The 6th Asian
and Pacific Population Conference (APPC) held in Bangkok in the third
week of September 2013 saw the battle for inclusion of 'rights language'
in the outcome document. This resulted in a polarisation among the 130
odd participants on whether rights and inclusion were important enough
to be a mandate in the States' agenda. What was interesting was the face
that human rights and discrimination in the 21st Century was still being fought for.
The
strength of this conference was evident as all the civil society
organisations unanimously sort to push forward these critical issues and
advocate for a language that promotes sexual rights, sexual identity
and gender orientation, elimination of discrimination based on
motherhood status, limited access to important services which include
safe abortion and ensuring the need to include comprehensive sexual
education in school curriculums across the region. For
the civil society organisations, this was an opportunity to include
human rights within the framework of the outcome document as this will
be presented in the UN General Assembly special session in 2014 on the
global 20 year review of the ICPD.
Many
of the civil society organisations strongly felt that the ICPD POA did
not explicitly recognise sexual rights, including the right to diversity
of sexual expression and orientation. They felt that this was a huge
gap and a loophole for the government to avoid inclusion of rights in
improved quality of care, especially pertaining to reproductive health
services. The week saw intense and passionate debate and negotiation
from the Asia Pacific region to push forth progressive language and the
need to address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,
gender identity and the stigma associated with woman especially with
regards control over her reproduction. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/171620903/APPC-Final-Outcome)
What
was interesting for me was the case study presented from one lone
representative from Philippines, Janette Garin (Under Secretary,
Department of Health, Manila). Though Filipinos are predominantly Roman
Catholic but they have been struggling to achieve the rights language
through the Reproductive Health Bill since 2011. This lone
representative was the strongest proponent of human rights and the need
for inclusion of human rights within sexual reproductive health
services. Coincidentally
the Constitution of Philippines protects the “life of the unborn”.
Abortion rights are still not a fundamental right for the Filipino.
Blog post by Leena Uppal, NAMHHR member and advocacy officer Centre for Health and Social Justice
