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 What can parliamentarians do to advance the SRHR of key populations?
Parliamentarians have a particularly important role to play in helping to end stigma of key populations in all spheres of life, including in access to health care, social services and employment. They can promote laws, policies, practices and programmes that favour the integration of key populations in society and allow them to take an equal part in the political and socio-economic development of their countries. They can also advocate for the development of a standard regional package of effective, evidence based, voluntary, community – empowering SRH and HIV prevention, treatment and care services for key populations.
Undertake advocacy research: Parliamentarians can initiate research into how HIV affects key populations in their countries, the impact of laws criminalising key populations and the extent to which the rights of key populations are being violated. By understanding the dynamics in their own countries, parliamentarians can encourage evidence based policies and programming for key populations. Parliamentarians can investigate how discriminatory laws and policies prevent health care workers and CSOs from delivering services to key populations and accessing funding to do so. Parliamentarians can also initiate research into special programmes that promote access to sexual and reproductive information, including on HIV prevention, to key populations.
Enacting and strengthening protective laws: Parliamentarians can draft, reform and enact laws to ensure they promote equality and non-discrimination for key populations and their access to sexual and reproductive health care and HIV-related services.
They can ensure that laws:
• Promote equality for key populations and prohibit discrimination against them, including on the grounds of health and HIV status, employment and SOGI;
• Prohibit hate crimes on the basis of SOGI;
• Do not criminalise consensual adult sex and repeal laws that directly or indirectly discriminate on the grounds of SOGI;
• Do not criminalise any aspect of gender identity and sexual orientation, and repeal laws that directly or indirectly discriminate on the grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation;
• Recognise sex work as work;
• Allow transgender people to change gender markers;
• Promote equal, non-discriminatory access to sexual and reproductive health information, including HIV-related services, for key populations; and
• Respect the right to medical confidentiality for key populations.
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 SRHR for key populations. 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 equality for key populations and to protect them from violations of their human rights. 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.
Budget monitoring: Parliamentarians can advocate for adequate budgets to be allocated for measures to advance universal access to SRHR for key populations. They can analyse budget allocations for SRH and HIV-related services to assess whether programmes are tailored to reach and meet the needs of key populations. They can advocate for various ministries (e.g. health, education, justice) to budget for specialised programmes aimed at key populations, and advocate that human rights are fully integrated into programmes and appropriately costed to ensure implementation.
Be an opinion leader and influencer: Parliamentarians can become opinion leaders on the importance of promoting the health and rights of key populations. By meeting publicly with members of key populations and speaking out in support of the rights of key populations, parliamentarians can help to discourage homophobia and stigma and discrimination. If they are willing to do so, gay, lesbian or transgender parliamentarians and parliamentarians living with HIV can publicly disclose this information and be role models for others. They can attend events and speak out to frame abuses against key populations as human rights violations and promote access to justice for key populations when their rights have been violated. They can use international or national human rights days such as International Sex Workers Rights Day (March 10), International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (May 17) and Transgender Remembrance Day (November 20) to increase awareness about the rights of key populations and their vulnerability to HIV. They can also work within Parliament and in Parliamentary forums and networks, to raise awareness and share lessons learned amongst fellow parliamentarians at national, regional and global levels.
Engage with civil society: Parliamentarians can engage with CSOs, health care workers and groups led by and working with key populations to increase awareness, understanding and information on the SRHR of key populations, including access to HIV services. Parliamentarians can help to support key populations to advocate for their rights by inviting them to provide expert information/testimonies at parliamentary hearings on the impact of stigma and discrimination on vulnerability to HIV, the barriers created by criminalisation and other discriminatory laws and policies to sexual and reproductive health care and HIV-related services and other challenges to realising their human rights. They can present the findings of these meetings and hearings to relevant government ministries. Parliamentarians can support the development and strengthening of key population-led organisations and can play an important role in ensuring that the voices of key populations can influence all aspects of planning, including design, implementation and monitoring of national AIDS responses and SRH services.
Represent their electorate: Parliamentarians should engage with and reflect the concerns of all their electorate, including key populations. They can engage with key stakeholders within communities – key populations, women, health care workers, parents, traditional leaders and religious leaders, to increase awareness to about the sexual and reproductive health and rights of key populations.
Work with the media: Parliamentarians can work with the media to raise awareness and to encourage responsible reporting on the SRHR of key populations, including the disproportionate impact of HIV on this group. They can encourage the media to write stories that sensitively and accurately convey the reality of key populations and without judgment, provide relevant and reliable information about the SRHR needs of key populations.
Next we discuss Stigma and discrimination in health care settings.
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