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: International and regional human rights obligations
SADC countries have ratified international and regional human rights treaties that protect the rights of young women and girls to reproductive rights and health, including the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This includes access to health care, health related information and to make decisions about the number and spacing of children.
The Maputo Protocol includes the right to choose a method of contraception, to have access to family planning education and to be protected against HIV and STIs. It explicitly includes a limited right to medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the woman or the life of the woman or the foetus.
The CRC states that children have a right to health-related information that includes information about how to prevent early pregnancy. The SADC Gender and Development Protocol also states the girls should have equal access to education, information, services and facilities on SRHR.
The Committee on Social, Cultural and Economic Rights has stated that access to reproductive and sexual health care should include “a wide range of contraceptive methods, such as condoms and emergency contraception, medicines for abortion and for post-abortion care, and medicines, including generic medicines, for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and HIV”.
Both the CRC committee and the CEDAW committee have recognised the rights of adolescents to contraceptive information and services. The CEDAW committee has urged countries to decriminalise abortion to ensure that women and girls have access to safe abortion and post-abortion care.
In 2016, the CSW adopted resolution 60/2 on women, girls and HIV. The resolution recognised that violence, discrimination and harmful practices are key contributing factors to the spread of HIV amongst women and girls and call on states to intensify efforts to achieve gender equality.
In addition to their legal obligations under international human rights laws, SADC countries have also committed to achieve the SDGs, also known as the Global Goals. These goals aim to end extreme poverty, eliminate inequality and injustice and address climate change by 2030. Target 3.7 aims to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including family planning education and information, by 2030.
The 2016 Political Declaration for Ending AIDS includes a pledge to eliminate gender inequalities and end all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls. The Declaration includes targets for reducing the number of new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women to below 100 000 per year, ensuring that 90% of young people have the skills, knowledge and capacity to protect themselves from HIV and that 90% of young people in need have access to sexual and reproductive health services and combination HIV prevention options by 2020.
SADC has recently developed guidelines to assist member states on target-setting, critical analyses and investment planning for HIV prevention for adolescent girls, young women and their sexual partners.
Next, we discuss: Human rights barriers to sexual and reproductive health and rights and the consequences for young women and girls
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