Yet millions still suffer from disease, injustice, injury, stunted lives, and even death when this right is denied. Most of these people are women, and most of these women are in the developing world.

What are sexual and reproductive rights?

The current international understanding of sexual and reproductive rights includes the rights to:

• Reproductive and sexual health as a component of overall lifelong health.

• Reproductive decision-making, including choice in marriage, family formation, and determination of the number, timing, and spacing of one’s children; and the right to the information and the means to exercise those choices.

• Equality and equity for women and men to enable individuals to make free and informed choices in all spheres of life, free from gender discrimination.

• Sexual and reproductive security, including freedom from sexual violence and coercion, and the right to privacy.

The effect of denying sexual
and reproductive rights

The following statistical estimates show just some of the terrible effects of denying these human rights:

• 585,000 women–one every minute–die each year from causes related to pregnancy.

• About 200,000 maternal deaths each year result from lack or failure of contraceptive services.

• 120-150 million women who want to limit or space their pregnancies are still without the means to do so effectively.

• At least 75 million pregnancies each year (out of a total of 175 million) are unwanted; they result in 45 million abortions and over 30 million live births.

• 70,000 women die each year as a result of unsafe abortion: an unknown number suffer from infection and other health consequences.

• 1 million people die each year from reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) other than HIV/AIDS. There are an estimated 333 million new cases of STDs per year.

• Six out of ten women in many countries have a sexually transmitted disease. All face a higher risk of infertility, cervical cancer, or other serious health problems.

• 3.1 million people in 1996 were infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which leads to AIDS.

• 120 million women have suffered female genital mutilation; another 2 million are at risk each year. The international community and individual governments have condemned the practice, yet it remains widespread in 28 countries.

• Rape and other forms of sexual violence are increasing. Unfortunately, the stigma of rape has kept all but 3 per cent in South Africa and 16 per cent in the United States, for example, from being reported.

• At least 60 million girls are "missing" from the population due to son-preference, via either sex-selective abortions or neglect.

• 2 million girls between 5 and 15 years old are put on the commercial sex market every year.

• Nearly 600 million women are illiterate, compared with about 320 million men.

• Refugees are only now being offered reproductive health care. Contraception for women could be offered for just $1 to $5 per woman; safe childbirth could be guaranteed for $5 to $10.

The total worldwide cost of better reproductive health care is roughly $17 billion per annum–less than one week of the world’s expenditure on armaments.

Human rights, global needs

Achieving sexual and reproductive rights for all is an end in itself; it needs no further justification.

But it also confers great benefits on the economic and social life of the community, and the future of the planet.

Global and national needs coincide with personal rights and interests in this case. Given the choice, most women and men have smaller families. Lowering the disease and mortality burden, lessening the ravages of hunger, and improving the education and opportunities of the people are just some of the benefits that accrue.

In fact, the most practical and effective way to improve a nation’s prospects is to give the power of reproductive choice to its people. Each country and community needs to invest in the necessary social services. Most of all, they must invest in women and redress the injustices under which they labour, enabling them to make choices on an equal basis with men.

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