Statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at Launch of OHCHR information series on sexual and reproductive health and rights

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this launch event of OHCHR’s Information Series on sexual and reproductive health and rights. I am particularly pleased to welcome also our panellists and am looking forward to hearing their presentations.

Ladies and gentlemen, let there be absolutely no mistake - Sexual and reproductive health rights are human rights. They are not new rights, and they are not optional.   They are intrinsic to a range of internationally binding treaties. At the very core of these rights is the autonomy of every individual, which involves deeply personal issues such as whether, when, how and with whom any individual chooses to have sex; whether, when, and whom one chooses to marry; whether, when, how and with whom one chooses to have children; and how we choose to express gender and sexuality.

The human rights community has played a particularly important role in clarifying the human rights obligations which apply to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Indeed ensuring these rights implies protection of a wide variety of human rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. For instance:

• The right to life means that preventable maternal deaths, of which there are as many as 800 a day, must be stopped. This means ensuring women have access to emergency obstetric care, and to safe abortion services, as well as the means to reach health facilities. It also means addressing the other main causes of maternal mortality and morbidity.
• The prohibition of discrimination based on sex means that denying health services only required by women is unacceptable.
• The right to health requires that health services, goods and information are available, accessible, affordable, culturally acceptable and of good quality. This applies equally to sexual and reproductive health services and goods, such as maternal health and contraceptives.
• The right to information and to education means that women, men, boys and girls should have access to accurate information about sexuality, and barriers to such access -- such as consent requirements -- should be removed.
• The right to security of the person means that all forms of gender based violence, including harmful practices, must be eliminated; that acts of violence must be investigated and prosecuted regardless of whether they are committed by public or private actors; and that victims are provided with prompt, adequate and effective remedies.
• The right to freedom of expression and association means that women and men who defend these rights should be able to do so without fear of violence, threats or other reprisals.

These standards are clearly articulated by a wide variety of human rights mechanisms, including especially treaty bodies and special procedures of the Human Rights Council.

However, though these standards are well-known in some circles, our Office sees a need to promote enhanced understanding, clearer guidance and broader engagement as frequently sexual and reproductive health and rights are misunderstood. For this reason, we developed this information series which consolidates the relevant human rights norms pertaining to nine aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights – maternal mortality and morbidity, contraception, harmful practices, violence against women, abortion, women human rights defenders, HIV/AIDS, LGBT persons and adolescents.

Presented in a concise and accessible format, we hope that this information series will assist a wide variety of stakeholders to utilize relevant human rights standards in their advocacy, law and policy development, and project design, implementation and evaluation. We are in the process of translating these into French and Spanish to ensure their utility in multiple regions of the world.

Our panellists today have valuable experiences to share with us on how they work with human rights standards to protect and promote sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Sharing these experiences and using the information series to ensure that the standards are well-known and well-understood, we hope that today’s discussions will generate concrete recommendations on furthering implementation of these human rights obligations.

Thank you for being with us today, and I look forward to the discussions.