16 March 2015
SRHR Critical for Post-2015 Agenda, UNFPA Executive Director Says
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Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are central to the post-2015 development agenda, according to UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin, writing on Trust.org.

He explains how SRHR are essential for eradicating poverty, achieving sustainable development and enjoying other fundamental human rights.

Osotimehin also highlighted concerns on the reproductive rights of women and girls at a panel discussion held as part of the 59th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW).

Unfpalogo5 March 2015: Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are central to the post-2015 development agenda, according to UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin, writing on Trust.org. He explains how SRHR are essential for eradicating poverty, achieving sustainable development and enjoying other fundamental human rights. Osotimehin also highlighted concerns on the reproductive rights of women and girls at a panel discussion held as part of the 59th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW).

Despite progress in gender equality and women’s empowerment, “overall progress has been unacceptably slow, with stagnation and even regression in some contexts,” Osotimehin writes. He observes, for instance, that “no country in the world has achieved gender equality,” legal discrimination persists in many countries, and women’s increased participation in the workforce and their rising education levels have not been matched by advancement or equal pay. He also highlights as persistent challenges: violence against women and girls; genital mutilation; maternal health concerns; and child marriage. Osotimehin calls for addressing the gaps for women and girls within the framework of the post-2015 development agenda, emphasizing that SRHR “must be at the centre of this new universal agenda.”

During the CSW panel, Osotimehin said women’s and girl’s reproductive rights—”the rights to decide the number, spacing and timing of one’s children, to make these decision without violence or coercion, to access the information and means to exercise these choices and to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health”—are essential for global sustainable development. When women and girls have such rights, he explained, they experience greater economic, educational and social success and can help to break the cycle of poverty for their own children.

CSW 59 is taking place at UN Headquarters in New York, US, from 9-20 March 2015. [UNFPA Executive Director Article] [UNFPA Press Release on CSW Panel] [IISD RS Story on CSW 59 Opening] [CSW 59 Website]


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