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"Realization of the right to health requires the removal of barriers that interfere with individual decision-making on health-related issues and with access to health services, education and information, in particular on health conditions that only affect women and girls."

 

A/66/254

Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health considers the interaction between criminal laws and other legal restrictions relating to sexual and reproductive health and the right to health. The right to sexual and reproductive health is a fundamental part of the right to health. States must therefore ensure that this aspect of the right to health is fully realized.

The Special Rapporteur considers the impact of criminal and other legal restrictions on abortion; conduct during pregnancy; contraception and family planning; and the provision of sexual and reproductive education and information. Some criminal and other legal restrictions in each of those areas, which are often discriminatory in nature, violate the right to health by restricting access to quality goods, services and information. They infringe human dignity by restricting the freedoms to which individuals are entitled under the right to health, particularly in respect of decision-making and bodily integrity. Moreover, the application of such laws as a means to achieving certain public health outcomes is often ineffective and disproportionate.

Realization of the right to health requires the removal of barriers that interfere with individual decision-making on health-related issues and with access to health services, education and information, in particular on health conditions that only affect women and girls. In cases where a barrier is created by a criminal law or other legal restriction, it is the obligation of the State to remove it. The removal of such laws and legal restrictions is not subject to resource constraints and can thus not be seen as requiring only progressive realization. Barriers arising from criminal laws and other laws and policies affecting sexual and reproductive health must therefore be immediately removed in order to ensure full enjoyment of the right to health.

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V. Recommendations

65. In applying a right-to-health approach, States should undertake reforms

toward the development and implementation of policies and programmes

relating to sexual and reproductive health as required by international human

rights law. In that context, the Special Rapporteur calls upon States to:

(a) Formulate public health policies and programmes that disseminate

evidence-based information regarding sexual and reproductive health, as well

as the prevention of perinatal HIV transmission;

(b) Develop comprehensive family planning policies and programmes,

which provide a wide range of goods, services and information relating to

contraception and are available, accessible and of good quality;

(c) Decriminalize the supply and use of all forms of contraception and

voluntary sterilization for fertility control and remove requirements for spousal

and/or parental consent;

(d) Take steps to ensure the availability, accessibility and quality of a full

range of contraceptive methods, including both pharmaceutical and surgical

contraceptive methods;

(e) Decriminalize the provision of information relating to sexual and

reproductive health, including evidence-based sexual and reproductive health

education;

(f) Formulate policies to ensure that existing criminal laws, such as

those concerning pornography, are not applied to restrict access to, or punish

those who provide, evidence-based sexual and reproductive health information

and education;

(g) Take steps to standardize national curricula to ensure that sexual

and reproductive education is comprehensive, evidence-based, and includes

information regarding human rights, gender and sexuality;

(h) Decriminalize abortion, including related laws, such as those

concerning abetment of abortion;

(i) Consider, as an interim measure, the formulation of policies and

protocols by responsible authorities imposing a moratorium on the application

of criminal laws concerning abortion, including legal duties on medical

professionals to report women to law enforcement authorities;

(j) Ensure safe, good quality health services, including abortion, using

services, in line with WHO protocols;

(k) Establish policies and programmes to ensure the accessibility and

availability of safe, reliable and good quality services for abortion-related

complications and post-abortion care, in line with WHO protocols, particularly

in jurisdictions where abortion is criminalized;

(l) Ensure that accurate, evidence-based information concerning

abortion and its legal availability is publicly available and that health-care

providers are fully aware of the law related to abortion and its exceptions;

(m) Ensure that conscientious objection exemptions are well-defined in

scope and well-regulated in use and that referrals and alternative services are

available in cases where the objection is raised by a service provider;

(n) Suspend/abolish the application of existing criminal laws to various

forms of conduct during pregnancy, such as conduct related to treatment of the

foetus, most notably miscarriage, alcohol and drug consumption and HIV

transmission.