March 30, 2014
The governments of Argentina, Denmark, Ethiopia, and Morocco are leading a group of more than 60 states in an effort to draw attention to insufficient access to contraceptives and family planning services with the submission of a cross-regional statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council. These countries are urging all United Nations member states to ensure universal access to contraceptives and family planning in order to improve women’s health and advance gender equality.
According to Rebecca Brown, director for Global Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, this is the first time that a core group of member states have banded together to call on the Human Rights Council to address access to contraceptives and family planning as a human rights issue. In a press release she wrote:
“Access to contraception is vital to women’s ability to participate fully and equally in their communities, their society, and our world. But today approximately 222 million women in developing nations who want to avoid or delay pregnancy still cannot obtain modern contraception. This has lifelong impacts on women and girls’ education, employment, health and ability to participate as equal members of society.”
Human rights violations