GOVERNMENTS NEGLECT WOMENS HEALTH IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA Monday, 03 April 2006 13:36 Bad laws, and

the failure to implement good ones, spell disaster for womens health and lives in East and South East Asia.

A report released 13 December 2005 in Manila, Philippines by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), provides evidence that lack of legislation to protect womens reproductive rights, or the lack of will to implement them, result in women in the region having alarming rates of unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexual trafficking and violence, as well as soaring rates of HIV/AIDS infection. Common reproductive health problems in East and Southeast Asia caused by bad laws MATERNAL DEATHS: The maternal death rate in the Philippines is 200 per 100,000, more than 20 times the rate in the U.S. In Vietnam, one out of three women receives no pre-natal care. ABORTION: In the Philippines, where abortion is illegal except to save a womans life, over 1,000 women seek illegal and unsafe abortions every day. Illegal abortion is the fourth leading cause of maternal death. In Thailand, one out of three women who have abortions develops severe complications. CONTRACEPTION: In Malaysia and the Philippines, almost 70% of women do not use modern methods of birth control. Adolescents lack access to services and information, resulting in considerably high rates of teenage pregnancy in many parts of the region. HIV/AIDS: In Malaysia, the largest proportion of women with HIV is composed of housewives. In Vietnam, six out of ten of people living with HIV/AIDS were adolescent in 2001. SEX TRAFFICKING: In Thailand, laws that seek to protect girls against trafficking for commercial sex are not enforced. Of 355 people arrested for violation of the Prostitution Prevention and Suppression Act between 1996 and 1999, only 14 were convicted and sentenced. REPRODUCTIVE AUTONOMY: In China, couples with more than one child may be subject to harsh penalties such as social compensation fees and denial of state benefits. Sources: Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and Asia Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). 2005. Women of the World: Laws and policies affecting their reproductive lives East and Southeast Asia. New York, USA: CRR. Thus, according to the latest volume of CRRs Women of the World series, Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Lives East and Southeast Asia, governments in East and Southeast Asia must work much harder to serve the reproductive health

needs and promote the autonomy of the women in their region. Women of the World: East and Southeast Asia provides an extensive examination of laws and policies influencing womens reproductive health in five countries of the regionChina, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It offers advocates and policymakers a broad view of laws affecting reproductive freedom, and draws attention to specific issues that require legal and policy reform. "This groundbreaking study exposes how governments throughout the region are failing to protect womens health," says Melissa Upreti, Legal Adviser for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She added that the report "offers advocates and policymakers pertinent information and strategies to establish accountability and secure remedies for persistent inequities and violations of womens reproductive rights." Women of the World: East and South East Asia urges specific actions that governments and nongovernmental organisations in the region should take to protect womens health and human rights. These include: - introducing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health laws that guarantee the right to access health services and reproductive autonomy; - abolishing criminal abortion laws and creating universal access to safe and affordable abortion services; - making access to maternal health care, including emergency obstetric care, available to all women regardless of their economic, social and political status; and - eliminating discrimination in the delivery of health services and information on the basis of age and marital status and - involving adolescents in the development of laws and policies pertaining to their health and rights. The study likewise recommends empowering women to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and enact laws to protect them against discrimination and violence; strictly enforcing laws that criminalise the trafficking of women and children; and removing legal and social barriers that interfere with individual choices regarding the number, timing and spacing of ones children. Finally, crucial to the achievement of womens wellbeing and autonomy according to CRR, is holding governments accountable for violations of reproductive rights. The report is based on almost three years of research by CRR, the New York-based organisation advocating reproductive freedom; the regional womens health organisation Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) based in Malaysia; and four nongovernmental organisation partners in East and Southeast Asia. Other volumes in the Women of the World series document reproductive health law and policy in Anglophone Africa, East Central Europe, Francophone Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. To view the report online, go to <http://www.reproductiverights.org/pub_bo_seasia.html>

Sources: Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and Asia Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). 2005. Women of the World: Laws and policies affecting their reproductive lives East and Southeast Asia. New York, USA: CRR. Study exposes government neglect of womens health in East and Southeast Asia. 13 December 2005. From Center for Reproductive Rights <http://www.crlp.org/pr_05_12_13WOWLaunch.html>. What are reproductive rights? Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognised in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic 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 attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community. What are government commitments to achieving them? The promotion of the responsible exercise of these rights for all people should be the fundamental basis for government- and communitysupported policies and programmes in the area of reproductive health, including family planning. As part of their commitment, full attention should be given to the promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and particularly to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality. Source: International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, Chapter VII-A, para. 7.3