Commitment to reproductive health and rights in Asia renewed

Experts, advocates and activists meeting at a United Nations-backed meeting in Hyderabad, India from 29 to 31 October have called for efforts to reduce maternal deaths, enable young people to avoid HIV and make family planning more accessible.

Existing commitments and know-how must be applied more effectively to tackle these and other reproductive health challenges, participants stressed in an Open Letter to Governments adopted at the end of the Fourth Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSH).
Some 1,300 participants from civil society and Governments in 42 countries joined the Conference, as part of an ongoing review of progress towards the goal of making reproductive health services accessible to everyone by 2015.

“Too many Governments remain shackled by external pressures, outmoded laws and regulatory structures undermining reproductive health”, participants declared in the Open Letter, vowing to push for more resources and to hold themselves accountable for their effective use.

In an opening session subtitled “An unfinished agenda”, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director, Purnima Mane noted that Asia continues to have “high rates of unintended pregnancies, high rates of maternal death and disability, increasing numbers of new HIV infections, and persistent and widespread violence against women and girls”, despite the region’s progress in reducing poverty. Ms. Mane also emphasized the increasing gender-based violence, skewed sex ratio and spread of HIV infection among the youth and women.

Adolescents’ need for critical information was a major theme of the conference.
Other sessions and skills-building workshops covered a wide range of issues, including sexual violence, unsafe abortion, reproductive health support in conflict situations and natural disasters, and the protection of the rights of people living with HIV.

(Source: UNFPA press release, 31 October)