What is Sexual Health?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
● Healthy sexual development
● Equitable and responsible relationships and sexual fulfillment, and
● Freedom from illness, disease, disability, violence and other harmful practices related to sexuality.
What is Sexual Rights?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
● Decide freely and responsibly on all aspects of their sexuality, including protecting and promoting their sexual and reproductive health.
● Be free from discrimination, coercion or violence in her sexual lives and in all sexual decisions; and
● Expect and demand equality, full consent, mutual respect and shared responsibility in sexual relationships
What are the 13 Sexual Reproductive Health Rights?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
1. The Right to Life
This means, among other things, that no woman’s life should be put at risk by reason of pregnancy, gender or lack of access to health information and services. This also includes the right to be safe and satisfying sex life.
2. The Right to Liberty and Security of the Person
This recognizes that no woman should be subjected to forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or forced abortion.
3. The Right to Equality, and to be free from all Forms of Discrimination
This includes, among other things, freedom from discrimination because of one’s sexuality and reproductive life choices.
4. The Right to Privacy
This means that all sexual and reproductive health care services should be confidential in terms of physical set-up, information given or shared by the clients, and access to records or reports.
5. The Right to Freedom of Thought
This means that all sexual and reproductive health care services should be confidential in terms of physical set-up, information given or shared by the clients, and access to records or reports.
6. The Right to Information and Education
This includes access to full information on the benefits, risks and effectiveness of all methods of fertility regulation, in order that all decisions taken are made on the basis of full, free and informed consent.
7. The Right to Choose Whether or Not to Marry and to Found and Plan a Family
This includes the right of persons to protection against a requirement to marry without his/her consent. It also includes the right of individuals to choose to remain single without discrimination and coercion.
8. The Right to Decide Whether or When to Have Children
This includes the right of persons to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have access to related information and education.
9. The Right to Health Care and Health Protection
This includes the right of clients to the highest possible quality of health care, and the right to be free from harmful traditional health practices.
10. The Right to the Benefits of Scientific Progress
This includes the right of sexual and reproductive health service of clients to avail of the new reproductive health technologies that are safe, effective, and acceptable.
11. The Right to Freedom of Assembly and Political Participation
This includes the right of all persons to seek to influence communities and governments to prioritize sexual and reproductive health and rights.
12. The Right to be Free From Torture and Ill-Treatment
This includes the rights of all women, men and young people to protection from violence, sexual exploitation and abuse.
13. The Right to Development
This includes the right of all individuals to access development opportunities and benefits, especially in decision-making processes that affect his/her life.
What is Reproductive Health?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
Reproductive Health is a condition in which the reproductive functions and processes are accomplished in a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.
Why is there a need for GR-RB Integrated Reproductive Health Services?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
● The reality shows that health providers, with all their technical knowledge and skills, are not necessarily equipped with a gender perspective or with an integrated approach to reproductive health services.
● RH being intensely personal and requiring a high degree of privacy as well as associated with strongly held beliefs and the subject of social, religious, ethical, political and legal structures, need services that recognize these factors.
● RH is also significantly affected by behaviors of sexual partners that bear directly on an individual’s choices, health status and treatment outcomes.
● Although training resources are available to help providers in the delivery of reproductive health services, most of these resources are technical in nature and often do not include the social context.
● There is a need for health providers to address the different areas of reproductive health care in a more integrative manner, taking into consideration what the elements have in common and the linkages among them.
● Service providers need to view and approach the clients’ reproductive health need in a holistic manner, thus requiring the health provider to be technically adept as well as gender-sensitive, client-oriented, interactive and empowering.
● Clients normally seek RH service for one presenting symptom/complaint such as one aspect of maternal and child health services (pre-natal and post-natal care, immunization, nutrition) or family planning, delayed menstruation, painful urination or post-abortion care.
● Health providers tend to focus on the presented need or problems expressed during a client visit. Although they may be aware that such particular need presented by the client may have come from other needs or concerns that contribute to their primary problem, they may fail to identify underlying and other important related needs and problems.
● This results to missed opportunities of addressing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) related and other important issues that clients fail or may be constrained to express due to fear, shame or lack of knowledge.
● Thus, opportunities for health education and addressing potentially life threatening consequences of unmet SRH problems such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), violence and high-risk pregnancies are neglected.
What is the difference between Sex and Gender?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
|
SEX |
GENDER |
|
Primarily refers to physical attributes-body characteristics notably sex organ which are distinct in majority of individuals. |
Is the composite of attitudes and behavior of men and women (masculinity and femininity) |
|
Is biologically determined – by genes and hormones media; thus it |
Is learned and perpetuated primarily through: the family, education, religion (where dominant) and is an acquired identity |
|
Is relatively fixed/constant through time and across cultures |
Because it is socialized, it may be variable through time and across cultures. |
Sexuality: Encompasses personal and social meanings as well as sexual behavior and biology. It includes ways our bodies develop and respond sexually, includes sexual acts: kissing, touching, intercourse, includes feelings about these activities and responses. Also includes what we think is right and wrong, good or bad. Includes life experiences that have shaped these feelings and values.
What is Reproductive Health Care?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
Reproductive Health Care, according to the DOH, includes:
● Family Planning Services, counseling and information
● Prenatal, postnatal and delivery care
● Nutrition and health care for infants and children
● Treatment for reproductive tract infections & STDs
● Management of abortion-related complications
● Prevention and appropriate treatment for infertility
● IEC on human sexuality, reproductive health, responsible parenthood
● Male involvement
● Adolescent reproductive health
● Management and treatment of reproductive cancers
● Services to victim/survivors of Violence Against Women
What is Reproductive Rights?
Name of Office: FHO, NCDPC
● Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international laws and international human rights documents and other consensus documents.
● Recognition of the basic rights of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and the means to do so.
● Right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health.
● It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents.
