Women's right to health, including reproductive and sexual health, is central to the struggle for gender equality and women's empowerment. In December 1996, all the bodies of the United Nations system responsible for monitoring human rights treaties gathered in Glen Cove on Long Island, New York, to consider ways to promote and protect this right.

The meeting was called by UNFPA, the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

They were joined by representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and several UN agencies. It was the first time that experts from all six treaty bodies, UN organizations and NGOS had ever met to discuss the interpretation of rights related to a particular theme.

Weaving Women's Rights
into the Fabric of Human Rights

The treaty bodies agreed that gender issues were part of their different mandates. They said they would like to have information on gender issues and to incorporate, specifically, reproductive and sexual rights into their work.

• In considering how best this might be done the meeting focused on three areas:

• Bringing a gender perspective to the right to health, including reproductive and sexual rights;

• Interpreting international treaty norms so that sexual and reproductive rights are understood to be part and parcel of human rights;

• Ensuring the right to health of refugee, migrant, displaced, and indigenous women.

Participants outlined the legal and moral framework for recognizing reproductive and sexual rights as human rights. They discussed violations of these rights, and ways and means to integrate gender awareness into their work.

There were also discussions on how to improve collaboration between treaty bodies, agencies and NGOs, and on developing a set of indicators to help promote, implement and monitor women's reproductive rights. Working groups analysed issues and rights concerning maternal mortality, adolescent reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS.

Recommendations

The roundtable recommended that treaty bodies examine their guidelines for evaluating states' reports, in order to more fully integrate women's health issues into their consideration of these reports. Other recommendations were aimed at the criteria, policies, and procedures necessary to achieve this integration. UN agencies and other bodies were called upon to:

• Train their staff in the human rights dimensions of their policies and programmes;

• Help governments and NGOs obtain training, information, and resources to understand and use human rights dimensions in formulating, implementing and monitoring their own policies and programmes;

• Follow up on the comments and suggestions of the treaty bodies on the states' reports and work with the states to implement them.

The roundtable recognized NGOs as a valuable source of information on the implementation or abuse of rights, and recommended that they be allowed to participate in treaty monitoring and conference implementation. It urged UN agencies and donors to consider providing NGOs with resources for programmes on human rights education, improving legal literacy, and educating their staff about the treaty monitoring process. NGOs were urged to communicate the meeting's recommendations to constituents, colleagues, and other NGOs.

Other recommendations proposed specific forms of collaboration among treaty bodies, UN agencies, and NGOs.

The meeting recommended that country reports to the treaty bodies by national commissions should be more widely publicized and that treaty bodies should ask for amplification as desired.

UNFPA Follows Up

UNFPA is collaborating with CEDAW, DAW and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to promote reproductive and sexual rights, through training programmes and technical assistance to developing countries, and support for advocacy and research.

With WHO and UNICEF, UNFPA is increasing its support for the eradication of harmful traditional practices, including female genital mutilation, as human rights violations. Activities are being integrated into programmes in reproductive health, population and development, and are being addressed by advocacy at all levels.

In April 1997, at the initiative of UNFPA, an informal working group of gender and human rights focal points was established, including DAW, ILO, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNIFEM.

The group now meets monthly to exchange information and work together on, for example:

• Strengthening national-level advocacy and legislation for enforceable reproductive rights;

• Promoting reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, as a human right;

• Eliminating female genital mutilation;

• Advocating for the needs and aspirations of young women;

• Fighting commercial sexual exploitation;

• Strengthening governments' and NGOs' capacity to promote gender equity and equality and women's empowerment;

• Integrating reproductive health and economic empowerment;

• Promoting male involvement in reproductive health;

• Mainstreaming gender issues into policies and programmes;

• Integrating reproductive rights and human rights into a prototype gender-training manual.

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