Two weeks before the international community gathered at the United Nations in early June to assess the progress women have made since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (held in Beijing), the female condom was launched in Ghana. Rose Teteki Abbey, the pastor-in-charge at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, who was in New York for the Beijing Plus Five (B+5) review session, says that when she told her niece how affordable the new contraceptive device is (approximately ten U.S. cents), her niece was amazed.

The condom helps protect women from HIV infection, which has been increasing at an alarming rate for women in Ghana, "and you can lubricate it with cooking oil, making it even more practical," says Rev. Teteki. "If women can get the hang of the female condom, it will really empower them. No longer will it be the man deciding if he wants to use a condom or not."

While the female condom may be one small contribution to the overall advancement of women's health and reproductive rights, the fact remains that it might not yet have been introduced in Ghana were it not for the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. That 150-page historic document confirmed the centrality of reproductive rights in advancing the status of women worldwide and stated that women have the right to "decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality … free of coercion, discrimination and violence."

The five-year review of Beijing was regarded by many women's rights advocates as an opportunity to advance that platform, and while there was some progress made, most notably, forced marriage and "honor" killings were addressed for the first time and stronger measures were endorsed to combat marital rape and sex trafficking, the full potential of the B+5 outcomes document (formally entitled, "Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Platform for Action") was ultimately impaired by ultra-conservative views and did not progress substantially beyond an affirmation of the original platform.

Advances Since Beijing

Following the platform's 1995 recommendations, many countries began initiating new laws and policies addressing women's reproductive and sexual health needs. Brazil passed a law which prohibits forcing or requiring anyone to practice family planning as a means of demographic control. France approved the over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception. Egypt banned the traditional practice of female circumcision/female genital mutiliation. Japan approved the use of oral contraceptives. And Cambodia significantly liberalized its abortion law, permitting women to terminate pregnancies during the first 14 weeks without restriction as to reason.

But despite the litany of accomplishments, there is still enormous work to be done before women achieve a status that is equal to men's. As outlined in "Reproductive Rights 2000 Moving Forward," a report issued by the Center for Reproductive Rights during B+5, many countries lag behind in passing necessary laws or enacting the necessary programs to implement new policies. Contraceptive methods may be legal but still not available. In some parts of the world, women are becoming infected with HIV at higher rates than men, yet pervasive discrimination against women affects their ability to educate themselves and demand that their partners practice safer sex. Many women also have no recourse against early marriage, polygamy, discriminatory inheritance laws and domestic violence. Even in the United States, where women are entitled to previability abortions without any restrictions as to reason, laws are frequently passed to obstruct women's access to that right.

As the five-year review drew to a close, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged delegates from the 180 participating nations to create a "forward-looking" document to further the Beijing platform. However, the optimism that prevailed five years ago was often absent as the overwhelming majority of representatives faced concerted opposition and delaying tactics by the Vatican and a small group of Islamic and Catholic countries, including Algeria, Iran, Libya, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Sudan in response to many progessive initiatives.

Reverend Teketi at the Beijing +5 Conference

The topic of women's reproductive capacity and sexuality elicited particularly contentious negotiations. Similar to the Beijing process, representatives from the conservative coalition became intent on blocking what they called radical language, such as "sexual orientation," a term which implicitly encompasses various forms of families, including single mothers, unmarried couples or gays and lesbians, and "sexual rights," which addresses women's right to bodily integrity.

Kathy Hall Martinez, deputy director of the Center for Reproductive Rights' international program, says "Women's equality and empowerment are meaningless when women lack the right to make autonomous decisions regarding reproduction and sexuality. For instance, the custom of 'wife inheritance' - which forces a woman to marry one of her deceased husband's close relatives - is still practiced in parts of sub-Saharan Africa."

Young Women Speak Out

Adolescents also bore the brunt of the conservative coalition, which attempted to block advances on adolescent sexual and reproductive rights despite the presence of scores of young women at the United Nations lobbying to the contrary.

"We, young people, have declared that our sexual and reproductive rights are the same rights as those for adults, because sexual and reproductive rights are human rights," said Nadia van der Linde, 24, from the Dutch Council on Youth and Population at a press conference that included young women advocates from all corners of the globe.

While the reproductive health needs of adolescents and young adults have been largely ignored by governments and societies, this faction is gaining a stronger voice in forums such as B+5. Young women are demanding a full range of reproductive and sexual rights including education on contraceptive usage to help combat the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection, and safe, legal access to abortion. "In no circumstances should a woman who has sought an abortion be punished under any section of the law," said van der Linde on behalf of Youth for Women's Rights.

Similarly, at another B+5 event, eighteen-year-old, Unoma Madunaga, a member of Girls' Power Initiative in Nigeria, also insisted on girls' rights to safe abortions, and for clinics to be "girlfriendly, so we can share our problems and so we know whether and when to have sex." She says, "Girls are socialized to be passive and easy victims of teenage pregnancy, and that results in many girls dropping out of school or else having unsafe abortions, which are risky. I know many girls who have died from illegal abortions."

Her friend, Chrishana Onah, 18, also from Nigeria, angrily complained of discrimination by the government. She said that after a substantial increase in reported rapes in Calabar, government officials made radio broadcasts blaming girls for the way they dressed rather than addressing the rapists' criminal behavior. "Now they're saying girls don't have the right to dress the way they like - that we shouldn't wear anything above the knees, but that doesn't protect girls from rapists," says Onah.

The Final Outcome

The Center for Reproductive Rights was aligned with hundreds of nongovernmental organizations that pushed for, among other things, stronger planks on reproductive and sexual rights for adolescents and for women to have greater access to safe abortions in countries where it is legal. But as marathon negotiations dragged on until 5:59 a.m. on the last day, due to the conservative coalition's stubborn resistance on sexual and reproductive rights issues, paragraphs were dropped from the outcomes document in place of the original platform language. However, the original platform's crucial directive to review laws that penalize women for obtaining illegal abortions was unequivocally affirmed and all efforts to roll back the Beijing platform were staved off.

Martinez says, "The most extremist countries and NGOs will never succeed in turning back the clock. The vast majority of governments have heard women's voices telling them that this is unacceptable."

That includes the voice of Reverend Teteki who says, "I only know that the Platform for Action is sensible and that as a woman I'm not being treated fairly."

- Ann Farmer

Current Status: On April 12, 2000, co-petitioners the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Center for Justice and International Law and three Latin American women's rights organizations submitted a reply brief to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging human rights abuses in Peru's health care system.

The three Latin American organizations, CLADEM (Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights), APRODEH (Association for Human Rights), and DEMUS (Office for the Defense of Women's Rights), filed the initial petition in 1999 following the death of a Peruvian woman from a rural area who underwent a sterilization procedure at a public health clinic.

The petition alleges violations of the woman's right to give informed consent to medical treatment, as well as the rights to life, health, privacy and non-discrimination under the American Convention on Human Rights and other international human rights treaties. Currently, we are awaiting further action by the Commission.

Background: Under the pressure of a national program that encouraged doctors to perform a certain number of sterilization procedures each year, public health officials repeatedly asked the victim to undergo a sterilization procedure. When she declined, they told her that by having more than five children she was in violation of a national limit on family size and was at risk for prosecution by the government. No such law exists in Peru, but the woman believed the health officials and on March 26, 1998 agreed to the sterilization procedure.

Almost immediately afterwards the woman experienced life-threatening complications. Her common-law husband repeatedly sought follow-up care for her at the health care center where she was sterilized, but they refused her treatment, saying that she would need to go to another facility. Unable to travel the long distance to this alternate facility, the woman died, leaving behind seven children.

In order to file a case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, legal remedies at the national-level must first be exhausted. The woman's common-law husband filed criminal charges against the Chief of the Health Center in Peru on April 15, 1998.

After the Peruvian court dismissed the case, CLADEM, APRODEH, and DEMUS filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in June 1999, requesting an investigation. A response brief was filed by the Peruvian government on February 10, 2000 asking the Commission to dismiss the case and alleging that the petitioners had not exhausted national-level remedies.

Staff attorney Luisa Cabal is representing the Center for Reproductive Rights as a co-petitioner, with the assistance of fellowship attorney Carla Avni.

- Jill Molloy