Editorial: The Reproductive Health and Rights Agenda Under Attack (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
This paper reports the views of participants from key multilaterals and related agencies in the evolving global negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda on the strategic location of sexual and reproductive health and rights. The research was carried out in June and July 2013, following the release of the report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and comprised 40 semi-structured interviews with 57 participants and two e-mail respondents. All respondents were responsible for the post-2015 health and development agenda, or the post-2015 agenda more broadly, within their organisations. The interviews provide an insight into the intention to ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights are integrated into the post-2015 trajectory by key players who sit at the interface of UN and Member State interaction. They reveal both an awareness of the shortcomings of the Millennium Development Goal process and its impact on advocacy for sexual and reproductive health and rights in early post-2015 engagement, as well as the vulnerability of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the remaining phases of post-2015 negotiations. Recent events bear these concerns out. Ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights are included in the final post-2015 outcome document in the time remaining for negotiations, will be anything but a "doddle".
Editorial: Reproductive Health and Rights and the Quest for Social Justice
Development, 1999
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 reproductive 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.
Organising and Financing for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Reproductive Health Matters, 2004
This paper is a reflection on some of the successess and challenges that followed in the aftermath of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Cairo, 1994, and the capacity of civil society and of donors to address them. It is written with two voices -from my experience as an NGO activist for sexual and reproductive rights since the early 1980s and my experience as a programme officer for a donor for the last 18 months. It calls for a focus on implementation of services within public health and education systems, the need to deepen the capacities of activists and build new leaders, and the value of alliances with other movements whose goals are also being challenged by macro-economic forces and fundamentalist movements. At national level, I suggest three major goals: monitoring public sector spending, strengthening public health system capacity for implementation, and advocacy and community organisation to enable shifts in public understanding of sexual and reproductive rights. Lastly, as regards funding, it calls for dialogue about funding issues between NGOs and donors, for donors to increase national capacity development in the global south and for all those committed to change in relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights to commit themselves for the long haul, given the slow pace of change. A 2004 Reproductive Health Matters. All rights reserved.
BMJ Global Health, 2021
IntroductionThe initial International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 contains the first reference to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (SRHR). It has been considered agreed language on SRHR in future United Nations (UN) documents. However, opposition to SRHR in global forums has increased, including in conjunction with an increase in religious, far-right populist politics. This study provides an empirical analysis of UN documents to discover whether opposition to SRHR has resulted in changes in the language on SRHR between and what these changes are.MethodsThis is a qualitative policy analysis in which 14 UN resolutions, 6 outcome documents from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and 522 country and group statements and 5 outcome reports from the Commission on Population and Development were collected from the organisations websites from 2014 to 2019. Framework analysis was used. The text from documents was charted and indexed and them...
Perpetuating power: some reasons why reproductive health has stalled
Reproductive Health Matters, 2011
The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development represented a paradigm shift from vertical population control programmes to the broad-based promotion of sexual and reproductive health as human rights, through strengthening of health services and dealing with the underlying social determinants of health. In its Programme of Action, the global community set ambitious targets for reproductive health, based on strong political will among senior politicians and supported by many grassroots NGOs. Today, too little progress has been made, and the targets are not expected to be met. One of the reasons why may be that support for the reproductive health agenda has been de-politicised, with a focus on management and technical issues instead of unleashing the power necessary for change. Two other contributory trends, affecting more than reproductive health are discussed. Firstly, there has been a call for measurable goals and the use of indicators as a basis for planning, instead of valid and reliable measures for monitoring complex processes. This has led to a new form of vertical programme in reproductive health, in which the comprehensive nature of reproductive health has been left out, and a narrow definition of maternal health has been singled out for attention. Secondly, instead of nurturing the different roles of different actors in the struggle to achieve better reproductive health, the focus has been on coordination and harmonisation, which are not appropriate for dealing with controversial issues.
Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) has been identified by Amnesty International as an important human rights issue, that not only comprises pregnancy/antenatal, childbirth and post delivery/natal but also refers to: “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system”. Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHRs) were first recognised and included in the agenda of the Vienna 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, followed by the Cairo 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and the Beijing Conference in 1995. After many years of debate and negotiation, the UN members agreed on universal access to SRHRs without discrimination and violence. In 2015, SRHRs were highlighted in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 with particular focus on SRH improvement in low-income and conflict-affected countries. Twenty-four years of global efforts have had a significant impact on improving women’s health and well-being in many countries. However sensitivity and controversy in many countries, particularly where people strongly value their cultural, traditional and religious beliefs, have made the acceptance of SRHRs difficult. These difficulties are exacerbated by the absence of male sexual health on the agenda of the UN in terms of SRHRs. There can be no one solution, or even a series of technical solutions, to such complex issues. There is a strong possibility that the world may achieve the 2030 SDG 5 targets if all governments, particularly low-income and conflict-affected countries, identify factors that impact on SRHRs outcomes, adopt suitably modified SRH policies and programmes, ensure such policies and programmes are suitably funded and governed, and recognise men’s sexual health needs because sexual health for males and females is inextricably intertwined.
Reproductive Health Matters, 2014
This article suggests that sexual and reproductive health and rights activists seeking to influence the post-2015 international development paradigm must work with sustainable development advocates concerned with a range of issues, including climate change, environmental issues, and food and water security, and that a way of building bridges with these communities is to demonstrate how sexual and reproductive health and rights are relevant for these issues. An understanding of population dynamics, including urbanization and migration, as well as population growth, can help to clarify these links. This article therefore suggests that whether or not sexual and reproductive health and rights activists can overcome resistance to discussing "population", become more knowledgeable about other sustainable development issues, and work with others in those fields to advance the global sustainable development agenda are crucial questions for the coming months. The article also contends that it is possible to care about population dynamics (including ageing and problems faced by countries with a high proportion of young people) and care about human rights at the same time. It expresses concern that, if sexual and reproductive health and rights advocates do not participate in the population dynamics discourse, the field will be left free for those for whom respecting and protecting rights may be less of a priority.