Commission on the Status of Women

Topic A: Women’s Health/Autonomy (Reproductive Rights)

Over time progress has been made for women’s reproductive rights, but this is not the case everywhere in the world. In many places women do not have access to effective and accessible birth control, abortion or the ability to make decisions regarding medical autonomy. In America a lot of the progress and protections for women’s reproductive rights and medical autonomy is under fire specifically in the South. With the overturning of Roe V. Wade it has reopened questions of abortion and a woman’s right to their body. With this new precedent in place, states have scaled back on abortion rights, have made it harder to get birth control and other necessary things for women’s health. This is a step backwards in regards to the women’s rights movement in the US. Recently, there have been questions over IVF in Alabama. Women’s reproductive rights in America are continuously coming under fire and they are adding more restrictions in some parts of the country, however this is not happening everywhere.

In other parts of the world, female sexuality and health is punished. There are a lot of issues facing women and women’s health. For example a serious issue that is occurring regarding women’s reproductive and health rights is female genital mutilation. This is happening in many countries across the world such as many countries in Africa, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Yemen, and Jordan. The issues of reproductive rights and reproductive health have many facets some of them include restrictions of rights or violence against women. It is important to take a broad view to the topic of women’s reproductive rights and look at how this topic is being treated in different countries.

Topic B: Femicide in Africa

Across the world femicide is an issue that is faced most heavily in Africa, Asia and South America. Femicide is defined by UN Women as “intentional killing with a gender-related motivation, femicide may be driven by stereotyped gender roles, discrimination towards women and girls, unequal power relations between women and men, or harmful social norms.” The UN has made it clear that the prevention of femicide is essential for the health and safety of women across the world. Around the world there are different rates. For example, in Africa it is 2.8 women per 100,000, 1.5 in the Americas, and .08 per 100,000 in Asia. This is a common image across the world, where women’s lives are being cut far too short.

These awful crimes are often happening by intimate partners. It is likely that many of the victims of femicide are going unaccounted for or unreported so it is liekly that these rates are actually higher. This is a universal problem, but there are populations who are facing higher rates of impact and risk. For example, women in the public eye whether they are celebrities or women involved in politics and government face a much higher risk of being the victim of a gender based violent crime like femicide. Prevention of femicide is necessary and possible. It is said that the best methods of prevention include early intervention and risk assessment.

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