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

A. BACKGROUND
This report has been written as part of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) project on
legal and jurisprudential research on “Sexual Health & Human Rights.” The Project involved
researchers and experts from the different WHO regions who were tasked with reviewing
legal and jurisprudential [progress/changes/good practices] from their respective regions
related to Sexual Health and Human Rights. This report presents the review of select
countries in WHO’s South East Asia Regional Office region.
WHO’s Project on Sexual Health and Human Rights
In 2008 the Gender, Reproductive Rights, Sexual Health and Adolescence unit of the
Department of Reproductive Health and Research in WHO established the project on Sexual
Health and Human Rights. The aim of the project was to develop a publication/series of
publications that can contribute to the recognition, understanding and application of human
rights standards related to sexuality and sexual health. The main assumption is that
canvassing the authoritative standards articulated under international, regional and national
laws and jurisprudence related to sexual health issues, can clarify normative guidance for
states, and thus facilitates state efforts to improve protection of rights relating to sexual
health. The project, thus, seeks to document and analyze how human rights standards have
been specifically applied to sexual health issues in international, regional and national laws
and jurisprudence. The project complements other WHO initiatives related to sexual health,
particularly through defining state obligations related to sex, sexuality and sexual health.
The WHO experts, commissioned for the Project, organized their reviews of the national
legal standards related to sexual health and human rights around eight topics. 1 These topics
were chosen, refined and elaborated through extensive discussions during three successive
WHO technical consultations with experts who were undertaking research for other regions
of the world. While these eight common topics appear in each regional report, the experts
were given discretion to develop sub-topics as relevant to their regional and national contexts.
The topics were chosen with regard to three criteria: demonstrated causal importance to
sexual health and well-being; relevance to core WHO goals of promoting sexual health for all
persons, with particular consideration to promote gender equality; to give priority to poor and
underserved populations and groups, especially adolescents; and to examine laws and policies
that intersect with fundamental questions of human rights.
In choosing these eight topics, and in their ensuing research, the WHO experts identified
themes of global significance to rights and health in relation to sexuality, while attending
carefully to regional diversity, as well as national and local specificity (including legal,
cultural, political, social, economic and historical concerns). In addition, the eight topics are
further contextualized within empirical literature on sexuality and sexual health. Moreover, as
research into the eight topics progressed in each region, experts were given flexibility in their
treatment of each of the topics and sub-topics.
Thus, while there is consistency in the overall framework of the eight topics, readers will
notice variation in how laws and authoritative standards relevant to sexual health are treated
1 The eight topics are (1) Non-discrimination as relevant to sexual health; (2) Penalization of sexual activities;
(3) State regulation of marriage and family as relevant for sexual health; (4) Gender identity; (5) Violence as
relevant for sexual health; (6) Access to health services in relation to sex and sexuality; (7) Education,
information and expression related to sex and sexuality and (8) Sex work.
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