Beijing Platform for Action. Chapter IV. C. Women and Health – Paragraph 96
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/23
96. The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its consequences.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The Beijing Declaration in paragraph 96 deals with the human rights of women. In that, women have the right to freedom over their own bodies. It amounts to the fundamental choice of women in the light, and not in spite, of the international rights documents connected to national law.
The autonomy of the body, including in safe and equitable access to reproductive health services, are fundamental human rights. It takes a rich public relations industry to reduce the public discourse, to delete the notion of rights as fundamental, or to selectively cherry pick them for the individualistic or religious benefit.
The democratization of ethics means everyone has equal rights while some populations – children, women, mothers – have specified and within context adjunctions to their standard fundamental human rights, which remain non-derivative or non-secondary as well.
Women are more vulnerable to being subjected to coercion into sexual activity, various forms of discrimination, and the overarching phenomena of violence against women (physical, sexual, and psychological).
The means by which to reduce these would be to eliminate the gender inequities that exacerbate and, in many ways, permit these inequalities between men and women. The respect for the individual person is important, not only for men as has been historically the case but also for women.
There, certainly, is a deep need for respect and consent in the actions of society. One where the women’s identity’s as real individuals become fundamental. In this, we can create a world in which the relations between the sexes, and in communities around reproduction, can respect the fundamental autonomy of the woman.
It is important with the integrity of the individual and the shared responsibility to the child for this to be respected, as the main responsibilities, historically and right into the present, for gestation, childcare, home care, and other care for the child have been, nearly, the sole domain of the woman.
Thus, the “shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its consequences” become the same with the primacy in reproductive health and consent being a co-responsibility.
–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 