Paragraphs 106(i) & (j) of the Beijing Platform for Action. Chapter IV. C. Women and Health
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/30
Strategic objective C.1.
Increase women’s access throughout life cycle to appropriate, affordable and quality health care, information and related services
Actions to be taken
106. By Governments, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and employers’ and workers’ organizations and with the support of international institutions:
i. Strengthen and reorient health services, particularly primary health care, in order to ensure universal access to quality health services for women and girls; reduce ill health and maternal morbidity and achieve world wide the agreed-upon goal of reducing maternal mortality by at least 50 per cent of the 1990 levels by the year 2000 and a further one half by the year 2015; ensure that the necessary services are available at each level of the health system and make reproductive health care accessible, through the primary health-care system, to all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than the year 2015;
j. Recognize and deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, as agreed in paragraph 8.25 of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development;/14
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Paragraph 106, sections (i) and (j) of the Beijing Declaration help with the improvement of the healthcare services, via the explicit statements over two decades ago. Indeed, the continual emphasis is on the universal access to healthcare, where someone without wealth, more often women and children, can have equal access to relevant health services for them.
It is this democratization of rights since the UDHR that provides this form of equality. It is viewing the concerns of women as the same as the issues of men, and vice versa. This is the basis for a universalization of ethics and healthier families, communities, and societies.
Although, at the present, things may seem chaotic. We remain in a status of transition, which retains ongoing risks including the current issue of authoritarians and demagogues coming in to fill the ideological vacuum to scapegoat, blame, and redirect the public’s discontent against themselves Coming together, these rather weak authoritarian forces can be overcome.
The aim of healthcare for all is, for one, the reduction in the maternal morbidity of women in order to achieve the goals, at the time, of a 50% reduction in the levels of maternal mortality.
But moving into the latter 2010s and 2020s, what lessons can we take from these? Some them can be viewed with the reduction as an extended goal, where we continue to aim to do better by the end of this year and the following year, as an ethical heuristic of an improvement curve in healthcare provision for women, pregnant women, and mothers.
This requires safe and equitable access to relevant healthcare technologies and provisions. Indeed, the primary healthcare system is one of the core bulwarks to maintain women’s health, regardless of age or socioeconomic status.
The provision for abortion services fits into this overall narrative. Here, we can see the major declines in health status for women with the unsafe abortions. These cause thousands of deaths every year, which is known, in addition to tens of thousands of injuries based on these unsafe, unsanitary, and often unprofessional set of circumstances for the ‘surgery.’
Now, the big issue is simply giving equitable and safe access does two things. One, it respects a fundamental human right of women. Two, it reduces the maternal and infant mortality rate, decreases the number of abortions, reduces the impacts of the healthcare system in terms of costs over the long-term and, thus, to the society. The legalization can be a case for human rights and health.
–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.
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