On International Women’s Day, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has welcomed a new commentary from UN experts which says that the right to sexual and reproductive health is indivisible from other human rights. “It is absolutely right for the Committee to address the issue of sexual and reproductive health specifically, today of all days,” said Tewodros Melesse, IPPF’s Director General. “Sadly millions of women are still denied their basic rights because they are poor, because they suffer discrimination or because they lack legal protection.”  The 18 independent members of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said that the right to sexual and reproductive health was not only an integral part of the general right to health, but fundamentally linked to the enjoyment of many other human rights, including the rights to education, work and equality. They said that a lack of care for mothers in childbirth or a lack of access to safe abortion, often leading to maternal death, constitutes a violation of the right to life, and in certain circumstances can amount to torture. “No woman should die in childbirth in 2016 because of a lack of adequate care,” said Mr Melesse. “We know that access to safe abortion saves women’s lives, yet millions are denied that right.” IPPF is a network of sexual and reproductive health and rights organisations in 170 countries that are equipped to monitor and respond to any member of the public who wants information, services, contraception and access to abortion and are available to serve at the first point of response. For further information and interviews contact press office 02079398227 

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) today launched its new seven year Strategic Framework which will renew and strengthen its commitment to support the rights of women and girls to decide freely and for themselves whether, when and how many children to have. The Framework was launched at the International Family Planning conference in Indonesia. The Strategic Framework will deliver high impact, quality, rights-based, integrated sexual and reproductive health and rights services – including family planning, safe abortion, HIV, sexual and gender-based violence and reproductive cancers – and support further service provision by public and private health providers. It will help IPPF maximize the number of people it can serve by increasing operational effectiveness, expanding our provision in humanitarian emergencies and increasing national and global income to meet demand. IPPF's Director General, Tewodros Melesse, said launching the Framework “As the largest civil society provider of family planning, we can help meet many of the sexual and reproductive health needs of the Sustainable Development Goals at grassroots level. The new Strategic Framework will help us be more agile and accountable as a Federation, able to make a real impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights on the ground. Our new Framework  was  developed by our members from across the globe and it will guide their and partners work for the next seven years. At the high level reception with Benoit Kalasa from UNFPA, Dr. Kesete-birhan Admasu the Health Minister from Ethiopia and youth advocate Priya Kath, the IPPF’s Director General Tewodros Melesse announced that it had revised its efforts on family planning to tackle the global goal to reach an additional 120 Million women. IPPF's President, Naomi Seboni said chairing the event, “Every year we help millions of people – last year, that number was almost 62 million. We’re on track to meet our commitments, and we are holding governments to account for the pledges they made. Our new pledge which we will announce on Thursday will help achieve some of the ambition of FP2020 and the new Sustainable Development Goals.” The Strategic Framework is a global joint effort if the ambition of the new goals is to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people. It’s a vision that IPPF is excited about and proud of, that lays out its priorities for the next seven years in four clear outcomes. To get 100 governments to respect, protect and fulfil sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality by galvanising to secure legislative, policy and practice improvements. To engage women and youth leaders as advocates for change. To empower one billion people to act freely on their sexual and reproductive health and rights by 2022. To deliver two billion quality integrated sexual and reproductive health services. We will deliver rights-based services including safe abortion and HIV and enable services through public and private health providers. Over the next seven years IPPF is forging ahead to build a higher performing, accountable and united federation. The Federation is focused to enhance operational effectiveness and double national and global income. It will also build its advocacy and voice by growing its volunteer and activist supporter base. IPPF's mission is to lead a locally owned, globally connected civil society movement that provides and enables services and champions sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, especially the underserved.

The World Association of Sexual Health (WAS) has awarded Doortje Braeken – IPPF’s Senior Adviser on Adolescents, Gender and Rights, Programmes & Technical - their prestigious individual Gold Medal in recognition of her lifetime’s contribution to sexual health. She will be presented with the honour at an award ceremony at the biennial WAS Congress in Singapore this July. Doortje tells us what this award means to her and about her career promoting the sexual rights of young people.   How significant is this award for you? It’s very significant because WAS is serious about sexual rights and it has a wide ranging membership – including sexologists, neurologists and educators and those working in erotica, the whole spectrum of sex is represented there. They acknowledge how important it is in people’s lives. Why have you won? I’ve been a sex educator since 1984 when I was working for the Dutch Member Association (now known as Rutgers WPF), promoting a much more serious approach to sexology education. I worked in Romania, Eastern Europe and Central Asia promoting sexual rights for young people and fighting for youth participation in our programmes.   Why did you choose sex education? Once I had my children I found it hard to juggle motherhood and my work at university – I saw two jobs advertised: one for traffic safety and one promoting safer sex. I applied for and then got both jobs. I worked in both for a while and found promoting safe sex more interesting so I made it my full time career. At that point the Dutch Member Association was beginning to take a more professional approach to sexuality education, since then every working year has been different. I was asked to write a sexuality education manual for IPPF and then was asked to work with the Federation promoting the sexual rights of young people. What are you proudest of? I’m proudest that I’ve helped change IPPF’s attitude to young people – no longer seeing them as passive recipients of services but as genuinely equal partners. What’s next? I have two dreams: Firstly, I’d like to see IPPF promote its sexuality education agenda, but to make it attractive and, yes, ‘sexy’ for young people otherwise we’re in danger of losing their interest. It shouldn’t be just about warning them of the dangers of risky sex, but about their sexual rights and how they can enjoy them. Also, I’d like to revisit the young people I’ve worked with in the past and see where they are now. Some of our youth workers have gone on to work for the Ministry of Youth in Sri Lanka and at the Regional Council in Europe. Some of them are parents now, I’d love to know what they learned here and how have they used it in their lives. I’ve spent a lifetime investing in youth participation - it would be fantastic to see what impact it has had in individual’s lives. It’s been an exciting journey and I have met so many amazing people on my way. I wouldn’t have achieved anything without the hundreds of young people I worked with in IPPF, from a princess in Jordan to a young herder in Mongolia, who were both struggling with the question whether it was OK to masturbate, from Lena from Lebanon who had the courage take a stand for abortion rights and was almost expelled from her country, to trafficked girls in Syria, a young volunteer in Nepal who asked us to schedule our meetings based on the constellation of the stars (if we held the meeting then, she didn’t have to get married) to young sex workers in Indonesia and Surinam, trans boys in Bangladesh, young midwives in Siberia and young parliamentarians in the UK and Finland. And there are others who made my journey easy and so enjoyable; Esther Corona of WAS, Carmen Barosso of IPPF, Chandra Mouli of WHO and Mona Kadbey of UNFPA, who all mentored me and gave me the confidence to push the sexual rights agenda for young people forward.