Women’s Rights Are Not Negotiable

Source: http://tribune.com.ng/women-s-rights-are-not-negotiable

Every day women have abortions in Nigeria. Having an abortion is a common event in women’s lives – wherever in the world – In Nigeria more than 2000 women experience abortion every day. Generation Initiative For Women and Youth Network (GIWYN) reaches out to women with safe, reliable, scientific and confidential hotline (08097737600 or 08097738001) that gives information on reproductive health choices, safe sex, contraceptives, prevention of  unsafe abortion  and prevention of dangerous  bleeding after birth   with misoprostol available in Nigerian pharmacies.

Due to various restrictions, abortion is widely practiced in the country under unsafe and risky procedures.  Especially women with no money, rural women, and those without easy access to information suffer and are at risk of death. For more than 3000 women in a year, the decision not to have a child means death in our country, only because they are not able to have (another) child. Abortion is not only a matter of health, it is also a matter of social justice, a matter of human rights, a matter of empowerment.

Nigeria is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals, the international development goals set up by the United Nations, among which gender equality, empowerment of women and improvement of maternal health are listed. While some progress has been made to achieve the goals, we are still quite not there yet. Maternal mortality (mortality of women due to pregnancy and birth) remains intertwined with poverty. Unsafe abortion is one of the major reasons of deaths of pregnant women. In order to progress we need a broad understanding of Sexual and Reproductive Health in accordance to the international treaties such as   CEDAW and  Maputo Protocol  that allow  women and girls to  have the right to decide about all aspect of their reproductive  rights and address the issue of unsafe abortion.

Generation Initiative For Women and Youth Network (GIWYN) supported by her International partners, Women Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) and the International Reproductive Rights’ Consultants works to reduce unacceptable and completely preventable suffering of women due to unsafe abortion. Women need more access and death due to pregnancy and birth could be reduced if women have access   to information about their reproductive health. The advocates work to revise the country’s reproductive health policies beyond the reproductive health care and maternal health, are capacitated with skills to protect human rights, monitor progress and gaps, report and send recommendation to policy makers.

Human rights are not negotiable and inherent to everybody. They belong to you simply because you are human being. The reproductive and sexual rights of women are grounded in the twelve cores.

International Human Rights’ Instruments  which  include: the right to participation,  right to health,  right to choice, right to life, right to freedom of thought , right to privacy, right to  information and education, right to choose whether or not to marry and to found and plan a family , right to decide whether or when to have children, right to health care and health protection, right to  the basic scientific progress ,  right to freedom of assembly, right to be free from torture and ill treatment and right to equality and to be free from all forms of discrimination. Any violation of these is infringing on the Fundamental Human Rights of Women thereby encouraging and tolerating violence and discrimination.

GIWYN and her partners will monitor those cases of violence and report them. Unsafe abortion is sought for a variety of reasons: abuse, rape, incest and domestic Violence, by HIV patients who have been denied medical treatment. The social stigma, fear of dropping out of school, lack of financial ability to support the child, fear of what parents or other people might say and fear of bringing shame, condemnation or blame tothe family for having a child out of wedlock, are just few of the circumstances in which  women and young girls might tend to seek abortion from unskilled providers. The unavailability and inaccessibility of modern contraceptives is a parallel problem that needs to be addressed too.

Knowledge is power, but only when shared. Ms Rosy Hotline (08097737600 or 08097738001) empowers women with knowledge about women’s health and safe choices. It is an info-line, not a medical service itself, and all the information provided is based on resources from World Health Organization.

The information provided is public and intended for women of reproductive age.

It is women’s human right to receive information about new developments in science such as use of misoprostol, and it is their right to protect their health. Similar hotlines exist in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Poland and in many Latin American countries.

Women seeking information about Postpartum Haemorrhage, Prevention of unsafe abortion, safe sex and contraception, can give Ms Rosy a call. Also Pharmacists can refer women to Ms Rosy Hotline 08097737600 or 0809773800.