Resources to be listed in Resources section page(s)
We, the people from National Human Rights Institutions, civil society organisations and collectives from across the African continent, having assembled and engaged in dialogue at the First Regional African Seminar on Finding Practical Solutions for Addressing Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression in Johannesburg, South Africa from 3rd to 5th March 2016, do adopt the following Declaration.
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Prepared pursuant to Council resolution 24/6, the report focuses on the right of adolescents to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and on the imperative to implement measures necessary to guarantee optimum health and development in accordance with the unique nature of adolescence.
In the report, the Special Rapporteur elaborates on mental health, the rights to sexual and reproductive health, and substance use and drug control, in view of the particular challenges they pose in balancing adolescents’ emerging autonomy with their right to protection.
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice pursuant to Council resolutions 15/23 and 26/5.
In its report, the Working Group addresses the issue of discrimination against women with regard to health and safety. The instrumentalization of women’s bodies lies at the heart of discrimination against women, obstructing the achievement of their highest attainable standard of health. The Working Group highlights in particular the health and safety situation of women who experience discrimination on multiple and intersectional grounds.
Women’s non-discriminatory enjoyment of the right to health must be autonomous, effective and affordable and the State has the primary responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil women’s right to health in law and in practice, including where health services are provided by private actors.
Ipas
The longstanding provider-patient confidentiality relationship is quietly eroding as an alarming number of medical staff across Latin America are reporting women and girls to the police for having abortions. Many countries now require, protect or encourage medical providers to breach their confidentiality duties when they treat women seeking postabortion care.
This publication covers the three main ways health-care providers are compelled to breach confidentiality, based on the varying Latin American laws governing provider obligations on the issue of abortion. It also details how such laws impact both providers and women, and lists the many international bodies, declarations, consensus documents, etc. that establish standards for protecting patient confidentiality. Finally, the publication provides recommendations for international human rights bodies, governments and health-care professionals to protect women’s right to confidentiality as well as providers’ ethical obligation to uphold that right.
Ipas
This publication provides evidence and explanation for why Ipas urges governments and policymakers to ensure that all young women—including survivors of sexual violence—have access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, including safe abortion services.
Ipas
This factsheet for advocates and policymakers explains how The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be a powerful tool for advancing adolescent girls’ and young women’s sexual and reproductive rights—especially their right to safe, legal abortion.
The publication includes explanations of how specific goals and targets within the development agenda apply to women’s right to safe abortion, as well as specific recommendations for how to hold governments accountable to these goals.
This resource is primarily intended to help legal and policy advocates use the concept of privacy to support providers in guaranteeing women’s right to confidential abortion care. Health-care professionals may also find the resource provides useful guidelines on protecting patient privacy.
Included is a review of providers’ ethical obligations to maintain confidentiality, a review of human rights protections related to privacy in health care, and an analysis of how confidentiality is treated in different national laws. This resource will also show that requiring providers to report women suspected of obtaining unlawful abortions violates protections of privacy and confidentiality under international human rights law.
GENEVA (8 March 2016) – The right to sexual and reproductive health is not only an integral part of the general right to health but fundamentally linked to the enjoyment of many other human rights, including the rights to education, work and equality, as well as the rights to life, privacy and freedom from torture, and individual autonomy, UN experts have said in an authoritative new legal commentary, the General Comment on the Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Yet, the experts from the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) note, “the full enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health remains a distant goal for millions of people, especially for women and girls, throughout the world.”
The commentary, adopted by CESCR’s 18 independent members, highlights the numerous legal, procedural, practical and social barriers people face in accessing sexual and reproductive health care and information, and the resulting human rights violations.
“For example, lack of emergency obstetric care services or denial of abortion often lead to maternal mortality and morbidity, which in turn constitutes a violation of the right to life or security, and in certain circumstances, can amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the experts say in their commentary.
The full General Comment from CESCR is available here: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/089/32/PDF/G1608932.pdf
This brief from the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) provides the human rights-based response to arguments that employ religion, culture, and tradition as justifications for gender-based discrimination and violence. The brief revolves around five main points:
The myths exposed in this publication come from the experiences of more than 1,600 women’s rights activists who responded to AWID’s Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms survey, as well as 51 key experts who were interviewed for the project.
This publication is about the top ten myths common to all regions and religions covered in AWID’s research. They can be countered by holding religious fundamentalists accountable for what they say and do, and by ensuring that our analysis most closely matches the lived experiences of women’s rights activists.
