Guide to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

What are Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights?

Advocating for and investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is both morally and practically sound. Politically, legally, socially, and economically, it stands as a crucial endeavor. Not only does it preserve lives and enhance well-being, but it also plays a pivotal role in upholding human rights, diminishing poverty and discrimination, fostering gender equality, empowering vulnerable populations, and advancing sustainable development.

“Sexual and reproductive health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to all aspects of sexuality and reproduction, not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. Therefore, a positive approach to sexuality and reproduction should recognize the part played by pleasurable sexual relationships, trust and communication in promoting self-esteem and overall well-being. All individuals have a right to make decisions governing their bodies and to access services that support that right.” Guttmacher-Lancet Commission report, Accelerate progress, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for all, available at Guttmacher-Lancet Commission report.

Ensuring everyone’s access to SRHR requires a holistic approach, taking into account the different sectors and aspects contributing to SRHR. It is important not to ignore the role of men and other genders in advancing the agenda on SRHR.

Read more:

State of World Population (UNFPA 2024)

Sexual and reproductive health and rights: infographic snapshots (WHO 2022)

Key SRHR topics

This section focuses on key SRHR topics and does not aim to provide an exhaustive list of all the aspects of SRHR. The goal is to give a brief introduction to some of the key topics to provide an overview of SRHR. SRHR has a significant impact on various aspects of life, such as an individual’s ability to educate and work, to reproduce or not, to have close relationships, and to have power over their own body. Realizing SRHR also has an impact on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, some of these topics are increasingly facing opposition. Ensuring access to SRHR for everyone requires a holistic approach that takes into account the different sectors and aspects contributing to SRHR.

Abortion

Access to safe abortion services is a human right. Under international human rights law, everyone has a right to life, a right to health, and a right to be free from violence, discrimination, and torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Human rights law clearly spells out that decisions about your body are yours alone – this is what is known as bodily autonomy. Forcing someone to carry on an unwanted pregnancy, or forcing them to seek out an unsafe abortion, is a violation of their human rights, including the rights to privacy and bodily autonomy.

Evidence shows that restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions that take place. In fact, restrictions are more likely to drive women and girls towards unsafe procedures. In countries where abortion is most restricted, only 1 in 4 abortions are safe, compared to nearly 9 in 10 in countries where the procedure is broadly legal.

When abortion is carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the duration of the pregnancy and assisted by someone with the necessary information or skills, it is a simple and extremely safe procedure.

Tragically, however, only around half of all abortions take place under such conditions, with unsafe abortions causing around 39 000 deaths every year and resulting in millions more women hospitalized with complications. Most of these deaths are concentrated in lower-income countries – with over 60% in Africa and 30% in Asia – and among those living in the most vulnerable situations.

Unsafe abortions are defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy carried out either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not confirm to minimal medical standards, or both.” According to the WHO:

Restrictive abortion laws cause distress and stigma, and risk constituting a violation of human rights of women and girls, including the right to privacy and the right to non-discrimination and equality, while also imposing financial burdens on women and girls. Regulations that force women to travel to attain legal care, or require mandatory counselling or waiting periods, lead to loss of income and other financial costs, and can make abortion inaccessible to women with low resources.

To act on growing preferences for smaller families and for better control over the timing of births, people need improved access to modern contraceptives and comprehensive sexuality education. Levels of unmet need for modern contraception are much higher among single, sexually active women than among in-union women because stigma continues to impede single women—especially adolescents—from getting contraceptive counselling and services.

Deciding when and how many children to have is a fundamental human right, the benefits of which reverberate at every level—each individual, their family and society as a whole.

Read more:

WHO Abortion Care Guidelines

Guttmacher Lancet Institute: Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Worldwide

WHO: Basic Information about the abortion

IPPF: Understanding abortion

Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) Enables People to Protect their Health, Well-being and Dignity

Read more:

Väestöliitto web pages

International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education (UNESCO, Unaids, UNFPA, Unicef, UN Women, WHO; 2018) 

UNFPA (2010) Comprehensive Sexuality Education:Advancing Human Rights, Gender Equality and Improved Sexual and Reproductive Health 

United Nationas Human Rights: A Compendium on Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Equality and self-determination

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are critical for women and girls to open doors to opportunities, prevent violence and change power relations in their lives, and to have healthy lives without HIV or other STIs. On these grounds alone, they must be considered priority interventions. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are important rights in themselves, but can also magnify possibilities to empower girls and women and to achieve gender equality.

There are many barriers to sexual and reproductive rights, including obstacles in accessing health services, information and education. Underlying these problems is discrimination. Especially women and girls and people from marginalized groups, such as persons with disabilities, gay men, lesbian women, trans or gender-diverse persons, persons from so called “lower” castes, people living in poverty, or minorities, face severe challenges in accessing their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Read more: Amnesty, Sexual and reproductive rights

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights – the key to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Report by IPPF (2015) is intended for advocates and decision makers to help them champion sexual and reproductive health and rights in advancing the empowerment of girls and women and to achieve gender equality. The report examines the links between sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality. It explores the different pathways of empowerment that girls and women experience and analyzes how these pathways are affected by sexual and reproductive health and rights

The report focuses on three areas and their links with sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as identifies ways in which these links contribute to empowerment experienced by girls and women. The three focus areas are:

1. Equality in social development

2. Economic participation

3. Participation in political and public life

Read more: IPPF (2015) Sexual and reproductive health and rights – the key to gender equality and women’s empowerment

UNFPA and Gender Equality

Women and girls are still much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They have less access to property ownership, credit, training, and employment. Women are far less likely than men to be politically active and more likely to experience domestic abuse and other forms of violence.

Gender equality will be achieved only when women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. Gender equality demands the empowerment of women, with a focus on identifying and addressing power imbalances and giving women more autonomy to manage their own lives. Women’s empowerment affects the whole family and this will often have a ripple effect on the future generations.

Key issues for women’s empowerment include: reproductive health and economic, educational and political empowerment.

Read more: UNFPA and Gender Equality

Family Planning

Access to Safe, Voluntary Family Planning is a Human Right 

Everyone should have access to a wide variety of modern and safe contraceptive methods (hormonal contraception, IUDs, condoms, sterilization) that are suitable for them. This will effectively protect people from unintended pregnancies and STI’s and safeguard their well-being and autonomy, thus enabling sexual pleasure.

However, worldwide there are circa 250 million women who want to avoid pregnancy but are not using any modern contraceptive methods due to various reasons, such as lack of access to information or services, lack of support from their partners, or lack of financial means to pay for the services and methods.

Access to family planning decreases the number of abortions. However, in developing countries there are several family planning service gaps due to supply shortages, lack of health care professionals and ineffective health care systems, restrictive policies and cultural beliefs against family planning. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen health care systems by building health care workers’ family planning counseling skills and tools to everyone, and especially to vulnerable groups (adolescents, unmarried, sexual and gender minorities, sex workers). It is also important to integrate family planning and SRHR in a broader sense to health care service delivery to increase access and decrease the stigma of seeking SRHR services.

Read More: UNFPA and Family Planning

Sexual and Gender Based Violence

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) includes for example: sexual harassment, violence, genital mutilation and cutting, rape and child marriage. All these examples violate sexual and reproductive rights. It is important to have anti-sgbv work implemented across health care systems.

Gender-based violence undermines people’s health, dignity, security and autonomy, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence. Survivors can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, and even death.

Sexual and gender based-violence is often used as a weapon of war in conflict settings.

What can be done to end SGBV?

Read more:

UNFPA State of World Population 2021 – Claiming the right to autonomy and self-determination

UNFPA and Gender-based violence 

UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict 

UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate Female Genital Mutilatioon (FGM) 

Sexual Pleasure

Talking openly about sexual pleasure within sexuality education is much contested and is considered a taboo subject. However, talking about everyone’s right to seek pleasurable and enjoyable sexual life and experiences will make sexuality education more relevant especially to adolescents, will strengthen sexual self-determination and autonomy, and will lead to more responsible and safer sexual experiences. That is why talking about sexual pleasure is a crucial part of sexual education.

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), HIV

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), are infections that are primarily transmitted through sexual contact, including vaginal, anal, or oral sex. They are caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, or other microorganisms, and can affect both men and women of all ages. Most common STIs are Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Herpes Simplex Virus and HIV.

STIs have negative implications for both individuals and society as a whole due to their impact on health, relationships, and public health. Although STIs can be easily avoided with safe sex behavior, stigma around STIs prevents efficient eradications of STIs. Stigma refers to the social, cultural, and psychological attitudes and beliefs that lead to discrimination, shaming, and ostracization of individuals or groups based on certain characteristics or behaviors. Thus people avoid testing for STIs, especially HIV and as a consequence infect the disease further.

Reducing STI-related stigma is an ongoing process that involves changing societal attitudes and fostering an environment of compassion and understanding. It’s important to work towards creating a world where people can openly discuss their sexual health without fear of judgment or discrimination. Addressing stigma requires efforts at multiple levels. Providing Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and accurate information about STIs, how they are transmitted, and their prevalence can help lessen misconceptions and fear. It is vital to use inclusive and non-stigmatizing language, when providing CSE in order to promote respectful conversations.

The utmost importance lies in ensuring that sexual health services are accessible to everyone, including youth and vulnerable groups and those who are not in a marriage or in union. Condoms are one of the most effective barriers against STI transmission. Condoms must be available at the affordable price encourages consistent use and reduces the risk of infections. When implementing Family Planning Programs special attention needs to be taken to young people and vulnerable populations as they may have limited financial resources and may engage in risky behaviors due to lack of access. Affordable contraceptives address these disparities.

HIV is the most fatal STI and remains a major public health challenge. Since the first HIV infection was found, 40.4 million people have died on AIDS. In 2022 39.0 million people globally were living with HIV according to UNAIDS. 1.3 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2022 and 630000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Despite the positive development, HIV affects the lives of millions of people, especially the most vulnerable groups. Access to health care – prevention, testing and treatment, is unequally distributed. Attitudes, legislation, inadequate health services, sexual and gender-based violence, lack of education and financial challenges make access to treatment more difficult and undermine people’s sexual rights.

Read more: 

IPPF on STIs

2023 UNAIDS Global AIDS Update

Global HIV & AIDS statistics — Fact sheet (UNAIDS 2023)

Global Fund Result Report 2022

Men and Boys

The ICPD Programme of Action noted, “Men play a key role in bringing about gender equality since, in most societies, men exercise preponderant power in nearly every sphere of life, ranging from personal decisions regarding the size of families to the policy and programme decisions taken at all levels of government. It is essential to improve communication between men and women on issues of sexuality and reproductive health, and the understanding of their joint responsibilities, so that men and women are equal partners in public and private life.”

Men are considered supportive if they: (1) agree that a wife or partner is justified in asking her husband or partner to use a condom if he has an STI, (2) disagree that intimate partner violence is justified for any reason, (3) disagree that contraceptive use is women’s business and men do not need to be involved in contraceptive decision-making, and (4) disagree that women who use contraception might become promiscuous. The proportion of men who strongly support their partners’ sexual and reproductive health and empowerment—ie, they responded accordingly to all four statements—ranges from 12% in Lesotho to 77% in Rwanda.

Women continue to shoulder the responsibility of contraceptive use and use of male contraceptive methods has not changed much since the mid-1990s. One barrier is the few male options available, which could be addressed through greater investment in new methods for men.

Acknowledgment and expansion of men’s role in maternal and child health are also key. Given that men are often gatekeepers for women’s access to services, involving men during pregnancy, childbirth, and onward (when women want) can potentially increase gender equality and male support for women’s SRHR.

Programmes that engage men and boys

Promising programmes have been piloted in diverse country settings to promote men’s sexual and reproductive health and increase their support for their partners’ health. A WHO assessment of interventions with men related to sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, gender-based violence, fatherhood, and HIV and AIDS found that such interventions elicited important changes in men’s attitudes and behaviours, despite being of short duration.

Some of the more successful programmes work with individuals, groups, and communities to change norms about what it means to be men, to cultivate and reinforce the notion that masculinity can be associated with caregiving, to raise awareness about reproductive health, and to encourage men to seek medical care when needed.

The growing attention to men’s roles as fathers is promising, as evidence suggests that men who are more involved in their children’s lives are more likely to pay attention to reproductive health issues. Brazil’s Prenatal Programme for Fathers and Men’s Health Initiative, developed as part of Brazil’s national health-care policy for men, offers examples of how simple interventions, such as training health professionals (including online training), offering men and fathers opportunities to attend to their own health needs (including HIV testing), and giving women the option to have their partners present at birth, can result in large numbers of men accessing services, and women’s increased sense of safety and support during the antenatal and birth process.

Some might view investing in men’s sexual and reproductive health needs as tantamount to taking from the few funds allocated to meet women’s needs. Some programmes have avoided this binary view and instead adopt a gender-synchronised or gender relational approach that engages men, women, girls, and boys of all sexual orientations and gender identities to challenge the rigid constructions of masculinity and femininity that are harmful to health and well-being.

Under this approach, programmes targeting men are held accountable for their effect on women, women-centred programmes seek ways to constructively engage men, and some programmes engage both (ie, take a couples approach) from their inception. Programmes that engage both work toward mutual understanding and shared goals; they seek to equalise the balance of power between women and men through recognition of how men and women reinforce notions of masculinity and femininity and therefore need to be engaged in reconstructing these roles.

Read more:

Accelerate progress – sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission, published May 9 2018

Vulnerable Groups

Marginalized groups, indigenous people, LGBTIQA+, refugees and migrants, sex workers and persons with disabilities are especially vulnerable and face discrimination and violence. They have more difficulty accessing essential sexual and reproductive healthcare services, because of social norms, attitudes and values.

LGBTIQA+

The discrimination and violence that LGBTIQA+ people experience often force them to lead a hidden life. Consequently, it is more difficult for them to access sexual and reproductive healthcare services and they cannot freely develop relationships with a partner of their choice.

Read more:

Accelerate progress – sexual and reproductive health and rights for all (The lancet 2018)

Free e-course: OHCHR human rights of LGBTI people tool

Refugees and migrants

Migration may put people in situations that render them vulnerable, which leads to difficulty accessing essential health care. Access to health care may have been reduced due to destruction of infrastructure and facilities or disruptions in distribution channels cutting access to essential medicines and commodities. Refugees and migrants may not be aware of the availability of services in their country of destination and there might be language barriers. They might be left out due to not having the required legal documentation or simply not being able to afford the services. There may be experiences of sexual exploitation, harassment and violence in countries of origin and transit. That is why refugees and migrants are vulnerable to problems related to sexual and reproductive health, sexual violence, exploitation and other human rights violations.

Read more:
Sexual and Reproductive Health in Forced Migration (Frontiers 2022)

Adolescent girls in disaster and conflict (UNFPA 2016)

Persons living with disabilities

It is estimated that 15 percent of world’s population – one billion people – have some kind of disability. Sadly, in many countries disabilities are seen as shameful, the result of a curse, or even as punishment from God. Families often hide family members living with disability from the community or stop them from fully participating in the community’s social activities.

Persons with disabilities have the same sexual and reproductive health needs and rights as any other person, yet they often face barriers to information and services regarding them. People with disabilities are often subjected to discrimination and violence, and to a large extent are deprived of their right to live independently. The sexuality of persons with disabilities is also a taboo in many socities and communities, which leads to lack of access to education and information on SRHR.

Read more:

Promoting sexual and reproductive health for persons with disabilities (WHO/UNFPA 2009) 

Young Persons with Disabilities: Global Study on Ending Gender-based Violence and Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (UNFPA 2018)

Opposition to SRHR

Read more:

European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights (EPF) resource to anti-gender

Youth

Young People’s Rights to Sexual and Reproductive Health

This new generation is the most educated and healthiest ever. Despite that 258 million children, adolescents and youth are out of school, and far too many young refugees are still being denied access to quality education. Many young people who enter the labor market end up underemployed, in vulnerable jobs or living in poverty despite working hard.

Strategic investments can allow young people to claim their rights —to education, health, development, and to live free from violence and discrimination. The gains delivered by education in childhood and adolescence – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – can never be replicated later in life.

Young people living in poverty have limited access to accurate information and opportunities and it makes them vulnerable to poor sexual and reproductive health and limited rights: One in three girls in developing countries is married before the age of 18, threatening her health, education and future prospects. Child marriage, usually results in early pregnancy, is linked to deaths from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and married girls are more likely than married women to suffer violence and other abuse at the hands of their husbands. Up to half of sexual assaults are committed against girls below the age of 16. Adolescent boys are at risk, as well. Young people – both boys and girls – are disproportionately affected by HIV.

Young people often lack of access to family planning and contraception – to the means to decide freely whether, when or how often to become pregnant. Improved reproductive health and increased access to contraception information and services would offer some of the best hopes for removing the barriers that prevent young people from reaching their full potential and contributing fully to the communities in which they live.

With the right policies and investments, countries can realize a “demographic dividend,” made possible by falling mortality and fertility rates. With a larger working population and fewer dependents, a country has a one-time opportunity for rapid economic growth and stability. To realize this dividend, investments are needed to build institutional capacity, strengthen human capital, pursue economic models that improve employment prospects, and promote inclusive governance and the enjoyment of human rights.

Read more:

Adolescent and young adult health (WHO 2021)

Rights and choices for all adolescents and youth: a UNFPA global strategy 2019

Making health services adolescent friendly (WHO, 2012) 

SWOP 2014: The power of 1.8 billion – Adolescents, Youth and the Transformation

UNFPA: Adolescent sexual and reproductive health 

UNFPA: Youth participation and leadership

Links to sustainable development

Sustainable development is guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the UN in 2015. Agenda 2030 includes 17 sustainable development goals that are integrated which means that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability. Sexual rights are linked to many of the SDGs, most directly to goal 3 on health, goal 4 on education and goal 5 on gender equality. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights are specifically mentioned in SDGs 3.7 and 5.6.

The realisation of sexual rights increases equality and reduces poverty. Good sexual health and the realisation of sexual rights are a cornerstone of education and social participation, especially for women and girls. Ensuring access to comprehensive sexuality education, health services and contraceptives empowers people to influence the course of their lives – health, education, social participation and reconciling work and family life.

Restricting sexual rights creates inequalities of unacceptable proportions. If people do not have the right to decide on their own identity or their intimate relationships, other human rights cannot be fully realised. Sustainable development cannot be achieved if sexual rights are not realised.

This chapter explores few key sustainable development themes that are connected to the realisation of sexual rights. The last part focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has undermined the progress made on sustainable development and impacted sexual rights in many ways.

Climate Crisis and SRHR

The climate crisis has impacts across all dimensions of sustainable development, including health, gender equality and SRHR. Some impacts of climate crisis to SRHR include reduced or unavailable services in areas affected by disasters, harmful impacts on maternal health due to heat exposure, and increased incidence of sexual and gender-based violence in situations of crises or displacement.

As the impacts of the climate crisis become more severe, adverse outcomes for SRHR will only increase. Improvement of SRHR strengthens people’s resilience to the environmental and climate crises.

Inequalities and marginalization are key factors in heightening vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Addressing gender inequality and other forms of marginalization is therefore crucial for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience. SRHR should be an important consideration in measures aimed at enhancing resilience to both the slow onset impacts of the climate crisis and its more immediate effects.

In Commission of Status of Women in 2022 Member States adopted an intergovernmental agreement, that sets out action Member States must take to advance gender equality within the context of climate change. More under this link.

Human rights based approach to climate crisis

A human rights based approach – and clear integration of gender equality, non-discrimination and sexual and reproductive rights – in climate action is needed. All climate action could clearly indicate how it contributes to respect for and protection and fulfillment of human rights.

Applying a human rights based approach delivers on commitments to human rights while also improving the effectiveness and sustainability of climate action, such as through inclusion of marginalized groups, including women and girls, in problem analyses and decision making regarding viable solutions in local contexts. An integrated approach to SRHR and climate actions would also be benefitial.

Environmental crises must not become a justification for instrumentalizing women’s and girls’ bodies and for population control narratives and measures.

As per capita emission levels in countries with higher fertility levels are currently almost non-existent compared to per capita emission levels in lower fertility wealthy countries, proposing that family planning simply reduces population growth and emission as such, is oversimplification of a complex reality and an unfair distraction from urgently needed solutions to environmental crises.

Learn more

International Planned Parenthood fact pages on climate crises and SRHR and position paper

UNFPA and the Climate Crisis

In COP26 there were a side event titled ‘Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience’. Among the speakers were Mara Dolan with the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), Heather McMullen from Queen Mary University in London (who also gave a presentation to CD2030E members during the training on SRHR and the climate crisis last year) and Zainab Yunusa who is a youth campaign coordinator with Plan International.

Video (4 min) on Climate Crises and SRHR from UNFPA

Education

Adolescent pregnancies

A third of school dropouts are caused by a unwanted pregnancies. Poverty and lack of information go a long way to explaining the high incidence of teenage pregnancy, often leading to unprotected, forced and or promiscuous sex. Lack of sexual health services, such as access to contraception, abortion services and adolescent-friendly services, is also a cause of teenage pregnancy.

Students may be expelled from school because of pregnancy due to school rules or otherwise prevented from attending school because of pregnancy. Many countries have laws that guarantee the right to return to school after pregnancy, but legislation in some countries prevents pregnant girls from returning to school. Some do not return because of stigma.

We must ensure that young people have access to:

Child marriages

Child marriage is a major barrier to girls’ education and a key reason for dropping out of school.
Reasons for child marriage lies in gender inequality and the belief that girls and women are inferior. It is exacerbated by poverty, lack of education, harmful social norms and practices, and insecurity. Child marriage leads to school dropouts, as a child forced into marriage is expected to drop out of school while ‘preparing’ for marriage. Child marriage is a flagrant violation of sexual rights.

We must ensure that young people have access to:

Menstruation

Menstruation poses a risk of dropping out of school if menstrual health issues are not addressed at school. The school must have facilities where menstrual hygiene and health can be taken care of. Lack of privacy, fear of stigma and increased harassment during menstruation cause many to stay at home during menstruation. Many people cannot afford on menstrual hygiene products or they are unreliable. According to a UNESCO report, one in ten girls in sub-Saharan Africa skips school during their menstrual cycle. Some estimates put this at up to 20% of school days in a school year. Painful menstruation and endometriosis are underdiagnosed everywhere and may be a reason for dropping out of school.

We must ensure that young people have access to:

Read more:

How investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights helps keep girls in school (The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health report 2021)

UNFPA on Menstrual Health(2022)

UNFPA on Adolescent Pregnanancy (2022)

UNFPA on Child Marriage (2022)

Humanitarian Settings

Read more:

SRHR in Humanitarian crises (Countdown2030Europe)

Ukraine crisis: sexual and reproductive health and rights are as relevant one year on (Countdown2030Europe)

Impact of COVID-19 on SRHR

The pandemic has worsened existing inequalities, for women and girls, young people and discrimination of other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities, LGBTIQ+, elder people and those in extreme poverty. Governments and international community must make sure that sexual and reproductive health and rights are and will be emphasized during and after the pandemic. Without protecting everyone’s sexual and reproductive health and rights we cannot achieve SDGs by 2030.

Harmful Practices

Harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) and gender-based violence have increased since the COVID-19 outbreak. This is e.g., due to a grown economic insecurity, lockdowns and school closures. For example, according to UNICEF 10 million additional girls are at risk of child marriage due to COVID-19. In addition, two million girl who would otherwise been safe from the FGM are believed to be at risk over the next decade as a direct result of the pandemic.

Even before COVID-19 one in three women experienced physical or sexual violence during their lifetime. However, the pandemic has intensified violence against women and girls. According to UNFPA COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cause a one-third reduction in progress towards ending gender-based violence by 2030. In addition, life-saving care and support to gender based violence survivors (i.e., clinical management of rape and mental health and psycho-social support) may be cut off in the health care response when health service providers are overburdened and preoccupied with handling COVID-19 cases.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Family Planning

Access to family planning is a human right. It saves lives and promotes healthier populations, more efficient health systems and stronger economies. However, since the beginning of the pandemic, lifesaving family planning services have been closed due to a lack of resources as sexual and reproductive services are not seen as important as other health care services. Clinical staff occupied with the COVID-19 response may not have time to provide services or may lack personal protective equipment to provide services safely. In addition, due to a movement restrictions and/or fear of exposure on COVID-19 women have limited visits to health facilities.

Supply chain disruptions have limited the availability of contraceptives in many places. This has weakened women’s decision-making over their own body as they are unable to use modern contraceptives and led to a rising number of unintended pregnancies. The disruptions caused an estimated 2.7 million unexpected pregnancies in the pandemic’s first year.

COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted on abortion services. Lockdowns and lack of health care resources has hindering access to abortion services. In addition, some countries are using pandemic as an excuse to tighten abortion laws. This caused an estimated 1.2 million unsafe abortions only in the first 6 months of the pandemic.

Youth

There are a range of social impacts that have detrimental effects on adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights. First, due to school closures millions of young people are lacking comprehensive sexuality education. Second, lockdowns have distrupted contraceptive supply chains and the ability to travel to health facilities, putting young people at greater risk of unintended pregnancy by reducing their access to information and contraceptive services. Third, the economic crisis has driven increases in gender-based violence, child marriage and other human rights violations that threaten young people’s health and well-being.

The anti-gender movement

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has given a new platform to the opponents of SRHR to use the COVID-19 pandemic as cover to promote their own agenda that is much wider than only to oppose SRHR. It can be seen as an alternative political and social system which is against human rights, multilateralism and civil society. According to IPPF survey opponents of SRHR are using different kind of tactics e.g. spreading misinformation, framing the pandemic as an opportunity to reinforce traditional values, increasing discrimination against vulnerable populations, pushing for regressive measures against SRHR and blocking progressive debates on SRHR laws and policies.

Read more:

Opponents of sexual and reproductive health and rights step up pressure during COVID-19 (IPPF, 2020) 

Why coronavirus has placed million more girls on risk of FGM (Guardian, 2020)

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Planning and Ending Gender-based Violence, Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage (UNFPA, 2020) 

COVID19 and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (UNFPA)

From Bad to Worse: The COVID-19 Pandemic Risks Further Undermining Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Many Countries (Guttmacher Institute, 2020) 

10 million additional girls at risk of child marriage due to COVID-19 (UNICEF, 2021)

UNFPA COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions

Universal Health Coverage

According to World Health Organisation Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. It covers the full continuum of essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care across the life course.

Read more:

Sexual and Reproductive Health And Rights: An Essential Element of Universal Health Coverage (2019)
UNFPA has defined and described the key components of a comprehensive life course approach to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Furthermore, this document describes how countries can move towards universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as an essential part of universal health coverage and to provide inspiring examples from countries that have moved in this direction.

Universal Health Coverage (WHO 2019)

Countdown 2030 Europe

Focus on Universal Health Coverage, The Global Fund (2019)

Agreements and policies: Finland

The aim of Finland’s development policy is to support developing countries’ efforts to eradicate poverty and inequality and promote sustainable development. Finnish development policy is human rights based and gender equality is a cross-cutting objective.

The rights and status of women and girls is one of the four priority areas in the current Finnish-development policy. SRHR is emphasized under this priority. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland’s Report on Development Policy Across Parliamentary Terms states that “Finland supports the safeguarding of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls, including those with disabilities, and their right to access high-quality and non-discriminatory sexual and reproductive health services. Finland seeks to strongly reduce maternal and child mortality and promotes comprehensive sexual education as well as the inclusion of men and boys in the realisation of these rights. Finnish expertise relating to maternal and child health as well as contraception clinics is also taken into account. At the same time, all these measures are linked with the broader health policies pursued by developing countries.”

Finland promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) comprehensively and therefore uses the full term, which includes sexual health services, sexuality education, contraception, maternity health services, consent, and the right to safe abortion, among others.

Finland supports SRHR in most of the bilateral partner countries

Priority areas are listed in country programmes, which show that Finland supports comprehensive sexuality education in Mosambique and Ukraine, sexual rights of people with disabilities in Syria and Central Asia plus also SRHR in general in Kenya, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Finland’s multilateral development cooperation

Finland gives priority to UN agencies that promote SRHR, gender equality and work to reduce inequality. Finland is one of the largest supporter of the UNFPA, United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency.

Humanitarian aid

Finland is committed to channeling annually about 10 per cent of its development aid appropriations for humanitarian aid directed to official development assistance (ODA) recipient countries. Humanitarian aid is guided by Finland’s Humanitarian Policy. According to the humanitarian policy Finland pays particular attention to improving the status of people with disabilities in emergencies, to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, and to the need to prevent sexual violence in crisis situations.

National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security

Finland’s new National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security is Finland’s fourth NAP, extending from 2023 to the end of 2027. The NAP is the result of a broad-based stakeholder collaboration. Its key objective is to strengthen women’s participation in peace and security, and thereby support efforts to build sustainable peace. One of the main objectives of Finland’s fourth NAP is Women’s meaningful participation and diversity have a stronger role in conflict prevention and in building sustainable peace which includes strengthening SRHR in fragile contexts and conflict areas. Also the objective Women and girls have more security, their rights are better safeguarded and their diverse needs are better met during crises includes emphasizing SRHR

Read more:
Report on Development Policy Across Parliamentary Terms (Finnish MFA, 2021)
Finland’s Humanitarian Policy (2019) (in Finnish, PDF, 2 327 KB)
UNFPA – Donor Profile, Finland
Finland’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 

Agreements and policies: EU level

EU’s support to SRHR globally

The European Union contributes to advancing access to and respect for SRHR through allocating it’s development cooperation funds to SRHR sector. Most of EU’s funding is channeled through geographic programmes, which means that SRHR needs to be prioritised in the programming phase when Multiannual Indicative Programmes (MIPs) are created for EU’s cooperation with partner countries and regions. There is also a small envelope for thematic programmes, where support to health is one of the priorities. Currently for example 21 out of 45 MIPs in Sub-Saharan Africa refer to SRH through different approaches. More info on SRHR in EU’s cooperation with partner countries.

There is also a Team Europe Initiative on SRHR in sub-Saharan Africa. Through this TEI the EU and ten of it’s member states, including Finland, will aim to 1) increase the implementation of continental and regional SRHR commitments, including in the health and education sectors, 2) strengthen regional mechanisms to address supply-side
constraints to improve the availability, affordability, and acceptability of SRH commodities and 3) promote accountability and evidence-based policymaking and implementation. More info on the SRHR in Sub-Saharan Africa TEI.

Countdown 2030 Consortium publishes a yearly spotlight report on European donor support to SRHR. Read the latest report here.

The European Consensus on Development

The European Consensus on Development (2017) is a shared vision and framework for action for development cooperation for the European Union (EU) and its Member States. The consensus reaffirms poverty eradication as EU’s main development policy objective. The Consensus contributes to the objectives and principles of EU external action as laid down in the Lisbon Treaty, and supports the Global Strategy on the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy presented in June 2016 by the High Representative.

SRHR are mentioned especially in the paragraph 34, “The EU remains committed to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and to the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the outcomes of their review conferences and remains committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), in this context. Having that in mind, the EU reaffirms its commitment to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of the right of every individual to have full control over, and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, free from discrimination, coercion and violence. The EU further stresses the need for universal access to quality and affordable comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information, education, including comprehensive sexuality education, and health-care services.”

Read more: 

The European Consensus on Development

Global Strategy on the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy (2016)

Gender Action Plan

EU’s Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025 (also known as GAP III) guides EU’s and its member States’ external relations and development policy related to Gender issues.

GAP III aims to accelerate progress on empowering women and girls, and safeguard gains made on gender equality during the 25 years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action. SRHR is mentioned as one of the key thematic areas of EU’s engagement. GAP III promotes a transformative and intersectional approach, aiming to address structural causes of gender inequality and gender-based discrimination

EU delegations implement the Gender Action Plan by developing Country Level Implementation Plans (CLIPs). SRHR has been identified as a priority sector by several countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa.

Read more: 

EU Gender Action Plan III

SRHR in Europe  

All EU member states are bound by human rights treaties such as the European Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. All EU member states are also united around the programmes of action from Cairo and Beijing. All these agreements guarantee sexual and reproductive rights to some extent.

Under international and European human rights law European states have the duty to take effective steps to respect and protect women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). This means respecting a range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including right to health, to life, to be free from torture and illtreatment, to privacy, equality and non-discrimination. States should provide all women with accessible, affordable, good quality sexual and reproductive health care and services on national level and promote these rights on international cooperation.

Read more: 

Council of Europe – Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights In Europe 

Countdown 2030 Europe

Countdown 2030 Europe is a Consortium of 15 leading European non-governmental organizations working to ensure advancement of SRHR, human rights and investment in family planning. Family Federation of Finland (Väestöliitto) is one of the 15 member non-governmental organisation of Countdown 2030 Europe. Aim of the Consortium is to hold both EU institutions and member states accountable for their policy and funding commitments to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Read more: Countdown 2030 Europe

Agreements and policies: UN level

International agreements and declarations:

1994 The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo and its Programme of Action (PoA)

ICPD was organised in Cairo, where 179 governments adopted a landmark Programme of Action which marks a very significant shift in thinking and policy development from a population perspective to a rights-based approach to reproductive health. The PoA defines and recognises comprehensive definitions of reproductive health, sexual health and advances the idea of reproductive rights.

In the ICPD PoA, views on human rights, population, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and sustainable development merged into a remarkable global consensus that placed individual dignity and human rights, including the right to plan one’s family, at the very heart of development.

International Conference on Population and Development

1995 The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and its Platform for Action

Confirmed and expanded the commitment to a rights-based approach to SRH made at ICPD the previous year. The Conference also stated that women’s power and ability to decide over their own sexuality and reproduction is an important step to ensure that they can fully exercise and enjoy their human rights.

The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and its Platform for Action

2015 Sustainable Development Goals -Agenda 2030

SDGs provide an international framework for sustainable development and poverty reduction. The goals must be achieved by 2030. The agenda 2030 includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 specific sub-goals or targets. Several global goals are related to SRHR, and the most direct ones are Goal 3 on health, Goal 4 on education and Goal 5 on gender equality.

There are two specific SDG targets focusing on SRHR, as follows:

3.7: by 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes; and target

5.6: ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the ICPD and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.

The SDGs refer to important international action programmes which are still in effect, such as the PoA of the ICPD.

Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals 

Fact sheets on sustainable development goals: SRHR targets

The Commission on Population and Development (CPD)

The CPD was established in 1946 as the Population Commission but was renamed by the General Assembly in 1994 and given the responsibility for assessing progress on implementing the ICPD Programme of Action at the national, regional and international levels.

The Commission is composed of 47 Member States elected by the Economic and Social Council for a period of four years on the basis of geographic distribution. It meets once a year, typically in April.

UN Population Division: Commission on Population and Development

2019 ICPD25 Nairobi Summit

2019 marked the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The governments of Kenya and Denmark and UNFPA co-convened the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, a high-level conference to mobilize the political will and financial commitments needed to fully implement the ICPD Programme of Action.

What is the ICPD and why does it matter? (UNFPA)

The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25

Comprehensive Approach to Sexuality

Sexuality involves biology as well as emotions and feelings. It also encompasses sexual development and identity, desires, intimacy and intimacy needs, and sexual health and rights. It is individual, multifaceted, and evolves throughout life. Sexuality can be expressed in many different ways, such as through thoughts, beliefs, values, and relationships. It involves pleasure and the search for one’s own sexual identity.

This approach promotes healthy and positive relationships with oneself and others, helps prevent sexual violence and discrimination, and supports the right of individuals to express their sexuality safely and respectfully. Sexuality and its norms have a strong impact on various aspects of life, such as an individual’s ability to educate and work, to reproduce or not, to have close relationships, and to have power over their own body.

Despite international commitments, sexual rights are violated worldwide and are at constant risk of being violated. Sexual rights are often the most vulnerable of human rights. For example, abortion laws have been tightened in recent years, and sex education is being opposed or weakened. Access to contraception is also poor, particularly affecting young people worldwide. Sexual rights are restricted by governments, lobby groups, health professionals, communities, and families.

Restrictions on sexual rights create unacceptable inequalities. Young people are often taught to think and behave in ways that reinforce gender norms that perpetuate inequality. Discrimination related to sexual orientation and gender diversity is a clear example of this.

Gender-transformative approach

Both gender-transformative approach and sexual and reproductive health and rights contribute to promoting a holistic understanding of well-being, autonomy, and equality for individuals in the realm of sexuality.

A gender-transformative approach refers to a comprehensive and intentional approach that aims to challenge and change the deep-rooted norms, attitudes, and power dynamics that create gender inequalities. Instead of merely addressing surface-level gender disparities, a gender-transformative approach seeks to create substantial and lasting changes in the ways that societies perceive, treat, and interact with gender.

This approach recognizes that gender inequality is connected to social, economic, and political structures. It acknowledges that the roles and expectations assigned to individuals based on their gender impact all aspects of their lives, and that these roles are often unequal and restrictive. This may cause barriers in achieving services, education and possibilities in participating in decision-making.

A gender-transformative approach involves questioning and challenging traditional gender norms and roles. It seeks to challenge and reshape traditional gender norms that dictate expectations and behaviors related to sexuality. This includes addressing harmful stereotypes, discrimination, and societal pressures that affect how individuals express their sexual identities and desires. By challenging stigma and shame gender-transformative approach recognizes the harm caused by repressive gender norms and stereotypes can negatively impact individuals’ sexual health and rights by preventing open communication, seeking information, and accessing healthcare.

A central aspect of gender-transformative approach is the promotion of bodily autonomy. This involves acknowledging and respecting individuals’ choices regarding their sexual partners, practices, and reproductive decisions.

With gender-transformative approach it is possible to challenge power dynamics that are enabler to sexual and gender based violence.

Read more
UNFPA Gender transformative approaches to achieve gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights
Rutgers’ gender-transformative approach 

Historical approaches to SRHR

SRHR programmes and policies worldwide find their origins in Europe’s and US’ elites’ homegrown concerns about population control in 19th and 20th Century. There was a lot of fear for ‘exponential population growth’ which could lead to ‘overpopulation’, where ‘scarce resources’ would not be enough for the population. People’s poverty was also explained by their lack of (sexual) self-restraint and large families instead of being the outcome of economical exploitative relations between the haves and have nots. There were ideas that poverty could be tackled by keeping poor populations ‘manageable’ and reducing their size, instead of rethinking economical relations and redistribution.

Family planning and especially birth control was brought up as the solution to the situation. Both Margaret Sanger (founder of IPPF) and Marie Stopes (founder of MSI) were influenced by Malthusian ideas about overpopulation. After the Second World War the export of population control to so-called Third World started by USAID, big INGOs & foundations and UN. The Cold War influenced the situation as well as there was a fear that growing impoverished populations could support regime change towards communism and that Western economies could be affected if resources would get depleted by Southern countries’ ‘unrestricted population growth’.

Over time the discourse has changed from ‘population control’ to ‘reproductive health and rights’ making coercive population politics less visible. Most NGOs and actors advancing SRHR do have a human rights-based approach and are aiming towards a world where people are free to make their own decisions regarding number of children. But the historical discourse has not disappeared. Donor countries can be investing in family planning and SRHR with the aim of curbing migration or ‘root causes’ of climate change. Decrease in fertility can still be seen as an ideal outcome of SRHR policies. The climate crisis or migration must not become new justifications for instrumentalizing women’s and girls’ bodies and for population control narratives and measures.

Read more:

UNFPA State of World Population 2019: Unfinished Business: The Pursuit Of Rights And Choices For All

Human Rights Based Approach

Access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) not only saves lives but is also a basic human right set out in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and reiterated in Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action from Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995, their follow-up and review processes and United Nations resolutions and instruments.
In humanitarian contexts, the rights of women, adolescents and girls affected by conflict are protected by multiple, complementary bodies of international law, including international humanitarian law (IHL), international human rights law (IHRL), international criminal law, and refugee law. (IPPF)

Read more:
Human Rights Based Approach to Development Cooperation: Towards a Common Understanding Among UN Agencies 

UNFPA and human rights based approach

ICPD and human rights based approach

The Rights to Contraceptive Information and Services for Women and Adolescents

Women’s and adolescents’ right to contraceptive information and services is grounded in basic human rights.

A Human Rights-Based Approach to Programming, Practical Information and Training Materials (from 2010)

This Manual provides step-by-step guidance on how to apply a culturally sensitive, gender-responsive, human rights-based approach to programming in each of UNFPA’s three core areas of work: population and development, reproductive health, and gender.

How does quality of care relate to a rights-based approach to family planning programs?

This paper compares definitions of quality of family planning and contrasts them with the essentials of a rights-based approach. It aims to create common understanding on what these terms mean, where they overlap and how they differ.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality recognizes that individuals may experience multiple forms of oppression and discrimination simultaneously, and in relation to each other, based on their social identities such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, origin, and ability. These identities intersect and interact with each other in complex ways, leading to unique experiences and challenges for individuals who hold multiple marginalized identities. These combine to create intersecting forms of privilege and oppression depending on a person’s context and existing power structures such as patriarchy, ableism, colonialism, imperialism, homophobia, and racism.

Intersectionality highlights the need to consider the ways in which different forms of discrimination and privilege intersect and affect individuals’ experiences, and to create more inclusive and equitable systems and structures that take into account these complexities. Intersectional approach is necessary to promote a society of equality and equity.

Read more:
UnWomen Intersectionality Resource Guide and Toolkit

Life-course Approach

Life-course approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health

Across the life-course, women are more likely to be poor, experience violence, have higher rates of illiteracy and innumeracy, acquire a disability, and lack access to adequate nutrition and healthcare. These disparities persist throughout women’s and girls’ lives and, more often than not, intensify with older age. For example, poverty in older age is also linked to the greater likelihood for women than men of living alone, which in turn exacerbates their risk of exploitation, violence, and abuse.

Therefore a comprehensive recognition of women’s human rights must be approached through a life-course perspective. In global public health, this approach knowledge how earlier trauma and barriers to wellness, such as acquiring HIV, experiencing sexual violence, or enduring disrespect and abuse in childbirth, will impact a women’s quality of life as she grows older. A lifecourse perspective also engenders the awareness that many older women choose to be sexually active past their ability to have children, and notes and therefore continue to have sexual health needs. Ageing is also associated with reproductive tissue cancers, such as breast, ovarian, and cervical cancer – the latter of which is the second most common among women in less developed regions worldwide

The limiting constructs of female sexuality and womanhood that prevail in today’s global public health and development discourse, programme and policies, leaving behind nearly one-quarter of the world’s women. Also, In 2016 women aged 50 and older comprise 23.6% of the global female population.Older women living in middle-income and low-incmoe countries comprise the majority of today’s ageing population. Despite their demographic significance, these women remain largely excluded from investment in global public health – including important action on gender-based violence and access to sexual healthcare that construes women’s health through a strictly reproductive lens. Although the experience of ageing varies by culture and regional context, the unequal conditions of older women compared to older men are rooted in gender disparities and transcend geography.

As long as women’s health in the context of global development is concentrated on reproductive activity, only women in certain age will have access to service and care, making the right to bodily autonomy unfilled. Raising the issue that women’s health needs to encompass more than sexual and reproductive health is an important step towards widening the scope of gender-responsive development policy. At the same time, it is crucial to maintain a focus on sexual and reproductive health so that older women (and other marginalized groups of women, such as those with disabilities, and lesbian, bisexual, and trans women), who continue to have a need for these services but are scarcely able to access care, are included in this agenda. This means expanding sexual and reproductive health programming and policies, guided by a sexual rights framework as an alternative to current approaches centered on strict delineations of when reproductive function starts and stops.

WHO: Taking a Life-course Approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health 

Edward O. Laumann etc. (2006)  Cross-National Study of Subjective Sexual Well-Being Among Older Women and Men: Findings From the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors

How to advance SRHR

Currently the first priority of Finland’s development policy is to promote the status of women and girls, self-determination and sexual and reproductive health. Concretely supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights through development policy means raising their profile in international advocacy, supporting international sexual rights organizations and funding development cooperation that promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Finnish embassies have the opportunity to promote human rights-based development worldwide. Finland has extensive expertise, for example, on the benefits of comprehensive sexuality education and the impact of universal counselling services on sexual and reproductive health.

In its bilateral development cooperation, Finland can make sexual and reproductive health and rights a priority in country programmes, as is currently the case in several countries. In concrete terms, Finland can for example support UNFPA country offices and local NGOs to work on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights can be emphasized in policy dialogue with partner countries, including support for politically difficult issues such as safe abortion, comprehensive sexuality education and the rights of sexual and gender minorities. Sexual and reproductive health and rights can be emphasized in a variety of contexts, for example in the development of social protection and health systems and the promotion of universal health coverage.

In addition, embassy outreach to local sexual rights organizations is also an important signal to the partner country and its civil society.

In international advocacy and diplomacy, sexual and reproductive health and rights should be raised whenever possible. Ambitious language should be promoted and rights already achieved should be defended in international negotiations.

Everyone can influence the realisation of sexual rights in their own lives. By talking about sexual rights, you influence the atmosphere around you and change attitudes. You can urge decision-makers to make decisions that support sexual rights in Finland and around the world. You can support NGOs and other actors that works towards a realisation of sexual right for all.