general practice of sex selective abortion that causes an unbalanced sex ratio in the country.
From the 1970s to the 1980s, tensions grew between women's health activists advancing women's reproductive rights as part of a human rights-based approach on the one hand, and supporters of population control on the other. At the 1984 UN Population Conference in Mexico City's population control policy was attacked by women's health advocates who argued that the narrow focus of the policy leads to coercion and deterioration in the quality of care, and that this policy ignores the diverse social and cultural contexts in which family planning is provided at developing countries. In the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic forced a wider discussion of sex into public discourse in many countries, leading to more emphasis on reproductive health issues beyond reducing fertility. The growing opposition to the narrow focus of population control led to a significant departure in the early 1990s from past population control policies. In the United States, opponents of abortion have begun to move conspiracy theories about reproduction rights advocates, accusing them of developing a racist eugenics agenda, and trying to reduce the number of African American births in the United States.
Female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined as "all procedures involving removal of part or all of the external female genitals, or other injury to female genital organs for non-medical reasons." This procedure has no health benefits, and can cause severe bleeding and urinary problems, cysts, infections, and complications during childbirth and increase the risk of newborn deaths. It's done for traditional, cultural or religious reasons in many parts of the world, especially in Africa. The Istanbul Convention prohibits FGM (Article 38).
Kidnapping a bride or buy and reproductive slavery
The abduction or marriage by the bride by abduction, is a practice in which a woman or girl is kidnapped for the purpose of forced marriage. Bride abductions have been practiced historically in many parts of the world, and that continues to happen today in some places, especially in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Armenia, as well as in Ethiopia. Bride abductions are often preceded or followed by rape (which may lead to pregnancy), to force marriage - a practice also supported by your "marital-rapist law" (the law on sexual violence, kidnapping or similar action, whereby perpetrators avoid prosecution or punishment if he marries the victim). Female abduction can occur on an individual scale or mass scale. Raptio is a Latin term referring to the massive abduction of women, usually for marriage or sexual slavery, specificity during wartime.
The bridal price, also called bridewealth, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of the woman he marries. The practice of bridal pricing sometimes causes parents to sell young girls into marriage and trade. Common betting prices across Africa. Such forced marriages often lead to sexual violence, and forcing pregnancy. In northern Ghana, for example, payment of the bride price signifies the need for women to give birth to children, and women using contraceptives are at risk of threat and coercion.
The 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery defined "institutions and practices similar to slavery" to include:
c) Any institution or practice:
- (i) A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on the payment of consideration in the form of money or goods to her parents, carer, family or other person or group; or
- (ii) The husband of a woman, her family, or her clan, has the right to transfer it to others for the value received or otherwise; or
- (iii) A woman who dies of her husband may be inherited by another;
Sperm donation
Laws in many countries and states require sperm donors to be anonymous or known by the recipients, or the law limits the number of children that each donor can provide. Although many donors choose to remain anonymous, new technologies such as the Internet and DNA technology have opened new avenues for those who want to know more about biological fathers, siblings and half brothers.
Compulsory sterilization
Roman woman
During the 20th century, forced sterilization of Roman women in European countries, especially in former communist countries, was practiced, and there were allegations that these practices continued unofficially in some countries, such as the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary , and Romania. In V. C. v. Slovakia, the European Court of Human Rights decided to support a Roman woman who was the victim of forced sterilization at a state hospital in Slovakia in 2000.
United States
An individual's sterilization is one of the main issues behind reproductive rights that are ignored by those who believe they have the right to decide whether certain people "fit" to have children. Individual mental stability and physical disability that a person may play an important role in the onset of forced sterilization. Individuals fear that this defect is hereditary and want to stop it before society becomes incompetent. Although there are many operations that can make one sterile, vasectomy in men and salpingectomy in women is considered at least radical. No operation is considered dangerous. The state law in which sterilization is practiced varies. Many provisions have been made both by the United States and by individual countries to limit the number of degenerations in the country. The creation of voluntary programs such as Planned Parenthood (presented in the use of abstinence and contraception as a form of population growth control) was introduced to help families control their birth rates.
Sterilization has long been a controversial topic in the United States. Until the 1970s, states could elect women who were allowed to undergo procedures and which women were not eligible. This strategy is proven repressive, both for women who want to be sterilized and not given rights, as well as for women who have no choice but to be sterilized. Then, like today, sterilization is a form of birth control that is highly sought after by some women. However, until the 1960s, it was illegal for women to be sterilized for reasons other than eugenics, which meant sterilization as birth control was illegal. This makes many women with very valid reasons for sterilization can not accept the procedure. This also means most women who undergo the procedure get it for non-birth control reasons and not by choice.
In addition, forced and coercive sterilization has become a constitutional issue because some argue that it violates the right of individuals to reproduce. In 1972, Eisenstadt v. Baird set a precedent: "the right of an individual, married or single, to be free from unreasonable government disruption in matters that fundamentally affect a person as a decision to bear or bear a Child". However, sterilization is still used in trials for men and women in cases involving child abuse and/or neglect, drug abuse, and other criminal activities. The relationship between reproductive rights and sterilization is also evident in hospital settings where doctors have been documented as female reservations, ie low-income women, to approve sterilization or their confidential delivery services. Canada
Canada recently took the initiative to help women seek abortions globally, because on Wednesday 8 March 2017, International Women's Day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $ 650 million advocacy program. The move comes after the United States cut its budget for Health and Family Planning in the developing world. Under Obama's previous administration, the United States has halted policies that hold funds for sexual abortion and sexual health resources globally. However, under Trump's rule, the policy was restarted, having been under previous Republican rule. The program sees Canada as a world leader in women's rights initiatives, as it helps in advocating for safe and legal abortion in countries that currently prohibit them.
Abortion is currently illegal in around 125 countries. Trudeau and the Canadian Liberal Government emphasize that this money will help in developing support groups globally to challenge legislation in n
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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