Draft Report on Thematic Consultation on Inequalities open for comment Deadline: 31 January 2013

The Thematic Consultation on Inequalities has announced that the first draft of the final report on the Inequalities Consultation is open for public comment. Please visit the page and post your comments in the comment box online.  Comments may also be emailed to: inequalities@worldwewant2015.org. You should indicate whether you wish your comments to be posted on the website as well.

The final summaries of each of the e-discussions will be annexed to the final report.  

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are included in the following sections of the report:

• Section 1: Why Inequalities?  Structural inequalities  …young women being “less capable of protecting their own sexual and reproductive health” is included. (p7)
• There is a reference to  “Discriminatory norms often mean that women are defined by their sexual and reproductive functions…” under Cultural and social reproduction of women’s subordinate status in Section 3: Unequal lives (p25)
• Also in Section 3: Unequal lives there is a section on Sexual and reproductive health rights failures which addresses a number of areas such as “the resolution of deep rooted gender inequalities and the achievement of sexual and reproductive health rights” as being fundamentally interlinked. The unmet need for contraception is addressed together with the lack of availability of comprehensive information and services being available services being “incomplete (excluding abortion, for example)”. It also states that “women’s sexual and reproductive health rights are subject to the same level of obligation as other human rights” and that “States have a responsibility to create an enabling environment for SRR…” (p26)
• In Section 4: Tackling inequalities, Tackling social inequalities – Inclusive social policy, it is noted that ‘significant emphasis was placed on equalizing sexual and reproductive rights (SRR) and education” in the consultation. There is also a paragraph on tackling SRR inequalities, including “measures to help women to make choices over their sexual and reproductive health…” (p41)
• In the section on Tackling political inequalities – Better data systems there is a paragraph that refers to the challenges in measuring progress on the attainment of women’s reproductive rights; the constraints that have led to reproductive health and maternal mortality being realty underestimated; and the “development of better monitoring systems [revealing] the scale of harm caused by reproductive health failures…”(p47)
• In the recommendations, on Social equalities, at the national level, the following recommendation is made:
  • Commit to the achievement of gender equality, through the empowerment of women and girls. This should include universal targets for equality in education, fulfilment sexual and reproductive health rights, and property and inheritance rights, together with special measures to combat violence against women and girls, promote equal access to decent work, eliminate wage disparities, and reduce inequalities in the burden of unpaid and domestic work. 

The draft report will be open for comments until 31 January 2013. After this, a final report and set of recommendations will be produced for discussion at a Public Dialogue (via webcast) and High-level Leadership Meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, 18-19 February.