A/HRC/47/38
and psychosocial support, among other services. 30 International human rights obligations
concerning sexual and reproductive health rights are complementary to those in international
humanitarian, refugee and criminal law. 31 The Working Group recalls that non-State actors,
such as armed groups, are also obliged to respect international human rights. 32
21.
The Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and
Development, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development include commitments to achieve gender equality by ensuring a
range of sexual and reproductive health rights for women and girls. The importance of
ensuring access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services during and after
a conflict has been highlighted by the Security Council, in its resolution 2122 (2013) on
women and peace and security. More recently, in its resolutions 75/156 and 75/157, the
General Assembly called for the allocation of resources to ensure the continuation of
universal access to health-care services, including sexual and reproductive health-care
services, within the responses to COVID-19. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction, 2015–2030, encompasses social safety net mechanisms that integrate sexual and
reproductive health (para. 30 (j)). In the Granada Consensus on sexual and reproductive
health in protracted crises and recovery, participants called for the prioritization of sexual
and reproductive health.33
C.
Main factors underlying and exacerbating the risks and threats
1.
Discriminatory laws, policies and practices
22.
Denial of access to various forms of reproductive health care, such as maternal health
care, including emergency obstetric care, and the criminalization of abortion is a profound
failure to meet the obligation to guarantee equality in the area of sexual and reproductive
health.34 The denial of access to a full range of contraceptive information and services, as
well as the failure to remove barriers to access, including stereotypes portraying women’s
“natural role” as mothers to justify such denial, constitutes a form of discrimination against
women and girls, which puts their well-being at risk.35
23.
Violations of sexual and reproductive health rights are linked to structural
discrimination. Such violations take many forms, including forced sterilization, forced
abortion, forced pregnancy, as well as the criminalization of abortion, denial or delay of safe
abortion and/or post-abortion care, the forced continuation of pregnancy and the abuse and
mistreatment of women and girls seeking sexual and reproductive health information, goods
and services, which have been recognized as forms of gender-based violence, and which may
amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 36 The prosecution and
imprisonment of women and girls for miscarriages and stillbirths is discriminatory and
violates a broad range of human rights.
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14 (2000) and general
comment No. 22 (2016); Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general
recommendation No. 24 (1999) and general recommendation No. 30 (2013); Inter-Agency Working
Group on Reproductive Health in Crisis, “Field manual on reproductive health in humanitarian
settings”, 2018; A/HRC/32/44; and Working Group, position paper, “Women’s autonomy”.
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 30
(2013), para. 19.
Ibid. See also www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?News
ID=26797&LangID=E.
See www.who.int/hac/techguidance/pht/reproductive_health_protracted_crises_and_recovery.pdf.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 22 (2016); A/HRC/21/22;
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Da Silva Pimentel v. Brazil
(CEDAW/C/49/D/17/2008); CEDAW/C/OP.8/PHL/1; and A/HRC/32/44. See also Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 24 (1999) and general
recommendations No. 33 (2015).
CEDAW/C/OP.8/PHL/1, paras. 33, 36 and 43; and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, general comment No. 22 (2016), para. 28.
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 35
(2017). See also A/74/137.
7
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