Disabled persons have rights to sexual reproductive information

Disabled persons have rights to sexual reproductive information – Health Official

Sep 04, 2012 News

The notion that young persons with disability also have rights to sexual reproductive information and materials will be amplified when the Ministry of Health, through its Rehabilitation Services Department, spearheads a workshop slated for next week.
This is according to Director of the Rehabilitation Services Department, Ms Barbara Lawrence, who revealed

Rehabilitation Services Director, Ms Barbara Lawrence

recently that the target audience will in fact be health workers, some of whom are convinced that persons with disabilities have no such rights.
Her conviction is premised on a rapid assessment conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which revealed that young disabled persons are denied access to sexual reproductive information by health workers.
“We found the findings of this assessment very damning. A big one for us was the attitude of some of the health workers towards persons with disability, they felt that young persons with disability didn’t have rights to access condoms or to even talk about it,” Lawrence disclosed during a recent interview with this publication.
In light of this, recommendations were made by UNFPA, among them the need for health workers to be trained to alter their mindset as it relates to persons with disability. According to Lawrence, the United Nations body has provided funding to facilitate the workshop which will be conducted over a three-day period (September 11 -13, 2012), at the National Library.
“They have actually provided us with manuals from Jamaica to deal with this issue. Jamaica is really quite good in dealing with disability issues on the whole and in every aspect. They have not only developed manuals but also jingles and skits…They have everything to change people’s mindset towards persons with disabilities and we hope to do the same,” Lawrence added.
In Guyana, UNFPA has advocated for the integration of sexual and reproductive health issues into the National Policy on Disabilities. It has also supported qualitative and quantitative data collection on adolescents with disabilities, including the development of a comprehensive information package on sexual and reproductive health of persons with disabilities. However, UNFPA has underscored that there are many obstacles to the implementation of the General Assembly resolutions, since legal and policy reform needs to be undertaken in a concerted manner.
Furthermore, gender-neutral laws are not sufficient, as there is a belief that States should adopt laws and policies that are aimed at ensuring that women with disabilities enjoy de facto equality, including temporary measures such as affirmative action, UNFPA has highlighted.
According to the body, too, “there is a lack of information and data on persons with disabilities – in particular, women with disabilities – which hampers interventions in their favour.”
As such, UNFPA has said that “it is imperative that efforts be made to ensure that there is enough information on persons with disabilities disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, rural/urban in order to reveal multiple discriminations and to adopt laws and policies accordingly.”
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides a basis for moving forward by finally lifting the barriers that have hindered persons with disabilities from enjoying their full and effective participation in society.
For this reason, UNFPA states that “it is important to acknowledge that the international goal to achieve universal access to reproductive health in MDG5 cannot be fulfilled unless persons with disabilities are included in policies and programmes to improve sexual and reproductive health.”
For this reason, UNFPA notes that it will continue partnerships at the global, regional and country levels to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for persons with disabilities. This action it said would be achieved through the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, especially as they relate to the promotion and protection of women’s rights and reproductive rights.