Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019

Introduction The initial International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 contains the first reference to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (SRHR). It has been considered agreed language on SRHR in future United Nations (UN) documents. However, opposition to SRHR i...

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Main Authors: Salla Atkins, Lynda Gilby, Meri Koivusalo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2021-03-01
Series:BMJ Global Health
Online Access:https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/3/e004659.full
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spelling doaj-dc24dafb64a64b0b81bb0186dbce61d22021-04-03T19:30:32ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082021-03-016310.1136/bmjgh-2020-004659Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019Salla Atkins0Lynda Gilby1Meri Koivusalo2New Social Research and Health Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, FinlandHealth Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, FinlandHealth Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, FinlandIntroduction The initial International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 contains the first reference to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (SRHR). It has been considered agreed language on SRHR in future United Nations (UN) documents. However, opposition to SRHR in global forums has increased, including in conjunction with an increase in religious, far-right populist politics. This study provides an empirical analysis of UN documents to discover whether opposition to SRHR has resulted in changes in the language on SRHR between and what these changes are.Methods This is a qualitative policy analysis in which 14 UN resolutions, 6 outcome documents from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and 522 country and group statements and 5 outcome reports from the Commission on Population and Development were collected from the organisations websites from 2014 to 2019. Framework analysis was used. The text from documents was charted and indexed and themes developed from these.Results The results demonstrated a disappearance of the language on abortion in the CSW outcome documents from 2017 and a change in the language on comprehensive sexuality education in the CSW as well as the UN General Assembly resolutions from 2018. This change included a removal of ‘sexuality’ to an increased emphasis on the role of families. Furthermore, documents showed an inability of some states to accept any mention of sexual and reproductive health at all, expanding from the usual contestations over abortion.Conclusion Our findings suggest that the global shift in politics and anti-SRHR actors at UN negotiations and conferences have removed previously agreed on language on SRHR from future UN resolutions and outcome documents. This is a concern for the global realisation of SRHR.https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/3/e004659.full
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Salla Atkins
Lynda Gilby
Meri Koivusalo
spellingShingle Salla Atkins
Lynda Gilby
Meri Koivusalo
Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
BMJ Global Health
author_facet Salla Atkins
Lynda Gilby
Meri Koivusalo
author_sort Salla Atkins
title Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
title_short Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
title_full Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
title_fullStr Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
title_full_unstemmed Global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? Analysis of United Nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
title_sort global health without sexual and reproductive health and rights? analysis of united nations documents and country statements, 2014–2019
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
series BMJ Global Health
issn 2059-7908
publishDate 2021-03-01
description Introduction The initial International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 contains the first reference to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (SRHR). It has been considered agreed language on SRHR in future United Nations (UN) documents. However, opposition to SRHR in global forums has increased, including in conjunction with an increase in religious, far-right populist politics. This study provides an empirical analysis of UN documents to discover whether opposition to SRHR has resulted in changes in the language on SRHR between and what these changes are.Methods This is a qualitative policy analysis in which 14 UN resolutions, 6 outcome documents from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and 522 country and group statements and 5 outcome reports from the Commission on Population and Development were collected from the organisations websites from 2014 to 2019. Framework analysis was used. The text from documents was charted and indexed and themes developed from these.Results The results demonstrated a disappearance of the language on abortion in the CSW outcome documents from 2017 and a change in the language on comprehensive sexuality education in the CSW as well as the UN General Assembly resolutions from 2018. This change included a removal of ‘sexuality’ to an increased emphasis on the role of families. Furthermore, documents showed an inability of some states to accept any mention of sexual and reproductive health at all, expanding from the usual contestations over abortion.Conclusion Our findings suggest that the global shift in politics and anti-SRHR actors at UN negotiations and conferences have removed previously agreed on language on SRHR from future UN resolutions and outcome documents. This is a concern for the global realisation of SRHR.
url https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/3/e004659.full
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