Monday, July 20, 2015

Side event at the UN today






Side event 1.15 to 2.30pm Monday 20 July 2015 , conf room 7
Making the SDGs work for women & girls : Why a rights- based Continuum Care APPROACH IS NEEDED TO IMPROVE WOMEN AND GIRL’S REPRODUCTIVE Health.

The meeting was hosted by the Mission of  Nepal , moderator Susan Alzner UN-NGLS  - NY , Ida Klockmann Danish FPA , Santa Shresthat Beyond Beijing Nepal , Nalini Singh ARROW ( Asia –Pacific Resources & Research Centre for women).

The handout was a glossy 56 page publication by ARROW called “ Fulfilling Women’s rights –based continuum of Quality Care for Women’s reproductive health in South Asia  (See above ). This paper is a very clever document . It quotes UN documents but includes after men and women ( as well as gender non-conforming people ). Also they claim that Reproductive Rights include the right to safe , legal and accessible abortion services. Their reference is one of their own publications. They aslo claim a lot of rubbish under Sexual Rights.

This was the usual pro-abortion presentation that you would expect at the UN. There was , to be fair , some good stuff on nutrition , clean water , basic medical care which was quite good. One attendee even worked in a fistula hospital.
Of interest was one slide which is difference from usual, the Lady representing ARROW  said :
Safe abortion and CQC
“One third of all maternal deaths are due to hemorrhage , infection , and poisoning by unsafe abortion.
Legalisation of abortion is a necessary but an insufficient step towards improving women’s health , especially when effective infrastructure , personnel , ancillary services and adequate budget are not in place.”

Another slide from their presentation:
Safe abortion in Nepal
Safe abortion is legalized in 2002
“Despite the law , however unsafe abortion in Nepal continues to take place. Women keep on dying or suffering lifelong morbidities resulting from unsafe abortion.

There was also a lot of talk about Comprehensive Sexuality education , how this will fix everything for women.”
There was a complaint about Pakistan , Here women are conditioned by patriarchal attitudes , hospitals deny services to unmarried girls .

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