Paragraph 108(i)-(k) 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): 2018/11/09
Strategic objective C.3.
Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that address sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health issues
Actions to be taken
108. By Governments, international bodies including relevant United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors and non-governmental organizations:
i. Give all women and health workers all relevant information and education about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS and pregnancy and the implications for the baby, including breast-feeding;
j. Assist women and their formal and informal organizations to establish and expand effective peer education and outreach programmes and to participate in the design, implementation and monitoring of these programmes;
k. Give full attention to the promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and, in particular, to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The Beijing Declaration in paragraph 108 sections (i), (j), and (k) looks into the means by which women and healthcare professionals can work to reduce the levels of HIV/AIDS transmission through education and provision of accurate information for women to make informed decisions about their lives.
Without good data, women are left bereft of the possibility of making those informed choices for their lives. This can be potentially highly consequential in the life of a woman and the wellbeing of her baby, especially in regards to breastfeeding.
It is an important healthcare note about the health and wellness of women being intimately connected to the wellbeing of babies in the most crucial development years of the life of the baby.
There is an emphasis on proper peer education. This means the outreach through the formal and informal organizations and mechanisms in order to improve the outcomes for girls and women. Remembering, of course, all of the recommendations and courses of action work for the furtherance of the rights and equality and, therefore, life outcomes of women.
This translates into better families, communities, and societies based on international evidence. But this requires three stages of development. One is the planning stage. Another is the implementation of the designs. Still another, it is the monitoring of the outcomes to gauge the efficacy of the programs that have been implemented.
These lessons based on the monitoring of the outcomes can be used to refine the next stages of planning for the subsequent implementations, which will be monitored themselves and so on in a continuous loop of, in theory, or in principle, improved performance over time.
The various organizations on offer can be a boon these efforts. Indeed, these can be considered among the most effective actors in the advancement and empowerment of women educationally and otherwise.
It seems far too hard for even singular outstanding individuals to make significant dents on the problems faced by women.
As well, there is a focus or a stipulation on the need to provide some increased awareness of the prospects of the perceptions of men and women to one another. The idea of a reciprocal relationship in respect for one another’s talents, merits, capabilities, triumphs over tribulations, and so on.
A significant shift in this perception or a wider awareness would move the dial to a more equitable distribution of meritorious proclamations and praise for women and men.
This move can shift the conversation about the relations of the genders. But also, this can be important in the changing of the dynamics in sexuality as well. It may reduce the tensions in the power dynamics of the relationship.
In that, the adolescents mentioned in the final section are able to be properly informed about sex, protection, consent, and sexuality in order to make those informed and independent choices about their intimate lives.
This is a means by which to build one of those positive and responsible sex lives most parents, likely, want for their children as become fully-fleshed out adults. But one of the important points is the improved sexual relations early on in life through education about sex and sexuality for the young can deal with the pipeline issue, potentially, of one of the main problems identified as a social pathology in modern movements.
Then there are also the means by which to work in large coalitions and groups to reduce the level of discrimination in health outcomes for women with newborn babies or babies generally, again related to sexual health.
The progress made on each of these fronts remains an individual choice to come together in union with others or not to vigorously, over the long haul, make changes in the lives of women and, subsequently, of men.
–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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