NHRIs can monitor whether or not states are complying with their obligations under international human rights law in the field
by United Nations Treaty monitoring Bodies.
The table shows:
Freedom from Discrimination
• Sexual and reproductive health information, goods and services should be accessible to all in law and practice without discrimination.
• States should adopt measures to achieve equality and eliminate discrimination with respect to sexual and reproductive health for all.
• To what extent has State developed and implemented measures to
eliminate discrimination in the field of sexual and reproductive health through policy?
• What steps has the State taken to ensure that reproductive health services that only women need, such as services related to pregnancy, and pregnancy- related complications, are available, accessible, acceptable and of good quality both in law and in practice?
• What steps has the State taken to eliminate laws or policies that require third party (e.g., parental, spousal, or judicial) authorization for access to sexual and reproductive health information and services?
• What steps has the State taken to decriminalize specific forms of consensual sexual activity, such as same-sex or extra-marital sexual activity?
• What measures has the State taken to prevent or eliminate discriminatory policies or practices in both the public and private spheres, such as mandatory pregnancy testing or policies or practices that target ethnic or racial minorities and groups, women living with HIV, or women with disabilities for involuntary surgical sterilization?
• How does the State ensure affordable access, such as through free or sub-sidized care, for low-income women or those who may face heightened barriers to seeking sexual and repro-ductive health care?
• What steps has the State taken to integrate gender and sexuality perspectives into their policies, plans, and programmes on sexual and reproductive health, such as involving women in the planning, implementa-tion, and monitoring of such policies, plans, and programmes?
• What mechanisms are in place to ensure access to justice for persons who have suffered discrimination in access to sexual and reproductive health services, goods and information?
Contraceptive Information and Services
• States should take steps to ensure that all individuals have access to comprehensive, scientifically accurate, unbiased information regarding contraceptive methods.
• States should take steps to ensure a full range of contraceptive methods
• To what extent has the State developed and implemented a national strategy or plan that includes measures to ensure access to contraceptive information and services?
• To what extent has the State allocated adequate budgetary, human, and administrative resources to the implementation of such strategies or plans?
• States should take steps to ensure that all individuals are able to make informed and voluntary decisions about the contraceptive method that is suitable for them, both in law and in practice.
• States should develop public education cam-paigns and programmes that raise awareness about the importance of contraceptive use through the media and other alternative forums.
• States should collect, analyse, and disseminate disaggregated data to better understand and monitor unmet needs for modern contraceptive methods, contraceptive use and primary barriers to accessing contra-ceptive information and services.
• What measures has the State taken to ensure that a full range of contra-ceptive methods, including emergency contraception, are available, accessible, acceptable, and of good quality, both in law and in practice?
• What steps has the State taken to eliminate third-party authorization (e.g., parental, spousal, or judicial) for particular contraceptive methods?
• What measures has the State taken to prevent or eliminate involuntary practices or policies (e.g., involuntary sterilization)?
• To what extent does the State ensure that access to contraceptive informa-tion and services is not impeded by the exercise of conscientious objection by a health care provider or pharmacist?
• What steps has the State taken to ensure that such administrative or judicial safeguards are accessible and timely?
Pregnancy and Childbirth
• States should take steps to ensure availability of and access to the underlying determinants for a healthy pregnancy, include adequate
nutrition, potable water, education, transportation and sanitation.
• States should take steps to ensure that reproduc-tive health information, goods and services—
including access to perinatal care, skilled attendance during birth, emergency obstetric care, and medicines and technology essential to sexual and reproductive health—are available, accessible, acceptable, and of good quality.
• States should take steps to ensure access to good quality maternal and reproductive health care.
• To what extent has the State developed and implemented a national strategy or plan to ensure access to maternal and reproductive health information, goods, and services and the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity?
• To what extent has the State allocated adequate budgetary, human, and administrative resources to the imple-mentation of such strategies or plans?
• What steps has the State taken to ensure that reproductive health goods or services essential to maternal health—such as uterotonic drugs (e.g., misoprostol) to stop haemorrhaging are legally available and, in the case of drugs, registered for obstetric use?
• What measures has the State taken to eliminate any policies or practices that prioritize the foetus over life- or health-saving medical care for preg-nant woman and girls?
• What measures has the State taken to eliminate harmful practices that can contribute to high-risk pregnancies, such as female genital mutilation or early or forced marriages?
• What steps has the State taken to ensure that women and girls are not exposed to preventable health risk because of pregnancy?
• States should take steps to ensure access to special care and assis-tance during pregnancy and for a period following childbirth.
• States collect, analyse, and disseminate disag-gregated data necessary to evaluating and
responding to primary causes—both direct and indirect—of maternal mortality and morbidity.
• What steps has the State taken to combat early or unwanted pregnancy by ensuring access to comprehensive sexuality education and access to contraceptive information and services, including for adolescents?
• What mechanisms are in place to ensure accountability where there have been failures to ensure the right to a safe and healthy pregnancy?
Unsafe Abort ion and Post-
Abort ion Care
• States should take steps to reduce the number of unsafe abortions and the attendant risks to women’s and girl’s health and lives.
• States should take steps to ensure access to post-abortion care for all women and girls free from discrimination, violence or coercion.
• To what extent has the State developed and implemented measures to reduce the risks of unsafe or clandestine abortions?
• To what extent has the State allocated adequate budgetary, human, and administrative resources to the imple-mentation of such strategies or plans?
• To what extent has the State eliminated or refrained from imposing restrictions on access to abortion services, where these are legal, such as laws requiring third-party authorization (e.g., parental, spousal, or judicial) to access abortion services?
• What efforts has the State taken to ensure effective access to quality, respectful post-abortion care, irrespec-tive of the legal status of abortion?
• What measures has the State taken to regulate conscientious objection by health care providers to ensure that women and girls have access to abor-tion, where it is legal and post-abortion care?
• To what extent has the State refrained from imposing or eliminated policies or practices conditioning access to post-abortion care on confessing to having undergone an illegal abortion or denouncing the abortion provider?
Comprehen-sive Sexuality Education
• States should take steps to ensure the ability of all individuals to see, receive and impart information on sexual and reproduc-tive health.
• States should take steps to ensure that all individuals have access to comprehensive sexuality education, both within and outside of the formal education system.
• To what extent has the State developed and implemented a national strategy or plan to ensure access to compre-hensive sexuality education both within and outside of educational institutions?
• To what extent has the State allocated adequate budgetary, human, and administrative resources to the imple-mentation of such strategies or plans?
• To what extent has the State developed comprehensive sexuality education cur-ricula and teacher training materials?
• States should take steps to ensure that compre-hensive sexuality educa-tion are free from harmful sex- or gender-based or heteronormative stereo-types, or those based on mental or physical ability.
• What steps has the State taken to eliminate the dissemination of biased or factually incorrect information on sexuality or sexual and reproductive health?
Freedom from Violence against Women
• States should recognize and take steps to prevent all forms of violence against women, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, trafficking, and female genital
mutilation.
• States should exercise due diligence to inves-tigate and punish the perpetrators of violence against women.
• To what extent has the State developed and implemented national strategies and plans aimed at preventing, punishing, and eradicating all forms of violence against women, including harmful or abusive practices against adolescents?
• To what extent has the State allocated adequate budgetary, human, and administrative resources to the imple-mentation of such strategies or plans?
• To what extent does the State penalize violent crimes against women? What steps has the State taken to eliminate loopholes for escaping liability, for instance by allowing a rapist to escape criminal liability by marrying his victim?
• States should collect, analyse and disseminate disaggregated data on the extent, causes, and effects of violence against women, and on the effectiveness of measures to prevent and deal with violence.
• States should develop public education
campaigns to combat the root causes of violence against women; promote the rights of women and girls who may be sus-ceptible to gender-based violence; raise awareness of the issue; and reduce stigma and discrimination that contributes to, and is directed at, survivors of violence.
• What steps has the State taken to eliminate violence against women in institutional settings, such as violence against girls in educational institutions or involuntary sterilization in health facilities?
• What steps has the State taken to eliminate violence against women in conflict or post-conflict settings?
• What steps has the State taken to prevent violence against women in the private and community sphere?
• What measures are in place for the State to exercise due diligence to investigate and punish acts of violence against women?
• What steps has the State taken to ensure that accountability mechanisms that facilitate access to justice are available to survivors of violence, and to what extent are these mechanisms responsive to the specific obstacles women and girls face when seeking justice?
HIV/AIDS
• States should take steps to eliminate the social and cultural factors that exacerbate women and girls’ heightened risk of contracting HIV.
• States should take steps to ensure access to HIV prevention,
treatment, and care for all individuals. This includes the obligation to ensure information and education on HIV, access to con-doms (including female condoms), voluntary and confidential counselling and testing for HIV, non-discriminatory health care, and affordability of necessary medications for individuals living with HIV.
• States should take steps to ensure that all individ-uals living with HIV are able to make informed and voluntary decisions around childbearing. This includes the obligation to ensure access to contraceptive information and services, safe
abortion services, where legal, and reproductive technologies.
• To what extent has the State developed and implemented a national strategy or plan aimed at ensuring prevention, treatment, and control of HIV, including by ensuring access to prevention and treatment programmes (including programmes to reduce vertical trans-mission) and eliminating discrimination against individuals living with HIV?
• To what extent has the State allocated adequate budgetary, human, and administrative resources to the imple-mentation of such strategies or plans?
• To what extent has the State enacted legislative or regulatory protections to ensure the rights of individuals living with HIV to give informed and voluntary consent to health goods and services, including HIV testing, and to ensure confidentiality in testing and treatment?
• What measures has the State taken to eliminate involuntary or punitive measures in HIV testing, prevention, or treatment programmes, such as the involuntary HIV testing of pregnant women or girls?
• States should take steps to ensure that all individuals living with HIV are able to access reproductive health information, goods, and services, including access to perinatal care, skilled attendance during birth, emergency obstetric care, and medicines and technology essential to sexual and reproductive health.
• States should develop scientifically accurate public education campaigns on HIV to raise awareness of the virus, including methods of transmission and prevention, and to reduce stigma against, and promote the rights of, individuals living with HIV.
• What steps has the State taken to respect the rights of individuals living with HIV to make voluntary decisions around childbearing, for instance by eliminating policies or programmes that promote or condone involuntary sterilization or abortion for women living with HIV?
• To what extent has the State enacted, implemented, or enforced laws and policies to safeguard individuals living with HIV from discrimination in the private sphere, such as termination of an employee living with HIV?
• What types of administrative or judicial safeguards has the State enacted to provide remedy and redress where an individual living with HIV has been denied essential health care based on his or her HIV status, or received abusive or discriminatory treatment in health care settings?
international instruments. Within the con-text of promoting reproductive rights, NHRIs should take steps to encourage the ratifica-tion of United Naratifica-tions human rights treaties and regional treaties which are of key impor-tance to promoting reproductive rights, see Annex I and II.
It is important not only to focus on the ratifi-cation of treaties, the corresponding optional protocols and similar instruments but also on reservations that diminish the impact and range of the treaties and on specific dec-larations that, if made, increase protection.
NHRIs should encourage the withdrawal of reservations and the making of declarations just as it should encourage ratification of human rights instruments.
of human rights, such as reproductive rights, the NHRI could include a section on international instruments that have not been ratified and that are relevant for this particular area of human rights.
2. Many NHRIs make annual or other periodic reports on the general human rights situation in the relevant country. It would appear logical to include a sec-tion on internasec-tional instruments not yet ratified in such reports.
3. In its formal and informal contacts with government and parliament, a NHRI can lobby for the ratification of international instruments.
campaign for the ratification of spe-cific treaties, this is something that could be done in collaboration with civil society organizations, for example by holding joint meetings or hearings to discuss such matters before present-ing the results to government and/or parliament.
5. When providing input to international examinations, especially of the more general kind such as the examination before the United Nations Human Rights Council (the Universal Periodic Review) and the examination by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’
Rights, a NHRI could highlight lack of ratification, reservations and declara-tions not yet made.
6. As part of its research mandate, the NHRI could do research into the con-sequences of ratification, in particular the extent to which the relevant country already adheres to the provisions of the said treaties and what further measures
would need to be taken to ensure full compliance. In this connection, the NHRI could also obtain information on the rati-fication status for comparable countries.
7. There are several international doc-uments advocating ratification of international human rights instruments, both addressed to specific countries as part of concluding observations from United Nations human rights commit-tees and directed more generally, for example in statements from meetings of policy organs, such as the Summit of the African Union or the Organization of American States. In all its work, a NHRI should keep in mind that even if a treaty, including a human rights instrument, has only been signed and not ratified;
it still entails some obligations for the country. According to Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law on Trea-ties, a state that has signed a treaty is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a the treaty.
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING
The Paris Principles set out that NHRIs should contribute to state reports to United Nations bodies and to regional institutions and, where necessary, express an opinion in this respect, however with due respect
The meaning of the relevant provision of the Paris Principles is to clarify that NHRIs have a role to play in the reporting process but only to the extent this does not conflict with their independence. In practice this means
In some countries every time a state report is due, the government organizes a truly inclusive process that ensures input from civil society, the NHRI and other relevant stakeholders and takes care to reflect such input fairly in the state report in question. In particular in connection with the UPR pro-cess (the Universal Periodic Review propro-cess of the Human Rights Council) many govern-ments hold workshops and meetings to get input. It does not encroach on the indepen-dence of a NHRI to assist the government in organizing an inclusive process and in helping to ensure that all relevant issues, such as reproductive rights, are put on the agenda for the process. If the government is not prepared to lead a participatory process, nobody is better placed than the NHRI to take the initiative to gather the stakeholders to provide input that can both be commu-nicated to the government for inclusion in some form in the state report and be used for shadow reporting (the term normally used for reports by NHRIs, civil society and other stakeholders to supplement the official state reporting).
Since the NHRI is centrally placed with respect to international reporting, no matter the position of the government, the NHRI can take steps to ensure that reproductive rights are considered for all reports, including reports for the UPR process. If the government does not include this issue in a satisfactory way in the actual state reporting, the NHRI should make sure this is included, for
cases even give NHRIs the right to make its own presentation, independent of the presentation of the government, as part of the examination process. This is an excellent platform to highlight issues relating to repro-ductive rights.
The United Nations human rights com-mittees have made broad ranging
The United Nations human rights com-mittees have made broad ranging