SEXUAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS A legal and ... - The ICHRP

1. NON-DISCRIMINATION
The right to non-discrimination is a fundamental principle in all human rights, as it is the
obligation of the state both to ensure equal protection of the law and to take steps to eliminate
discrimination by others to achieve equality. 18 This section of the report on discrimination
focuses primarily on protections in law and their positive action against discrimination. In
addition, this section highlights laws which fail to offer sufficient guarantees to ensure
diverse people equal access to the resources and services needed to enjoy sexual health. Later
sections of the report address more indirect (but no less causal) forms of discrimination, such
as laws that fail to ensure that police respond equally to abuse committed against people in
sex work, or laws which fail to respond to marital rape.
This principle of non-discrimination has multiple associations with sexual health. Inequality
among and between persons and groups is a strong predictor of the burdens of ill health,
including sexual health. Inequalities are manifest through differential access to services and
resources, in people's abilities to participate in the policies and laws that govern their lives, as
well as to seek remedies for abuses committed against them. Discrimination operates through
processes of inequality that are rarely linked solely to one characteristic of a person, but are
often fuelled by multiple factors of sex, age, class, race, caste, sexual orientation, marital
status, national status, disability as well as health status, including HIV status, among others.
For example, rape laws which exclude women married to perpetrators from protection, or
which include or exclude access to health services based on women’s marital status deny
women’s bodily integrity and decision-making, including in regard to unwanted sex, all of
which contributes to the burden of ill-health many women face. Poor women and girls, as
well as ethnic minority members, are often doubly burdened by these exclusions: the law may
be sex,-specific but in addition, their racial or social status can exacerbate gender
discrimination. Poverty often makes seeking assistance and response for gender-based
discrimination from authorities—especially remedies found in the law, even harder to reach.
Thus, while denial of access to safe and legal abortion affects all women, poorer or minority
women with fewer resources are more likely to face the health consequences of unsafe
abortion.
Laws which discriminate – or fail to protect against discrimination (on the basis of sexual
orientation, marital status, or sex, for example) in access to health services or housing—can
result in people being excluded from vital treatment for sexually transmitted infections and
other diseases, as well as contributing to the possible homelessness and deprivation of social
capital among stigmatized people. These deprivations in turn make breaks in accessing
critical sexual health services and treatment more likely.
Laws which both reserve key social relationships like marriage to a specific pool of adults,
and then condition core rights (to insurance or social benefits, for instance) on entering into
marriage have discriminatory impacts. Persons excluded from marriage, such as same-sex
couples, are thereby excluded from social benefits and services, including health care linked
to insurance, which are essential to sexual health.
18
WHO, 25 Questions on Health and Human Rights. As noted in the international legal standards,
international human rights, humanitarian, criminal and labor law all are premised on principles of equality and
non-discrimiation.
14