State of World Population 2012 - UNFPA Haiti

designing and delivering accessible, acceptableand high-quality family planning informationand services and for establishing the basis foradvocacy by individuals and communities whowant these services (Cottingham, Germain andHunt, 2010). Advocacy includes lobbying forthe translation of international commitmentsinto national laws, policies and regulations, andfor accountability in implementing these laws,policies and regulations.Human rights standards and the authoritativeinterpretation of the standards by the correspondingtreaty monitoring bodies (GeneralComments) provide an objective set of parametersand criteria that help translate the right tofamily planning at the abstract normative levelinto policies and programmes. As part of ensuringthis translation, development cooperationmust contribute to developing the capacities of“duty-bearers” (especially States) to meet theirobligations, and to “rights-holders” (individualsand communities) to claim their rights (WorldHealth Organization and Office of the HighCommissioner for Human Rights, 2010). Thecommittee on Economic Social and CulturalRights in its General Comment Number 14 onthe right to the highest attainable standard ofphysical and mental health has defined the followingnormative elements that apply to all theunderlying determinants of health:AvailabilityThe State’s obligation to ensure the availabilityof the full range of family planning methodsextends to offering services, to regulating conscientiousobjection and private service delivery,and to ensuring that providers are offeringthe full range of legally permissible services.The State’s role to protect and fulfil rightsincludes ensuring that the exercise of conscientiousobjection among healthcare providersUNFPA ensuring a reliable supply ofquality contraceptivesThrough its Global Programme to Enhance Reproductive HealthCommodity Security, UNFPA ensures access to a reliable supply of contraceptivesin 46 developing countries.Since the Programme’s inception in 2007, UNFPA has mobilized $450million for reproductive health commodities, including contraceptives. In2011 alone, the Programme provided $32 million for these commoditiesand $44 million for initiatives to strengthen national health care systemsand build their capacities to deliver reproductive health services.In 2011, the Programme funded about 15 million vials of injectablecontraceptives, 1.1 million intrauterine devices, 14 million cycles oforal contraception, 316,000 doses of emergency oral contraception,308,000 contraceptive implants, 253 million male condoms and 3.5million female condoms.does not result in unavailability of services.“Conscientious objection” occurs when healthcarepractitioners for reasons of their ownreligious or other beliefs do not want to providefull information on some alternatives. “[T]heyhave, as a matter of respect for their patient’shuman rights, an ethical obligation to disclosetheir objection, and to make an appropriatereferral so [the patient] may obtain the fullinformation necessary to make a valid choice”(International Federation of Gynecology andObstetrics Committee for the Study of EthicalAspects of Human Reproduction and Women’sHealth, 2009). The United States is respondingto conscientious objection in the contextof the Affordable Care Act. In January 2012,the U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices specified preventive health services thatnew insurance plans would be required to cover(Galston and Rogers, 2010). The list includedcontraceptives and sterilizations including emergencycontraception. Churches were narrowlyexempted from this rule, but religiously affiliatedhospitals and social service agencies were not.If they were not already providing these services,THE STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 201211