As part of the main drivers of the BAM Group of Companies, this being the umbrella company within which Informative Newspaper operates, alongside sister brands Finite Magazine, Finite Lifestyle Club, Bam Promotions and Twin Talk, Informative Newspaper takes particular interest in social issues and causes created to advance the development of young girls and women and their participation in the global space.
To advance and cement the organization’s support for women and young girls, the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights is today, through this issue introduced. Its purpose is to advance knowledge and create further awareness on developments surrounding the said community sector and to help audiences stay updated on such, further guiding means of both action and reaction to these developments.
This week we discuss Stigma associated with sexual and reproductive health care, including cervical screening
Women in Southern Africa often face stigma when they seek out sexual and reproductive health care. Cervical screening and its association with STIs is often seen as an indication of sexual promiscuity, deterring women from asking for these services. Women may fear that when it is disclosed that they sought out cervical cancer screening, they will be abandoned by their partners and ostracised by their community.
Gender inequality
Women do not always have the power to access sexual and reproductive health care without the permission of their spouses or sexual partners. These concerns may be especially acute for women in rural areas and who live under customary laws.
What can parliamentarians do to advance prevention, screening and treatment for cervical cancer?
Parliamentarians can play a critical role in ensuring that the myths and misinformation about cervical cancer, arising in part from custom and tradition, are dispelled and women and girls, including those living with HIV, receive the right information at the right time in order to make informed decisions about their health.
Undertake advocacy research: Parliamentarians can initiate research into the human rights barriers to prevention, screening and treatment programmes for cervical cancer. Parliamentarians can investigate the barriers faced by women living with HIV and vulnerable women and ensure that their needs are adequately addressed. They can commission research on the potential to scale up access to the HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening and treatment.
Enact and strengthen laws: Parliamentarians can draft and enact laws promoting access to comprehensive prevention, screening and treatment for cervical cancer. They can ensure that laws:
• Promote equal, non-discriminatory access to cervical cancer programmes and ensure that women are able to make informed decisions about their health, including access to the HPV vaccine;
• Promote access to cervical cancer programmes for women living with HIV and marginalised or vulnerable women;
• Do not require spousal or parental consent to access information about cervical cancer;
• Do not require spousal or parental consent to access the HPV vaccine; SRHR, HIV AND AIDS Governance Manual
• Respect the right to medical confidentiality for women and girls; and
• Promote CSE for adolescents and young men and women, including information about the risk of cervical cancer.
Ensure accountability for implementation of commitments: Parliamentarians can undertake legal audits to assess the extent to which laws and policies are consistent with their international and regional human rights commitments and do not hamper access to cervical cancer services. They can also call for accountability to and reporting on efforts to meet related international and regional human rights commitments. They can meet with the relevant parliamentary committees to share information and concerns about discriminatory laws and assess what changes are necessary to advance access to cervical cancer programmes. They can meet with international and regional experts to discuss what law reform is necessary and advocate for legal and policy reform to ensure compliance. They can monitor and hold government ministries accountable for reporting on their progress towards amending discriminatory laws and enact protective ones, and they can encourage civil society to monitor whether protective laws are being implemented. Where they find deficits, they can advocate for legal and policy reform to ensure compliance. Parliamentarians can encourage governments to develop national cervical cancer plans to address the need to improve services and work with the medical profession to ensure they are evidence based. They can monitor and hold government ministries accountable for reporting on their progress towards implementing these plans.
Budget monitoring: Parliamentarians can advocate for adequate budgets to be allocated for measures to advance universal access to SRHR, including cervical cancer programmes. The budget should include provision for medical equipment and technology required to track and diagnose cervical cancer at its early stages, and should monitor that equipment reaches hospitals or health care centres spread across the country. They can analyse budget allocations for SRH to assess that programmes include cervical cancer programming and that programmes will reach the most vulnerable women, including women living with HIV. They can encourage various ministries (e.g. health, education, justice) to budget for relevant programmes and that human rights are fully integrated into programmes on cervical cancer and are appropriately costed to ensure implementation.
Be an opinion leader and influencer: Parliamentarians can help raise awareness about cervical cancer, the HP virus and the links between HIV and HPV. They can become opinion leaders on the importance of access to the HPV vaccine and help to de-stigmatise adolescent sexuality so that girls can access to HP vaccination. By speaking out, parliamentarians can encourage a human rights-based approach to cervical cancer and more social acceptance of cervical cancer prevention and screening. They can actively support CSE, including for the girls that are due to receive the vaccine. They can attend events and deliver speeches to frame cervical cancer as a human rights issues. They can also work within Parliament and in Parliamentary forums and networks, to raise awareness amongst fellow parliamentarians. They can share lessons learned with other parliamentarians at regional and global level, including from outreach to communities on HIV.
Engage with civil society: Parliamentarians can engage with CSOs including women’s groups, primary health care workers, university medical schools, private practitioners and other groups working on women’s reproductive health to increase awareness, understanding and information on cervical cancer. They can invite CSOs and the communities they work with, to provide expert information at parliamentary hearings on the barriers to cervical cancer programmes, including for vulnerable women and work with these groups to promote the right to health for women with cervical cancer. They can present the findings of these meetings and hearings to relevant government ministries. Parliamentarians can play an important role in ensuring that the voices of women are included in discussions about their lives.
Represent their electorate: Parliamentarians should engage with and reflect the concerns of all their electorate, including women living with HIV and women and girls at higher risk of cervical cancer. Parliamentarians can engage with key stakeholders within communities – women, health care workers, parents, traditional leaders and religious leaders, to increase awareness to about cervical cancer. In particular, parliamentarians can ensure that they include the voices of women, including women living with HIV, girls and young women, at the centre of these conversations.
Work with the media: Parliamentarians can work with the media to raise awareness and to encourage more reporting on cervical cancer. They can encourage the media to write stories that sensitively convey information about cervical cancer, the increased risk for women living with HIV, the need for adolescent girls to access the HPV vaccine and provide accurate information about screening and treatment for cervical cancer.
Next we continue the discussion on Stigma associated with sexual and reproductive health care, including cervical screening
Why this is important; (comments)
Kindly receive my few comments on the next discussion around stigma surrounding sexual and Reproductive Health care, including cervical screening.
One of the major changes that we are faced with especially in our context is the issue of cultural and social norms. Cultural and social norms play a significant role in shaping attitudes towards sexual and Reproductive Health. Topics related to sexual and Reproductive Health are considered private or inappropriate for public discussion and this creates an environment where individuals feel uncomfortable or ashamed to talk about these issues. Often, older generations avoid discussing sexual Health with younger family members, perpetuating a cycle of silence and misinformation.
Further, Gender roles and expectations. Women may face additional stigma due to traditional gender roles that emphasise modesty and chastity. These expectations create significant barriers to discussing and seeking sexual and Reproductive Health care, they may fear being judged or labelled as promiscuous if they openly talk about their health needs. The emphasis on modesty can lead to a heightened sense of privacy making it uncomfortable for women to undergo procedures like cervical screening which they might perceive as invasive. I have someone whom I know who literally delayed to go see a doctor simply because she was uncomfortable about the doctor seeing her nakedness let alone her vagina, it’s she ended up going to the doctor but she could have gone earlier before her condition worsened.
Signed: Mammehela Matamane
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