IPU adopts resolution on the Health of Women and Children

At its 126th Assembly in Kampala, Uganda, 31 March to 5 April 2012, the Inter-Parliamentary Union adopted a resolution on ‘Access to Health as a Basic Right: The Role of Parliaments in Addressing Key Challenges to Securing the Health of Women and Children’.

In addressing the Assembly, Dr Babatunde Osotimehin referred to the high-level commission for the increased availability and accessibility of essential but underutilized supplies for maternal health for which he and Tony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, were the co-vice-chairs. He also highlighted the ‘Gold Moment’ (Family Planning Event), which is being launched in London in July 2012. 

The IPU resolution, in addition to calling attention to the estimated 358,000 women worldwide who die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, of whom 99 percent live in developing countries, recognizes that ‘the lack of access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and supplies, in particular family planning services, which include contraceptives, is a major contributing factor to maternal mortality’. It calls on Parliamentarians, as appropriate, to support ratification of relevant human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as to commit to the Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health.

Furthermore, the resolution encourages parliaments to include gender impact assessments with the introduction of all health-related legislation and to see that national health policies and strategies incorporate a gender perspective and that research and education of health workers recognize existing gender differences.
The resolution encourages parliaments to ‘advocate for lines in the health budget to be earmarked for the provision of essential sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services to vulnerable women and children. In addition to recommending exploring innovative approaches, including the use of tele-medicine and mobile phones to reach women, children and adolescents in remote areas, it calls on governments to ‘ensure sex education’.

Finally, it urges parliamentarians to ensure universal access to post-abortion care and to safe abortions where they are legal as a means of saving the lives of girls and women.

A copy of the full draft resolution can be downloaded here.