All human rights--civil, cultural, economic, political and social, including the right to development--are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated . . . the human rights of women and the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by women and girls is a priority for governments and the United Nations and is essential for the advancement of women.

The Beijing agreement underlines the importance of women's rights as human rights, and urges action to reach the following objectives:

• Promoting and protecting the human rights of women through the full implementation of all human rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
• Ensuring equality and non-discrimination under the law and in practice;
• Achieving legal literacy.

The need to guarantee reproductive and sexual rights is still a pressing concern, as evidenced by worldwide violations of women's human rights, such as high rates of maternal mortality, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy, in particular among adolescents. Women's opportunities are still limited by the structure of societies and by the idea that their role is limited to childbearing. In addition, many women are hardly aware of their basic rights under national and international law.

UNFPA calls for women's empowerment in all spheres of life, particularly regarding their reproductive and sexual health and rights. These rights are intrinsically linked with other human rights and are a precondition for sustainable development. By participating in the reproductive decision-making process, women are also enabled to participate actively in, and enjoy rights related to, other areas of social development, i.e., education and participation in the labour market and in public life.

Programmes for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

UNFPA focuses on reproductive decisionmaking on the basis of equality between women and men, including choice in marriage and determination of the number, timing and spacing of one's children; and sexual and reproductive security, including freedom from sexual violence and coercion; and the right to privacy.

UNFPA supports national partners in enabling women to exercise their reproductive and sexual rights. This includes strengthening policies and creating adequate legal frameworks to protect and promote reproductive rights in Latin American and Caribbean countries. It also includes supporting legal services, shelters and care for victims of gender-based violence, including FGM, in several African and Arab countries and for victims of trafficking in women and girls in South-east Asia. The Fund has worked with national partners on policy discussions about gender-based violence as well as targeting advocacy campaigns towards parliamentarians, judges, religious and community leaders and law enforcement bodies. Resources are also provided for human rights education and legal literacy, especially for women.

UNFPA also fostered cooperation between NGOs and governments in Mexico and Brazil in order to assess and promote gender-sensitive reproductive health programmes and to integrate issues such as clients’ rights and quality of care. UNFPA is particularly active in supporting women’s bureaux and NGOs in African countries. In Zambia, UNFPA has supported efforts to document and disseminate information on laws and practices that discriminate against women and girls. In Mozambique, UNFPA has supported the dissemination of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Addressing the Rights of Vulnerable Groups

UNFPA is committed to improving the health of women and girls everywhere. This requires meeting the needs of women and girls in emergency and post-crisis situations. UNFPA supports victims of rape and sexual violence during acts of war and civil conflict, and has supplied emergency reproductive health kits to areas such as East Timor, Kosovo and the Great Lakes Region in Africa.

UNFPA also recognizes the need to promote adolescent reproductive and sexual rights. In order to reduce the risks to young girls of unprotected sexual intercourse, leading to possible STDs, including HIV/AIDS, as well as unwanted pregnancies, UNFPA supports initiatives to empower youth and provide them with reproductive health services.

In the Dominican Republic, UNPFA has supported the first-ever collaborative effort on adolescent reproductive health undertaken by the Ministry of Health and two youth-serving NGOs. The project created a peer counsellor programme in poor urban neighbourhoods, linking up with teachers, health providers and Catholic priests. Through information on reproductive and sexual health and responsible parenthood, girls have been able to postpone sexual activity, while boys have learned that sexuality means responsibility.

UNFPA also supports advocacy at a global level. Since helping organize the Round Table on Human Rights Approaches to Women's Health, with a focus on reproductive and sexual health and rights (Glen Cove, New York, 9-11 December 1996), the Fund has deepened its involvement in UN system-wide initiatives in the field of human rights. UNFPA funded and participated actively in the 1998 Global Campaign for Women's Human Rights, providing support for a series of events and publications to refocus the world's attention on women's human rights, on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of.19 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the fifth anniversary of the 1993 Vienna Declaration and the Programme of Action.

UNFPA is now working more closely with the human rights treaty bodies, particularly the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and recently developed an operational guide to raise awareness and facilitate the use of the anti-discrimination convention.