Gender, Communications and reproductive health in international development (original) (raw)
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The need to make a concrete connection between human rights and women’s rights is ironic considering that one half of humanity is female. Gender inequality is the most pressing contemporary human rights issue, including disparities in education, employment, healthcare, power and decision-making, violence, and poverty that impact billions of women and girls from every part of the world throughout their lifetime (UN Statistical Division, 2010; UNWomen, 2011a). Despite a long and documented history of virtual “gendercide” against women and girls, this disparity has been treated as non-existent or ignored or, if acknowledged, regarded as unimportant or insignificant by the global community. Led by the United Nations (UN), there is a growing global human rights effort to redress deeply rooted gender inequality. This paper will focus on sexual and reproductive health, examining both the extent of the problem and exploring some real and potential solutions. Specific topics addressed include an overview of gender-based inequality, female reproductive justice and healthcare, a brief history of women's health rights, the UN human rights framework, current global human rights initiatives focused on women, and action taken by women human rights defenders.
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The Reproductive Health Working Group (RHWG) was established in 1988 in Cairo to advance research in the Arab countries and Turkey on the health of women, broadly defined. The paper considers the ways in which the group contributed to global health conversations through three examples of interdisciplinary research that, in privileging local contexts, modified or even challenged prevailing approaches to health and often raised entirely new issues for consideration. The three examples cited in the paper are: (i) the network’s early research on reproductive morbidity; (ii) a broad set of ongoing studies on childbirth/maternal health; and (iii) emerging research on health and conflict. The paper discusses how the RHWG has strengthened research capability in the region, and explores the reasons for the longevity of this research network. DOI: 10.1080/09688080.2017.1379864
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The papers and commentaries in this special issue illuminate progress made by low- and middle-income countries towards implementation of the Programme of Action (PoA) agreed by 179 countries during the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994. The PoA presents a path-breaking sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) framework for global and national population and health policies. While progress towards implementation has been made at global, regional and national levels, continuing and new challenges require that high priority be given to SRHR for all, particularly women and girls, during the remaining months of the millennium development goals and in the United Nations post-2015 development agenda. This paper highlights three critical gaps, raised in other papers: inequalities in access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services; the widespread need to improve SRH services to meet public health, human rights and medical ...