Consultation processes to develop the WHO GBV global plan of action http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/violence/global-action-plan/en/

June 2015

Ipas advocates for government’s responsive policies for the woman and adolescent girls who experienced gender based violence to have access to sexual and reproductive health services to preserve her health and well-being, especially in countries with restrictive laws that criminalize and or make abortion care almost inaccessible because of different sort of barriers. Ipas inputs are related to the questions below:

1. Recommendation: global plan of action should emphasize rights based approach to violence against women and girls, gender inequality and systemic discrimination against women at private and public spheres in the overview of the global situation on violence against women and girls

Violence against women is a violation of human rights, rooted in historically unequal power relations between men and women and the systemic discrimination against women that pervades both the public and private spheres. The broad context from which it emerges includes disparities of power in the form of patriarchy, sociocultural norms and practices that perpetuate gender-based discrimination and economic inequalities. Its scope and prevalence reflect the degree and persistence of gender-based discrimination that women face, which is often compounded by other systems of domination. Violence against women must therefore be addressed in the context of seeking to end all forms of discrimination, to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and to create a world in which all women enjoy all their human rights.

In the last decades, the United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies have reiterated that denying survivors of sexual violence access to safe abortion constitutes a violation of the woman’s human right, including constituting cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.1 Also, in the past decade domestic, familial and intimate partner violence has also been recognized as violations of human rights. Some countries have adopted comprehensive policies to combat violence against women, whereas others have been slow to do that.

1. Recommendation: global plan of action should give visibility to the intersections between violence against women and girls and violations to their sexual and reproductive health and rights in the overview of the global situation on violence against women and girls

Sexual and reproductive rights are part of the catalogue of human rights that are protected and defended by the universal and inter-American human rights systems; and that sexual and reproductive rights are grounded in other essential human rights, including the right to health, the right to be free from discrimination, the right to privacy, the right not to be subjected to torture or ill-treatment, the right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so and the right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence and therefore to be free from sexual violence.2

The root cause of both violence and restrictions on women’s exercise of their sexual and reproductive rights is the same: systematic gender discrimination and, relatedly, control over women’s sexuality and decision-making. Across the world, violations of these aspects of women’s fundamental human rights go hand in hand, and mark the starkest forms of control and limitation on women’s freedoms and equality. Various forms of gender‐based violence are themselves specific violations of sexual and reproductive rights, among them all forms of sexual

1 LC v Peru, Communication 22/2009, CEDAW/C/50/D/22/2009, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2011) para 8.18; LMR v Argentina, Communication 1608/2007, CCPR/C/101/D/168/2007, Human Rights Committee (2011) para 9.2. 2 http://www.oas.org/en/mesecvi/docs/CEVI11-Declaration-EN.pdf

1 violence, including marital rape which needs to be clearly defined in national laws, as well as any coercive policy or practice that intervenes in women’s informed, autonomous decision‐making about their own bodies, sexuality or reproductive choices. The plan fails to address the problem of unwanted pregnancy due to sexual violence in countries with restrictive laws on abortion, and the lack of access for women and girls to safe abortion care which can lead to maternal mortality and injuries due to unsafe abortion.

Inputs to Section B on Violence against women and girls in page 12:

2. Recommendation: global plan of action should recommend actions to eliminate and redress human rights violations due to institutional violence

Human rights bodies and institutions have already declared that laws perpetuate the exercise of violence against women, girls, and adolescents, and re-victimize them by violating their sexual and reproductive rights, such as: maintaining restrictions on access to safe abortions and absolute prohibitions of abortions, or the denial of access to post-abortion care that contravenes de prohibition of torture and ill-treatment.3

The plan should recommend as a key action that Member states takes steps to review restrictive laws that criminalize abortion in all circumstances and fully implement existing abortion laws that grant the right to abortion in cases of rape and incest. While many countries have these legal indications for abortion, some fail to make safe services available for girls and young women who experience rape or incest. Denial of access to safe abortion care in these circumstances by health providers is considered equivalent to inhuman degrading treatment and torture.

Institutional violence has been increasingly getting international attention from human rights treaty monitoring bodies which have established that in some circumstances women suffer institutional violence when seeking post abortion care and these human rights violations should be considered unhuman, degrading treatment and equivalent to torture. For example, in cases where coercive policies or laws are in place stipulating parental or spousal authorization and consent for sexual and reproductive health services infringing women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive rights; especially when they face unwanted pregnancy as a result of sexual violence and need access to safe abortion. The plan should call Member states to take action to eliminate barriers and promote policy change in order to ensure women’s right to sexual autonomy, to informed choices, and have access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services as part of their right to live free from violence. For this reason it is very important to address barriers and denials of women’s victims of sexual violence sexual and reproductive rights, making sure that they have access to safe abortion in cases of unwanted pregnancy without having to face institutional violence in health care settings. Denials of abortion care to girls pregnant due to rape, incest or sexual violence is a form of torture that states must take action to respond, prevent and redress.

3. Recommendation: global plan of action should ensure member States review, monitor and comply with national and international human rights recommendations from accountability mechanisms

The plan should propose to member States the establishment of review and monitoring human rights mechanisms within health systems to make sure health authorities and health providers’ practices respect national laws, policies in compliance with international commitments and ensure measures to redress violations to women girls’ survivors of violence basic human rights

The plan of action should propose to member States to take actions to implement the recommendations that emanate from periodic reviews of country-national reports and communications and inquiry procedures, as applicable, by human rights treaty bodies, in particular those of the Committee on the Elimination of

3 http://www.oas.org/en/mesecvi/docs/CEVI11-Declaration-EN.pdf

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Discrimination against Women regarding the need for states to remove all laws that discriminate against women; review and revise all State policies and practices to ensure that they do not discriminate against women; and ensure that provisions of multiple legal systems, where they exist, comply with international human rights standards, including the principle of non-discrimination.

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