Sexual health human rights and the law

6 | Sexual health, human rights and the law
Laws and regulations are pertinent to another key
human rights principle: that of participation. It
has been recognized that participation of affected
populations in all stages of decision-making and
implementation of policies and programmes is
a precondition of sustainable development, and
indeed, evidence shows that there is an association
between participation of affected populations
and health outcomes. In reality, many affected
populations are unable to participate in assessing
and making laws and regulations because of ongoing
discrimination, often associated with increased
exposure to violence and disease. For example,
some states legally restrict transgender, lesbian, gay
or sex-worker identified groups from registering as
associations; others enact laws criminalizing their
speech. All of these measures affect their ability to
work against violence, HIV/AIDS and other issues
of great importance to sexual health. At both the
international and regional level, courts and human
rights bodies have found these kinds of restrictive
laws to be violations of fundamental rights of speech,
association and protection from non-discrimination;
in these decisions the basic principle of ensuring
rights to participation in society are affirmed.
For people working in public health and concerned
about sexual health in particular, it is essential to
understand the impact of certain laws on health
broadly and on sexual health in particular, and to
understand how human rights standards can be used
to ensure supportive laws and thus improve health.
As a contribution to WHO’s constitutional mandate to
integrate human rights into its work, this report seeks
to demonstrate the inextricable links among different
dimensions of sexual health, human rights and
the law, and in doing so, to help governments and
health policy-makers improve sexual health through
bringing their laws and policies into alignment
with their own constitutional and international
human rights obligations. Sexual health is an often
neglected dimension of the continuum of care in the
domain of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child
and adolescent health. This report is offered as one
important tool in the fulfilment of the fifth aspect of
the WHO global reproductive health strategy adopted
by the World Health Assembly in 2004: promoting
sexual health (5).
1.3 Legal and policy implications
The respect, protection and fulfilment of human
rights, and the assurance of the highest attainable
standard of sexual health, require states to bring
their laws, as well as regulations, policies and
practices, into line with international, regional and
national human rights standards (5).
In order to point the way to specific considerations
for action that Member States can undertake, each
chapter of this document includes a section on
Legal and policy implications. The questions follow
the framework of each chapter and they address: (i)
whether national laws give recognition to the health
and human rights topic in question; (ii) whether the
particular topic or topics contained in the chapter
are addressed through law; and (iii) overarching
issues raised in the chapter. All the questions are
based on a health and human rights rationale and
the notion of state accountability.