The United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) make the protection of reproductive and sexual rights a central focus of their work.

What are these rights, then, and what do they entail?

• The right to survival/right to life: abrogated by maternal mortality.

• The right to liberty and security of the person: abrogated by female genital mutilation, compulsory sterilization, and the criminalization of contraception, among others.

• The right to the highest attainable standard of health.

• The right to family planning.

• The right to marry and found a family.

• The right to a private and family life: abrogated by state or community interference in the decision of whether or when to have children.

• The right to the benefits of scientific progress: including quality contraception.

• The right to receive and impart information, and to freedom of thought.

• The right of women to education.

• The right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex.

• The right to non-discrimination on the basis of age: abrogated when young people are denied information and confidentiality about reproductive health services.

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