Sexual and reproductive health and rights constitute fundamental human rights,
form a vital aspect of the women’s empowerment
and are key to the achievement of gender equality.
The Political Declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly during the High-Level Meeting on AIDS proved to be much weaker than its earlier drafts. The document reaffirms commitments made by governments in 2001 and acknowledges that, although some progress have been made, many targets have not yet been met. It expresses deep concern over the feminization of the pandemic and recognizes gender inequalities and all forms of violence against women as factors increasing their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Commitments were made to ensure that women can exercise their right to have control over their sexuality and to the goal of achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015. The document also recognizes that over half of the new infections are among children and young people under the age of 25. The States and Governments pledged the effective response and comprehensive approach to the pandemic which should reinforce treatment, care, support and evidence-based prevention, including responsible sexual behavior, youth friendly services and condom use. They also committed to intensify efforts towards the development of affordable HIV/AIDS-related medicines, products and technologies, including vaccines, female control methods and microbicides. However, the international civil society organizations expressed their disappointment because of the lack of certain important provisions. Youth Coalition in their statement stressed that “the absence of specific language such as comprehensive sexuality education, empowerment of girls, discriminated populations, sexual and reproductive rights and marital rape as one of the forms of sexual violence, leaves the declaration weak and ambiguous.” Human Rights Caucus stated that “the political declaration undermines the realization of human rights and is detrimental to an effective response to pandemic”. Although
the States commit to intensify efforts to ensure wide range of prevention
programs, they weaken this declaration by the reservation that these
programs should take account of “local circumstances, ethics and cultural
values”. This includes inter alia the During one of the Civil Society panels, parallel to government negotiations, ASTRA representative Wanda Nowicka had an opportunity to present the network’s perspective. The Panel on Ending the increased feminization of AIDS was convened by the UNFPA and chaired by Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the Executive Director of UNFPA. The Panel recommended to take immediate action to prevent spread of the virus and further feminization of pandemic. REGIONAL UPDATES WUNRN More:
http://www.demaz.org/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0055&n=001499&g PUSH *
*
* Family Planning
and Sexual Health Association of *
*
* Poland: Parade for gay and lesbian rights: The vice-president of League of Polish Families and the member of Polish Parliament, Wojciech Wierzejski, announced in the interview for the daily “Zycie Warszawy” that the Warsaw equality parade for gay and lesbian rights should be banned and “the deviants” who will participate in it in spite of the ban should be “bashed up”. The same should happen to German politicians supporting the event since “they are not serious politicians but just gays”. Wierzejski concluded that once beaten, the foreigners will never come back again as “gay in fact means coward”. Hot news:
·
Claudia
Roth, the leader of the German Green Party, submitted to the prosecutor’s
office in ·
The
local authorities of several Polish towns introduced an unconstitutional
ban on showing the movie Da Vinci Code in the
cinemas. Federation
for Women and Family Planning http://www.eecaac2006.org/eng ; http://www.unaids.org/en
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS
Report,
4/25). PUSH,
New York Times
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS report (17 May) Central and http://www.neww.org.pl/en.php/news/news/1.html?&nw=2427&re=2
GLOBAL
UPDATES Worldbytes
news http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org Spanish
Federation of Family Planning Kaiser
Daily, PUSH United Nations: UNAIDS Report. According
to new data revealed in the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global Aids Epidemic
there is an important progress in country AIDS response, including
increase in funding and access to treatment and decrease in HIV prevalence
among young people in some countries during the last five years. The
epidemic seems to be slowing down on a global scale. However, in certain
regions and countries new infections are continuing to increase,
especially in Eastern Europe and www.unaids.org United Nations: Members to Human Rights Council
elected. On
May 9 the General Assembly of the United Nations elected 47 members of the
newly established UN Human Rights Council. The regions:
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, UN
News United Nations: Two LGBT organizations denied observer
status. LSVD,
the German LGBT federation and ILGA-Europe’s applications to obtain
observer status at the United Nations were rejected last week at the UN
Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-governmental organizations.
The proposal of www.ilga.org World Health Organization: Dr
LEE Jong-wook, WHO Director-General, died suddenly on the morning of 22
May 2006 an hour before he was to address World Health Assembly. The WHO
chose Dr Anders Nonstrom, an assistant director, as interim director
general. During the emergency session the representatives from member
states of World Health Organization asked the agency’s leaders to speed up
the election of the new director. The rules do not specify the steps to be
taken in case of the death of the leader. WHO,
PUSH Science: Male fertility. The
IVF experts revealed the evidence proving that male fertility declines
with age. The study from fertility clinics across The Guardian
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ON THE
AGENDA Developing World Bioethics – call for papers.
Developing
World Bioethics
special issue HIV/AIDS, Pregnancy
and Reproductive Autonomy: Rights and Duties invites submission on all
aspects on this special topic from bioethical and/or legal/human rights
perspective. Submissions should ultimately seek to illuminate the
parameters of reproductive autonomy at the intersection between HIV/AIDS
and pregnancy. The deadline for submission is 1 July 2007. More information on
the issue of particular interest and other guidelines for submission
available at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/DWB_CfP.pdf Reproductive Health Matters – call for papers.
Reproductive
Health Matters
15(29) May 2007 invites submission about strategies for taking on the
opposition to sexual and reproductive health and rights. The deadline for
submission is 1 September 2006. More information on the guidelines of
submission at: www.rhmjournal.org.uk EU at the UNGASS – the response to ASTRA letter to the Presidency of EU.
In
April ASTRA issued a letter to Austrian Presidency calling on EU, among
other issues, to strengthen further commitments during
the UNGASS review to effective HIV/AIDS prevention strongly interlinked
with SRHR policies and programs. In the response to the letter the EU
Presidency assured ASTRA that EU is well aware of the important issues
raised in the letter and the need to link S&RH with HIV/AIDS services
as well as of the need to increasingly involve S&RH organizations in
the prevention and treatment process. More
at: http://www.astra.org.pl UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS.
The
UN high
level
meeting on AIDS took place in Youth for Youth – Combat HIV/AIDS:
The 2nd regional meeting aimed at developing regional youth
projects combating HIV/AIDS will take place on June 24-28 2006 in XVI International AIDS Conference: XVI
International AIDS Conference will take place in
LINKS
·
Gender Informational Network of South
Caucus:
http://www.ginsc.net/members/mission_en.php ·
Empowering Girls to beat HIV/AIDS http://www.girlsrights.org/factsheets/Empower%20Girls%20web%20version.pdf
– fact sheet issued by Working Group on Girls - a special NGO website
dedicated to the truth that all girls everywhere have the right to develop
to their full potential: http://www.girlsrights.org/whatsnew.php
· Data on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by countries are provided at: http://www.globalhealthreporting.org
PUBLICATIONS UNAIDS
2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic released by in
advance of the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS. Key
findings of the report refer to funding, HIV prevention, reducing
vulnerability, treatment and leadership. The full report is available
at: http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/2006GlobalReport/default.asp State
of the World’s Mothers 2006.
Saving the lives of Mothers and Newborns -
report published by Save the
Children takes a closer look at the link between the health and
survival of mothers and babies, narrowing in on simple, affordable
solutions that can help save 3 million of the 4 million newborns who die
every year. Full text of the report available at: http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/SOWM_2006_final.pdf
The
guide is available at: http://www.youthcoalition.org Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine,
Ethics and Law, by Rebecca J. Cook,
Bernard M. Dickens and Mahmoud F. Fathalla ( A handbook for advocacy in the African human rights
system: Advancing reproductive and sexual health. Second edition
published
by IPAS. The
updated version of this handbook was created to familiarize advocates with
the regional human rights system and its treaty body, The African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, designed to promote and protect
sexual and reproductive health. The publication available at: Woman-centered abortion care: Reference manual
published
by IPAS now available in French. The
manual is designed to be used by participants during individualized and
group-based courses and also as a reference manual to help participants
refresh and strengthen their skills. Composed of 13 modules, it brings a
new perspective to abortion-care training and service delivery. Features
include: a woman's rights approach to abortion care; unique considerations
for special populations, including adolescents and survivors of sexual
violence; guidance for use of both manual vacuum aspiration and
medical-abortion technologies; and recommendations for monitoring services
and making linkages to communities. Hard copies can be ordered at: ipas_publications@ipas.org Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A statistical
exploration.
The publication issued by UNICEF analyses available statistics on female
genital mutilation/cutting, with the aim of improving understanding of
related issues in the wider context of gender equality and social change.
The study centres on women aged 15-49 and their daughters, presenting
estimates and examining differentials in prevalence, and highlighting
patterns within the data that can strategically inform programmatic
efforts. The publication is available at:
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_29994.html Public Choices, Private Decisions: Sexual and Reproductive
Health and the Millennium Development
Goals.
The report published by the
UN Millennium Project, an independent advisory body commissioned by the UN
Secretary-General to propose the best strategies for meeting the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Report
and background papers are available at: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/srh_main.htm
Human resources for sexual and reproductive health care;
Reproductive Health Matters,
vol. 14 (27), May 2006. Among other topics the issue contains the Ethical
guidelines on conscientious objections of FIGO Committee for Ethical
Aspects of Human Reproduction and Women’s
Health. www.rhmjournal.org.uk Abortion in women’s lives –
report published by Guttmacher Institute concerns the situation of women
in US.
@@@ @@@ @@@ All issues of ASTRA Bulletin are available on: www.astra.org.pl. To unsubscribe please mail to: info@astra.org.pl. Please refer your friends willing to subscribe to ASTRA group to: info@astra.org.pl ASTRA members:ASTRA coordination and secretariat: Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw/Poland, http://www.astra.org.pl; Family Planning Association of Albania, Tirana/Albania, afpa@albaniaonline.net; Women's Rights Center of Armenia, Yerevan/Armenia, wrcarm@arminco.com; Women's Independent Democratic Movement of Belarus, Minks/ Belarus, http://www.cacedu.unibel.by/widm; Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Sofia/Bulgaria; B.a.b.e (Be Active, Be Emancipated), Zagreb/Croatia, http://www.babe.hr; CESI - Centre for Education and Counselling of Women, Zagreb/Croatia, http://www.zamir.net/~cesi; Family Planning and Sexual Health Association of Lithuania, Vilnius/Lithuania, lithfpa@takas.lt; Latvia's Association for Family Planning And Sexual Health, Riga/Latvia, http://www.papardeszieds.lv; Eastern European Institute for Reproductive Health, Targu Mures/Romania, icozos@eeirh.org, AnA: Romanian Society for Feminist Analysis, Bucharest/Romania, http://www.anasaf.ro/; Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow/Russia, olga@khazova.msk.ru; Novogorod Gender Center, Novgorod/Russia, kevi@adm.nov.ru; NGO "Women Health and Family Planning", Kiev/Ukraine,http://www.whfp.kiev.ua; Habeas Corpus Working Group/Hungary, http://www.habeascorpus.hu; IPAS, Chapel Hill/USA, http://www.ipas.org; NGO Pro Choice Bratislava, Bratislava/Slovakia, http://www.prochoice.sk; Center for Reproductive Rights, New York/USA, http://www.reproductiverights.org, International Centre for Reproductive Health,Ghent/Belgium, http://www.icrh.org, Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association, Sofia/Bulgaria http://www.bfpa-bg.org, Women's Center,Tbilisi/Georgia, http://www.womancenter.org.ge , Gender Education, Research and Technologies, Sofia/Bulgaria marinova@mbox.cit.bg, Reproductive Health Training Center, Chisinau/Moldova, www.medicalabortionconsortium.org; Women's Room - Women's Center for Sexuality and the Prevention, Research and Combating of Sexual Violence, Zagreb/Croatia, zenska.soba@zamir.net, ANO "Women's Health"/Russia; Charitable SALUS Foundation/Ukraine, www.salus.org.ua Editorial Committee: Elwira Chrusciel, Evgenia Kulikova, Monika Malicka, Wanda Nowicka, Entela Shehu, Aleksandra Solik. Supported by: Open Society Institute and International Women's Health Coalition __________________________________________________________________________________________ |