UNFPA's 2008 STATE OF WORLD POPULATION: Focusing on Culture, Gender & Human Rights by Jane Roberts: 27/12/2008 (MaximsNews Network)  

       UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 27 December 2008 -- The theme of the United Nations Population Fund's 2008 State of World Population: Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights, tells us that in the sweat and toil of bringing reproductive health care to the world’s most vulnerable, one has to know the culture of the people one is serving. 

UNFPA’s experience shows that culturally sensitive programming is essential for achieving the goals of the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and also of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  And both are human rights documents.  

That sounds good. The nitty gritty might come when the 22 year old woman whom I met in rural Senegal, who had just given birth to her fourth child, is more than willing to accept family planning but her husband refuses. Access to family planning is her human right. 

Her husband though, if he suspects that his wife has secret access, may make her life very difficult. What does UNFPA do?  In her culture, in matters concerning sexuality, the word of the man carries more sway.  

Certainly the human rights of a girl who is married off at a young age against her will, or of a girl whose genitals are going to be cut because of coercion inherent in the culture are the victims of human rights abuse.  

Sometimes though, a girl might actually welcome the cut as she believes it will make her suitable for marriage and welcome an impending marriage because it will please her family. She is ignorant of the health dangers inherent in the practices of FGM and early marriage.  

UNFPA tries to figure out how to counter these cultural norms with the girl, with her family, with the community, with the district or country government, with NGO’s who are also working on these issues.  

According to UNFPA's new report: “In Guinea-Bissau, for example indicators show that FGM/C is still widely practiced: 44.5 percent of girls and women aged 15 to 49 are affected.  Following a number of failed initiatives to end FGM/C, UNICEF and UNFPA partnered with Tostan, a non-governmental organization with a good track record. Tostan’s approach is to engage the community in respectful discussions on human rights.  People are also encouraged to talk about concerns. (Will my daughter be marriageable if she is not cut?) (Will our family be ostracized?) This process of engagement often culminates with a collective decision to abandon FGM/C. Community acceptance avoids social pressures on individual families and girls.”  

Furthermore the SWOP report deals with violence against women: "There is increasing awareness in the development field that longstanding cultural norms regarding the identity and role of women in society are a significant barrier to the full enjoyment of women’s rights. The social restrictions that result from these norms are often exacerbated during armed conflict."  

Translation: During armed conflict, women are often brutalized, kept as sex slaves, mutilated, disfigured, made to watch the murder of their spouse, children, burned to death.    

And then there is your “garden variety” violence: “As African women, we were raised to believe it was our fate to be beaten by our husbands, and to work like donkeys from sunrise to sunset.  Now, with the news from Cairo, we have hope.”  --Tanzanian rural woman attending grassroots session on the 1994 Cairo Consensus (ICPD)  

How does UNFPA engage whole cultures where violence against women, whether it be of the domestic type or as a result of armed conflict, seems to be expected and accepted?  

With safe houses, with psycho-social counseling, by reintegration of the women into their communities, by engaging the faith communities, by partnering with all concerned.  Dealing with gender based violence (GBV) is a huge heart breaking task because it is such a ubiquitous practice.  

The world just went through Sixteen Days of Activism against gender based violence culminating 10 December in the celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. SIXTEEN DAYS!  

Would it be a radical proposal to include lack of access to family planning as a form of violence against women?  

UNFPA states that family planning saves women’s and children’s lives and that access to family planning is crucial for attaining the Millennium Development Goals, particularly MDG 4 (Reduce Child Mortality) and MDG 5 (Improve Maternal Health). Indeed access to family planning is a human right established at ICPD and within the MDGs.  

UNFPA has been stating for years that demand for family planning is outpacing supply.  For years they have been talking about a worldwide shortage of family planning commodities and of health workers to inform, offer, teach, and furnish.

UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid has lamented that the family planning component of the worldwide reproductive health budget has fallen from 55 percent to 7 percent in recent years.  

How can a woman be empowered if she can’t control her fertility?  

How can she increase her education, how can she participate economically, how can she gain a voice in governance, how can she make choices?  

She can’t. Yet the world is depriving her of the great gift of family planning.  To me this constitutes violence. This lack of access attacks her personhood just as surely as a beating or maybe even a rape. Or am I just speaking though my American cultural lens?   

It seems so trite, but yet, it must be said: If men were the child bearers, would demand for family planning be outpacing supply?  Highly doubtful.   

The 2008 SWOP shows how complicated UNFPA’s task is of taking care of women in myriad places with differing cultural expectations. It deals with the nitty gritty. Described therein are many captivating conundrums. Read the whole report!

Labels: United Nations, U.N.,  Thoraya Obaid, UNFPA, Jane Roberts, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA’s 2008 State of World Population Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender, and Human Rights, 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), MaximsNews Network,

 

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