News in English     | 23.07.2021. 10:30 |

Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health are basic human rights

FENA Press release

SARAJEVO, July 23 (FENA) - A woman’s power to control her own body is linked to how much control she has in other spheres of her life. Unfortunately, for many people, especially in the case of women and girls, life is fraught with losses to bodily integrity and autonomy linked to a lack of agency in making their own decisions. Different causes and circumstances prevent women and adolescent girls from enjoying bodily autonomy and integrity. But a root cause is gender discrimination deeply entrenched in culture, which reflects and sustains patriarchal systems of power and spawns gender inequality and disempowerment.

This was stated in Op-Ed regarding the Action Coalition on Bodily Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights by Ambassador of the Republic of France to Bosnia and Herzegovina Christine Toudic, UNFPA Representative in BiH John Kennedy Mosoti, Director of the BiH Gender Equality Agency at the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of BiH Samra Filipović-Hadžiabdić and David Saunders, UN Women Representative in BiH. 

Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) were important topics during the Generation Equality Forum held in Paris from June 30 to July 2 2021, convened by UN Women and the government of France, in partnership with civil society and youth.

"At the Forum, which served as a generational opportunity ti put women’s empowerment at the forefront of ensuring human rights for all girls and women, revolutionary commitments and the Global Acceleration Plan to advance gender equality by 2026 were announced," it is said in Op-Ed. 

Locally, regionally, and globally Action Coalitions, innovative, multi-stakeholder partnerships, are working to mobilize governments, civil society, international organizations, and the private sector to catalyse collective action.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is joining this process, with partners gathering to discuss and determine key actions to improve the situation for women and girls in key areas of bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive rights, economic security, and ending violence against women.

"France, together with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), co-chairs the Action Coalition for Bodily Autonomy and SRHR, which was launched in Sarajevo on 8 July 2021. This is the first joint Action Coalition  in BiH, following the global launch of the Generation Equality Forum. It was launched jointly with the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of BIH, UN Women, and brings together government representatives, civil society actors, eminent professionals and change-makers, to work on protecting and promoting bodily autonomy and SRHR in BiH," they stated. 

At the same time, the authors remind that in 2021, UNFPA launched its annual State of World Population report (SWOP). The theme, for the first time, is entirely dedicated to bodily autonomy.

The report emphasizes that the power of a woman to control her own body is linked to how much control she has in other spheres of her life.

"For a woman or a girl to have autonomy in reproductive health decision-making, she must be able to make her own decisions in terms of having sex, using contraception and seeking reproductive health care. On this point, global data paint an alarming picture of bodily autonomy for millions of women and girls: only 55 % of girls and women are able to make their own decisions in all three dimensions of bodily autonomy," it is said.

Whereas there is a legal framework in place in BiH which regulates the right to access sexual and reproductive health care services, the results of the Inquiry on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights in BiH show that there are differences in the levels of respect for these rights within the country.

"Respect for the right of individuals and couples to make informed decisions on whether or not to have children, how many children they want and when to have each child implies that family planning services are available, accessible and of good quality. While the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines contains 14 different contraceptives, contraceptive users in BiH must pay the full price for nearly all modern contraceptives - which is not something all citizens can afford. The exceptions being two contraceptives in the Republika Srpska and one contraceptive in Canton 10 in Federation BiH, which are on the local lists of essential medicines," the authors said. 

In addition, under the current entity-level laws every woman has a right to choose to end a pregnancy during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. However, this right is not fully respected in all parts of BiH. Data show that more than a third (34%) of sexual and reproductive health service users stated that women did not have access to comprehensive information on abortion, and over two-fifths (43%) of respondents stated that psychological counselling services were not available to women who opted for abortion.

Many policies and strategies in BiH recognize the need for sexuality education and 98% of young people aged 15-25 in BiH believe that it should be taught in schools. However, this kind of education is not part of the school curricula in BiH. The exceptions being the primary schools in the Sarajevo Canton and the Goražde Canton, where age-adjusted Comprehensive Sexuality Education is provided.

"We are all obligated to support the Action Coalition for Bodily Autonomy and SRHR that will advocate for all girls, adolescents and women in BiH to have free access to comprehensive sexuality information, education and SRHR services, and to support them to make their own decisions about their bodies, sexuality and reproduction without coercion, violence and discrimination. And for their rights to be respected," they concluded, announced the Embassy of the Republic of France to BiH. 

(FENA) A. B.

Vezane vijesti


Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/vhosts/fena.ba/httpdocs/post-new.php on line 379

Promo

M:tel: Savršena kombinacija – Huawei telefon i pametni sat s popustom

M:tel: Stiglo nam je Proljeće!

Predstava 'Kako sam se nadala dobro se nisam udala' u BKC Sarajevo