HRC33: SRHR Recap

The HRC33 Recap provides information on some of the key sexual rights related:

all of which the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) was engaged with during the session.

How the resolution advances women’s human rights:

• highlights the linkages between human rights obligations related to ending preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and the SDGs and the Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health;
• recognizes the obligation of States Parties to the ICESCR to take steps to achieve the full realization of the right to health, including sexual and reproductive health as an integral part of this right;
• recognizes that sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, in accordance with the PoA of the ICPD and the Beijing Platform and the outcome of their review conferences are integral to the progressive realization of the right to health;
• upholds the principles of formal and substantive equality within comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care and services, while including the need to address intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination;
• reaffirms women’s right to have control over, and to decide freely and responsibly on, matters related to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence;
• recognizes the importance of identifying, within the SDGs framework, appropriate national indicators in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity with full respect of States relevant human rights obligations and commitments;
• recognizes the large disparities in the maternal mortality rate between and within countries, between women with different incomes, between rural women and women living in urban areas;
• notes with concern the higher rates of maternal mortality and complications in pregnancy and childbirth for adolescent girls under the age of 15;
• recognizes the exacerbated risk of maternal mortality and morbidity in armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies;
• identifies unsafe abortion, poverty, lack of access to services, discrimination against women, gender inequality and gender-based stereotypes as factors that can lead to maternal mortality and morbidity.
• urges states to address these interlinked causes utilizing a human rights-based approach;
• requests states to integrate a human-rights based perspective, addressing the impact that discrimination against women has on maternal mortality and morbidity, in maternal mortality and morbidity initiatives;
• calls upon states to assess accountability mechanisms, where they exist, while ensuring access to justice for women and girls and to build accountability into interventions and strategies;
• calls on states to ensure the meaningful participation of women and girls in all decisions that affect them;
• calls upon all relevant actors to strengthen their efforts to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity including through, amongst others, the application of the OHCHR technical guidance;
• Decides to convene a panel at the 34^th session of the human rights council on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity as a human rights priority for all states including in the context of the implementation of the 2030 agenda.

Created in 2006 to replace the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Council is the foremost international body for the promotion and protection of human rights and can be used to bring substantial pressure on governments to take steps to implement human rights norms. The Human Rights Council is comprised of governments of countries that are members of the United Nations and is an important venue to develop and advance sexual rights as a critical part of the international human rights framework.