After two weeks of fierce negotiations at the United Nations’ annual Commission on the Status of Women, on March 15 more than 130 governments committed to ending violence against women and girls, and reached strong agreements to promote gender equality and ensure access to sexual and reproductive health services.

The International Women’s Health Coalition and our amazing partners from around the world came out in force to the UN for the negotiations. Our agenda was clear: push governments to commit to concrete strategies to empower women and girls and end gender-based violence.

We met with instant opposition from conservative governments. Countries such as Iran, Russia, Egypt, and Syria joined with the Vatican in what The New York Times called “an unholy alliance.” IWHC staff and our women’s rights caucus of more than 100 activists worked around the clock to support progressive delegations to stand strong and not to cave in to pressure. We would not let a small but vocal minority use culture and religion as excuses to deny women their rights.

Our efforts prevailed and consensus was finally reached to loud applause from supportive governments such as Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, and even the small island of Tonga! As the “agreed conclusions” document was adopted, hundreds of women’s rights activists streamed into the negotiating room to join in the cheers.

For the first time at the UN, governments reached consensus that survivors of rape are entitled to emergency contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy, and to timely and respectful forensic exams to support prosecution. They called for an end to child marriages. They agreed women’s right to control their sexuality is essential to preventing further violence. And they recognized the role that evidence-based sexuality education can play in reducing the harmful gender stereotypes that lead to violence.

In a sign of just how much was at stake, this year’s meeting received an unprecedented amount of media coverage after the Muslim Brotherhood condemned (and mischaracterized) the negotiations. IWHC featured prominently in many news articles, including in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Associated Press, ABC News, The Globe and Mail, Radio Free Europe, O Estado de S. Paulo, and Reuters.

Once again, we women have shown we’re an irresistible force. But our work is far from over. Now we must be vigilant to ensure that the agreements made at the UN are put into practice in local communities worldwide.

For that to happen, we must continue to support women’s groups to hold their own leaders to account.

Best regards,

Not only does VAWA protect women and girls in the United States from violence, but it also ensures that the U.S. is doing its part to protect girls from being forced into early marriages. Ending early and forced marriage is vital to the goal of ensuring that girls around the world are able to lead healthy, empowered, educated, and safe lives. As Senator Durbin, a champion on this issue, stated just after the vote, the bill’s “new mandate for a multisectoral strategy to end child marriage is an important step forward and now we must focus our efforts on ensuring it is developed without delay and its implementation is fully funded.”

The passage of this bill is a testament to how various communities that care about the health and safety of women and girls can come together to fight for what is necessary and what is right. It is also a testament to the hard work of steadfast leaders in the United States Congress on this issue, such as Senator Durbin (D-IL), Congresswoman McCollum (D-MN), Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), and former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). We congratulate them on this accomplishment and thank them for their service to women and girls around the world.

For more reactions from communities and Congress, please see:

• Reps. McCollum and Schock Applaud House Passage of Child Marriage Prevention Strategy in Violence Against Women Act
• Interagency Working Group – “Congress Passes Violence Against Women Act”

The bill is far from what many Uruguayans had hoped for. For one, it does not take first-trimester abortions out of the criminal code. Instead, it allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy only after she has appeared before an interdisciplinary panel of professionals to outline her reasons for requesting an abortion. The panel is required by law to tell her about alternatives to abortion, such as adoption. Moreover, it must “create an environment of psycho-social support to the woman, to contribute to overcome the factors which may be driving her towards pregnancy termination, and ensure that she has the information to make a decision that is conscious and responsible.”

In addition, the woman must wait five days to “reflect on her decision.” These requirements will most certainly discourage many women, and in particular young and poor women, from accessing safe services for fear of stigma and humiliation. They also mean that a woman who self-induces an abortion, for example with misoprostol, without going through these procedures, would still face penalties.

Finally, the bill contains allows for conscientious objections by individual providers and by hospitals, without spelling out what obligations providers and hospitals have to ensure that these objections do not deny women the safe abortions they would now be entitled to.

The debate in the House was fierce.  For those in favor of making first-term abortion available without restrictions, this bill fell far short of what women need. Álvaro Vega, a member of the majority governmental coalition, the Broad Front, lamented: “Is this an advance?  No, this is not advancing anything.  We should…fully eliminate the articles (of the Criminal Code) that criminalize abortion. Abortions are not going to end in 2012.” It is estimated that in Uruguay every year there are 30,000 abortions, most of them unsafe.

Representatives on both sides of the debate were forced to leave the Chamber so that their alternates could take their places and vote the party line.  A member of the opposition Colorado Party, who vacated his seat so that his alternate could cast a vote against the bill, criticized his party’s position: “This is totally wrong and fails our historic responsibility to allow free conscience.”

Those opposed to decriminalizing abortion were just as passionate.  One Representative left the room in tears, saying that his wife had suffered two miscarriages.  Another swore he would bring this matter to a national referendum. Given that some 60% of the population in Uruguay supports the decriminalization of abortion, such a referendum would face an uphill battle.

Meanwhile, outside Parliament, demonstrators marched. Women, nude and covered in bright body paint, stood and chanted: “They put in their restrictions, but our bodies are on the line.”

The text approved by the House is quite different from the version Uruguay’s Senate had passed at the end of 2011. That bill had removed penalties for abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, without making women jump through any hoops. That was also the case for a bill passed by Congress in 2007, but later vetoed by then President Tabaré Vazquez. A Presidential veto is not expected this time.

Implementation of the new law will need to be closely followed to ensure that safe abortion is in fact accessible. Health regulations spelling out how and where abortion services will be provided are yet to be developed, and health providers will have to be trained to respect women’s decisions and provide them with quality care. Measures will have to be taken to ensure that conscientious objection claims do not prevent women from accessing services altogether, and to address cases where delays push a woman’s pregnancy past 12 weeks.

At this pivotal moment, IWHC stands in solidarity with the feminist activists who have tirelessly advocated for the decriminalization of abortion in Uruguay. For more than 12 years, IWHC has proudly stood by MYSU – Mujer y Salud en Uruguay – a team of committed and effective advocates for women’s rights and health who have been central to recent advances in women’s rights in Uruguay. MYSU has played an instrumental role in educating and mobilizing Uruguayan society, building political will, and influencing political negotiations in the Congress. They did not give up after the 2007 veto and will continue fighting for increased access to safe abortion services. In the words of MYSU’s Director Lilián Abracinskas, “We will continue to fight for women to be respected as citizens who have the right and the autonomy to decide.”

Joan firmly believed that every woman in the world ought to have the same sexual and reproductive rights as women in the North. And that in the fight to access and then to retain those rights, we must be smart and strategic, spirited and reasonable, indefatigable and focused, and use accurate data. She had all these qualities, and more. She was a remarkable woman, a brilliant strategist, and a generous mentor – with a wicked sense of humor.

At the 1985 UN Women Conference in Nairobi, IWHC held a social event. As Joan welcomed guests, a swarm of anti-abortion activists strode, like locusts or marching ants, and ate all the untouched food in literally three minutes, then left. We were stunned. Joan, as usual, sailed through the incident with poise and humor.

Her drive for global equal access to sexual and reproductive rights, health and justice resonates today as it did in 1985. In every step we take towards this goal, her spirit lives on.

Currently a Knight Health Fellow in Mozambique, Mercedes Sayagues is a feminist journalist from Uruguay who worked with Joan and IWHC in the mid-1980s.

Leaving no stone unturned, women’s health opponents are working again to eliminate funding for international family planning and reproductive health programs, as well as funding to UNFPA, the global agency that supports a breadth of reproductive health services for women in extreme poverty in more than 140 countries.  The funding bill for the State Department and foreign assistance programs around the world brought before the House Appropriations Committee on May 17 includes provisions to reinstate the Global Gag Rule as well as defund UNFPA.  As expected, the committee rejected three amendments offered by women’s health supporters to try and fix these problems in the bill.

The one surprise was that the amendment to restore funding to UNFPA, offered by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), failed in a tie after four Republicans broke with their party line and supported the amendment.  (There are 29 Republicans on the committee and 21 Democrats.)  Her amendment was an attempt to gain support from Members that don’t support a breadth of reproductive health issues provided by UNFPA, and so would have targeted a $39 million U.S. contribution only for efforts to prevent and treat obstetric fistula, to promote the abandonment of female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices including child marriage, and to ensure safe childbirth and emergency obstetric care.  Who could object to meeting those health needs?  Evidently most every Republican on the committee, except for Representatives Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Charles Dent (R-PA) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).  The amendment failed on a tie vote of 24-24.  We applaud and value the principled position taken by these members – and if you have a chance, we encourage you to share the news about their strong positions in your networks or by giving their offices a call through the capitol switchboard (202-224-3121). (Emails are only accepted from their constituents.)

In another effort to directly target at U.S. contribution to UNFPA for specific activities only, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) offered an amendment stating that it would be directed to only family planning services and contraceptive supplies in low-income sub-Saharan African countries where USAID this type of assistance, specifically Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.  Again, the amendment was defeated – this time by a vote of 22 to 27.

And yet one more attempt to strengthen the bill for women’s health, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) offered an amendment striking the draft bill’s provision codifying the Global Gag Rule and prohibiting a U.S. contribution to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and replacing with language designating a $39 million contribution to UNFPA with the current restrictions on that contribution that are already in place to appease some member’s concerns about the fact that UNFPA works in China, even though its efforts there are to end coercive family planning practices.  Again, the amendment failed – this time on a vote of 23 to 27.  Thanks to the vocal support during consideration of the amendment from Reps. Jim Moran (D-VA), Sam Farr (D-CA), and Steven Rothman (D-NJ).

The base bill is problematic on the funding levels as well, including a $149 million cut to international family planning means about 8 million fewer women in developing countries would have access to contraceptives and other health needs.  This completely undermines the kinds of progress being made in reducing death from pregnancy and childbirth.

So far the responses from the childrenhave been amazing, they are willing to learn more about keeping themselves away from unhealthy environment and live a healthy life despite the work they are doing, e.g. begging, washing cars, polishing shoes etc. I will use this grant to do practicals with the children, provide them with health related items such as soaps, tooth brush, tooth pastes while using demonstration. These kids do not have a good place to sit, they sit on the floor , hence i will use the money to provide mats to these children, these children do not have a blackboard, or sufficient stationary to read or write, so i will use the grant to make their study environment a bit better and make my lectures to these students more practical so that they actually do what they learn.

Young boys and girls from extremely poor families spend their days exposed to highly toxic chemicals in order to retrieve materials such as copper which they sell to survive and sometimes pay for their schooling.

These young people are not only missing out on their education, their health is also deteriorating. With this grant, I plan to initialize a program that would help keep these children in school and also educate them of the detrimental effects of ewaste dumping. The eventual outcome would be to transform the area, Agbogbloshie, and the cycle of poverty that forces young people to this detrimental trade.

Furthermore, and also very crucial, I plan to raise awareness in western countries (which conduct most of the dumping) about the appalling conditions their high tech products end up in.

How do we do this?

With the Young Visionaries contest grant I would utilize the money to run and facilitate peer education and alternative healthy sexuality education workshops. This knowledge would allow young women to unpack the cultural, social and political hegemony of sexual and reproductive health. Using the role of education and the media in shaping identities and ideas about our bodies. These workshops would facilitate the conversations in understanding the ways that our bodies have been co-opted by media, a corporate and pharmaceutical agenda and by the neo-liberal political organizing structures which has encouraged a dependence, not on ourselves, but on these forces to shape and construct ideas of normalcy and healthy sexuality. Through participation in these workshops the young women involved would be able to construct their lived reality of sexual health in something that was based on advocacy and autonomy to make the right choices for their lives and the community they live within. This experience would provide the opportunity to prepare policy and education ideas and methods to take to local school boards and levels of government in order to enact real time change.