Reversing the backsliding in sexual and reproductive health and rights: A wake-up call from independent scientists and advisors

In the face of massive global protests against sexual and reproductive health and rights, some of the leading experts in the field are calling on the World Health Assembly to protect these hard-won rights. All authors are listed below.

Progress on comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and related gender equality goals is fundamental to human rights and dignity, economies, sustainable development and a healthier planet.

While SRHR is often thought of as the services necessary to prevent unwanted pregnancies, unsafe births, and preventable sexual or reproductive diseases, injuries, or dysfunctions, the term is much broader.

These include, above all, the positive perception of consensual sexual intimacy and desire, the development of relationships with mutual respect and love, and the affirmation of individuals and families in all their diversity.

It is the core of human dignity, autonomy, creativity and security. Sexual and reproductive health and rights only thrive where their emotional, intellectual and social dimensions are also enabled free from coercion, discrimination and violence.

Maintaining this holistic understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights is more important today than ever before. The costs of failure or inaction or of deliberately undermining sexual and reproductive health and rights have devastating consequences for the health, well-being and survival of 4.3 billion people (Text field 2).

Ensure well-being

In contrast, investing in and ensuring access to effective sexual and reproductive health services leads to better health, well-being and lives.

Comprehensive sex education provides young people with life skills and contraceptives enable girls and women to plan their destiny.

Maternal mortality is largely preventable and has decreased by 34% from 2000 to 2020. If the examination is carried out using a method appropriate to the duration of the pregnancy and by someone who has the necessary skills, Abortion is a safe health care procedure. Legal measures to expand access to abortion led to Decrease in maternal mortality.

Antiretroviral therapy has changed the course of the HIV epidemic. Effective primary (vaccination against human papillomavirus) and secondary prevention approaches (screening and treatment of precancerous lesions) will Cases of cervical cancer.

In addition to the health and social benefits, investing in SRHR also has economic benefits. For example, every dollar invested in meeting contraceptive needs generates a benefit of $120 in the form of reduced infant and maternal mortality and long-term benefits from increased economic prosperity.

The financial returns from income and consumption taxes paid by people born through artificial insemination far exceed public funds for artificial insemination, not including other contributions. for the society.

Today, there are shining examples of progress towards the full realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights, with implications for peace and Well-beingAt the same time, sexual and reproductive health and rights are being challenged on many fronts in today’s increasingly polarised and unequal world.

Ultra-right groups undermine achievements

Ultra-right gender ideologies and religious fundamentalism continue to consolidate the political influence Further dangers arise when governments collaborate with commercial interests to profit from war economies that undermine the foundations of sexual and reproductive health. right.

Some warmongers go even further and use sexual and reproductive right. Similarly, progress on democratic rights, accountability and equitable development is being undermined by trade agreements that fragment global inequalities, undermine the universality of sexual and reproductive health and right.

In their pursuit of electoral success, ultra-right politicians and movements spread hate speech, misinformation, and promote regressive policies and laws that restrict sexual and reproductive services and our right to them.

Specifically, these ultra-right activists want to abolish legal protection against gender-based violence and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation; ban sexuality Training; Sex outside of Wedding; Criminalize LGBTIQ+ Populations; introduce bans or comprehensive restrictions on safe abortions and even deny access to modern contraceptives Methods.

They are also cutting funding for sexual rights and wellbeing and, last but not least, they are targeting, condemning and threatening sexual and reproductive health and rights providers and advocates.

Increase in disinformation

Of particular concern is the increasing systematic spread of disinformation. Issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights are deliberately mixed with false claims that these issues deny nature, erase gender, and promote colonial ideologies or alien Agendas.

In fact, protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights enriches and saves lives: it strengthens women’s self-determination over their bodies and their destinies, promotes respect for gender identity in all its diversity, and changes the balance of power between the sexes in the interests of greater equality.

Finally, not only are elements of sexual and reproductive health and rights found historically across all cultures, but promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights is also a means of counteracting past legacies. Coloniality.

By stoking and exploiting fear, prejudice and misinformation through national and international platforms, politicians, advocacy groups and community leaders who support these regressions are intentionally endangering the lives, health and well-being of others.

They act as if their personal moral claims take precedence over their public duty to reduce preventable mortality and morbidity. The results are disastrous and have long-term consequences for health and development. Even in the area of ​​maternal health, despite the progress made, maternal mortality rates have recently stagnated or even worsened in countries of all income levels. Levels.

Our call: Protect SRHR

More than 30 years after the international commitments on sexual and reproductive health and rights in Cairoand to meet commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals, the urgent work to protect life, well-being and dignity in the area of ​​sexual and reproductive health is far from complete.

Given this and the clear current threats to sexual and reproductive health and rights, we call on all delegates to the 2024 World Health Assembly to protect and promote sexual and reproductive rights, which are human rights, without discrimination.

Anti-health, anti-rights, Anti-proof Dynamics should have no place at the negotiating levels of the UN and WHO.

Instead, the significant progress that has been made and still needs to be made should be recognised and appreciated, while those who have evidently failed in their responsibilities for the safety and well-being of others should be held to account. At the very least, countries must fully respect the principle of non-regression.

With more people and nations going to the polls this year, 2024 is a crucial year for the future of sexual and reproductive health rights.

We call on citizens and communities to mobilise, advocate, demand and elect those who defend facts over fear, evidence and science over ideology; who fulfil their human rights obligations for all in their entirety, including our rights to sexual and reproductive health. Investing to promote, not undermine, sexual and reproductive health and rights is essential for broader health, equitable development, sustainable peace and the survival of the planet.

The authors are independent researchers and members of the following independent sexual and reproductive health advisory groups:

Scientific and Technical Advisory Group for the United Nations Special Action on Human Reproduction (alphabetical order): Abdifatah Abdullahi, Ivonne Diaz, Ana Flavia D’Oliviera, Silke Dyer, Alison Edelman, Fatu Forna, Asha S. George (Chair), James Hargreaves, Caroline Homer, Elin C. Larsson, Dorothy Shaw, Tari Turner (Co-Chair)

Gender and Rights Advisory Panel for the UN Special Issue on Human Reproduction: Alessandra Aresu, Kate Gilmore (Chair), Anuj Kapilashrami (Co-Chair), Renu Khanna, Allan Maleche, Brian Mutebi, Mindy Roseman, Brian Mutebi, Mindy Roseman, Marion Stevens, Imani Tafari-Ama,

Strategic and technical advisory group of experts on maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition: Amanuel Abajobir, Narendra Arora, Richmond Aryeetey, Per Ashorn, Peter Azzopardi, Oliva Bazirete, Jay Berkley, Cristina Bisson, Gary L. Darmstadt, Kathryn Dewey, Faysal El Kak, Caroline Homer (Chair), Caroline Kabiru, Nuray Kanbur, Betty Kirkwood, Jonathan D. Klein, Daniel Martinez Garcia, Sjoerd Postma, Linda Richter, Jane Sandall, Dilys Walker, Stanley Zlotkin

Photo credit: Dominic Chavez/World Bank, UN Photo/Kibae Park/Flickr.