manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

8. A pregnant woman who is under pressure of her employer to return to work within a month
after the delivery otherwise she will lose her job (right to build up a family, right to nondiscrimination)
9. A newly married woman (or a sex worker) who has to negotiate with her husband (or a client)
because he wants to force her to have sex without a condom (right to maintain freedom and
body safety)
Step 2
• Discuss all plays using the following questions:
- What kinds of issues were raised?
- Does this happen often?
- What do they think of this issue?
- What would they do/want in such a situation?
- Do they know if women have rights regarding these issues?
Step 3
• Summarize the discussion and stress once more the importance of the reproductive health
rights and emphasize that discrimination based on reproductive health issues is not allowed
• Emphasize during the discussion the importance of discussing this topic within the family, with
friends and also colleagues.
Notes for the trainer
In the Platform for Action adopted at the 5 th Women’s Conference 1995 in Beijing the following
definition of reproductive health was given:
‘Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system
and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are
able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce
and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are
the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective,
affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other
methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right
of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through
pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy
infant.’
Reproductive health rights are human rights:
- They are a basic right of men and women
- Each individual has the right to determine the number and spacing for bearing children
- Each individual is entitled to know the methods and information related to family planning
- Each women has the right to bear children without enforcement
In more detail reproductive health rights consist of the following components:
• Right to maintain freedom and body safety, this implies that each individual is entitled to
control one’s sex life and reproduction, which includes the right to give consent for medical
intervention only when being clearly informed.
• Right to have the highest possible health standard, this means the right to receive medical
treatment of the highest possible quality, which includes the right to be protected from
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