IPPF recognizes and believes that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,1 and also recognizes the right of women not to be discriminated against* by way of legislation, regulation, customs, practices, social and cultural patterns of conduct or other customs or practices, which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women and, therefore, commits itself to the following:2

3.1 No persons should be discriminated against in their sexual and reproductive lives, in their access to health care and/or services on the grounds of race, colour, sex or sexual orientation, marital status, family position, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

3.2 All persons have the right to equal access to education and information to ensure their health and well-being, including access to information, advice and services relating to their sexual and reproductive health and rights, irrespective of race, colour, poverty, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family position, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

3.3 All women and girl children have the right to appropriate nutrition and care throughout their life-span, and to be free from prejudicial, customary and all other practices that are based on the idea of inferiority or stereotyped roles for men and women and/or amount to discrimination against them.

3.4 No woman should be discriminated against in her access to education, information and/or services related either to development, or to her sexual and reproductive health and rights, including access to fertility regulation services, by reason that the consent of another is required.

3.5 No person should be subjected to any sexual or reproductive health care programme which has the effect of discriminating against particular population groups.

3.6 All persons have the right to protection from all forms of violence caused by reason of their race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

3.7 All women have the right to protection from discrimination in social, domestic or employment spheres by reason of pregnancy or motherhood.3

AND further commits itself to taking all steps to ensure the attainment of the following right:

3.8 No person shall be discriminated against in their access to information, health care, or services related to their sexual and reproductive health, rights and needs, throughout their life-span, on the grounds of gender, age, sexual orientation or mental or physical disability.

Notes
* Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on the basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Article 1).

1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Art. 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

2 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979, Art. 5: “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures (a) to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.” Ibid, Art. 2: “States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake ... (f) to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women.”

3 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, Art. 10.2: “Special protection should be accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth. During such periods working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits.”

The right can be used to address issues relating to:

• Gender-based violence
• Laws which prohibit discrimination against any minority group and their effective enforcement
• Discriminatory practices and customs
• Gender-sensitive interpretation of human rights
• Discrimination in access to sexual and reproductive health care information, education and services. For example, where women need spousal consent, young people need parental consent, services are only available to married women
• Discrimination against women which denies them access to appropriate nutrition and care, and legal protection against violence, especially domestic violence
• Discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy or motherhood in social, domestic or employment spheres
• Sexual and reproductive health programmes which have the effect of discriminating against particular population groups

Facts & figures

• Mexican maquiladoras (export-processing factories) employ around 250,000 women along the US-Mexican border. Their requirement that women undergo pregnancy testing as a condition of employment is in violation of international human rights law and NAFTA labour rights agreement.1
• Worldwide, at least one woman in three has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.2
• The World Bank estimates that in industrialized countries sexual assault and violence take away almost one in five healthy years of life of women aged 15-44.3
• In a Punjabi study, 81 per cent of women felt that if their husband opposed the use of contraception, they were obliged to respect his wishes.4
• Research in Bangladesh shows that parents, due to expectations that husbands should be better educated than wives, were worried about over-educating their daughters and were taking them out-of-school.5

1 Human Rights Watch (August 1997) No Guarantees: Sex Discrimination in Mexico
2 Johns Hopkins University (1999) ‘Ending Violence Against Women’ Population Reports Vol 27 No. 4 Series L, Number 11
3 UNFPA (2000) The State of World Population p40
4 Population Council (1997) The Gap Between Reproductive Intentions and Behaviour: A Study of Punjabi Men and Women p57
5 Greene, M. E. in UNFPA (2003) State of World Population p16