Population and human rights

Brazilian state, by means of Anvisa – National Agency for Sanitary Vigilance AgênciaNacional de Vigilância Sanitária) has issued norms that restrain the dissemination of information on sexual and reproductive health, especially concerning the use of misoprostol. This medicine has been increasingly controlled in the country since the 1980s. In 1998, Anvisa issued Regulation 344 /1998 which limited the access to the drug only to hospital facilities, hence preventing access to misoprostol by people in drugstores. At present it attempts to control the flow of information on the drug at internet sites and social networks, by means of Resolutions No. 911/2006 and No.1050/2006, updated by Resolution 1534 of April, 2011 Besides questioning the Anvisa competence to rule on such matter, the papers will show that violation of the right to information can not follow the existing restraints to access to the drug itself. Medicine abortion may be legally provided by the Brazilian health national system (SUS) in the cases of rape and risk to women’s life1. If women have access to such health technology by diverse means, they must not be prevented from having access to information on how to safely

The ICPD Programme of Action is responsible for a fundamental change in the views and perceptions of policymakers around the world on how population policies and programmes should be formulated and implemented. The POA moved the debate away from a narrow focus on demographic targets and family planning methods towards a more comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health. For the first time, member states of the UN recognized reproductive rights as human rights and declared that the principles of gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment were crucial to effective population and development strategies.

In the years since the Programme of Action was adopted, some important steps have been taken to realize the commitments it set out. However, it is painfully clear that progress has been uneven and slow. Despite the change of emphasis and perspective set out at the Cairo ICPD, ministries of health, UN agencies and others have persisted in promoting and implementing narrow, top-down interventions and have ignored commitments to gender equality and equity.

This paper sets out the link between population and human rights and examines how the Cairo Programme of Action, if effectively implemented, would contribute both to the realization of human rights and to better development and population indicators.

The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the Democratic Republic of Congo is among the highest in the world. The data analyzed in this paper are derived from a 2012 survey in two provinces in Eastern DRC: Nord Kivu and Sud Kivu. First, we assessed the prevalence of the various forms of intimate partner violence (physical, sexual and emotional) for men and women. Subsequently, we used logistic regression to identify the factors associated with recent experience of IPV for each sex. The data showed that the various forms of IPV were common among men and women in the study provinces. More than one quarter of men and 40% of women have reportedly ever experienced physical IPV while 15.7% of men and 25.1% of women have ever experienced sexual form of IPV. Moreover, the various forms of IPV were strongly correlated, such that many men and women had been exposed to multiple forms of IPV in their lifetime. The factors associated with an experience of IPV differ depending on the type of IPV and by sex. The data suggest that addressing IPV in DRC will require a comprehensive approach. Programs focusing on improving partner communication, reducing alcohol abuse and strengthening community structures for IPV reduction and those that specifically target people with low education should be part of this comprehensive approach.