Data presented by WHO at the G7 Rome International Forum 9 April 2017
“Starting from girls. Women Forum on inequality and sustainable growth” corroborate that young women bear the brunt and have an unacceptably high risk of losing their lives early.
On the issue of HIV we remark: Victims are both male and female adolescents but data on new HIV infections from 2015 suggest women aged 15–24 years are at particularly high risk of becoming infected.

If young women are to become potential envoys of change we believe basic education for all adolescents about their human rights is a must, with a focus on information about sexuality and family planning.

Women of all ages can’t wait any longer. More national and international action is needed to implement the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights SRHR.

We appeal to all governments including those preferring traditional family patterns to provide free access to counselling on family planning, to replenish the stocks of free contraceptives and to support the infrastructure for the same at community level. Our request for all women who are in childbearing age includes emergency contraception, where safe legal pregnancy termination is not available or legally banned, leading to risky unsafe abortion.

IAW will disseminate information on the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health 2016 – 2030 to our wider membership. We stand ready to monitor progress with other like-minded partners.

The statement may be downloaded here:

WHA statement IAW_2017

See statements by other NGOs

The post The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health 2016 – 2030”. appeared first on International Alliance of Women.

The statement is on http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/STAG-STATEMENT.pdf?ua=1

The signatories of the statement are “deeply concerned at the growing opposition to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Current global trends – increasing stigmatisation of essential information and health services, continued support for harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM, increasing restrictions on contraceptive services and abortion care, and decreasing funding – threaten the provision of life-saving care needed by women and girls, especially the poorest and most marginalised.”

The statement ends with “Now, more than ever, it is critical to ensure access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and information and to guarantee that scientific evidence is developed, shared and used by decision-makers to ensure the promotion and protection of sexual and reproductive health of all individuals everywhere, so that no one is left behind.”

Gudrun Haupter, Convener of the IAW Commission on Health, adds: The Global Gag rule, also known as Mexico City Policy, does not only ban abortion-related activities. The strings attached to receiving funding from USAID, the Agency for International Development, negatively impact the access to family planning, mother and child care, sexual education and the other components of SRHR. NGOs that sign the Global Gag rule memorandum also pledge not to use their own funds for any activities linked to abortion. NGOs with USAID as main source of funding have to choose between two evils.

Unfortunately the backlash is manifest in many countries. I just call to memory the recent attempt of the Polish government to get through with a quasi complete ban of abortion.

Read the whole letter in the Guardian

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