Experts of Latin America and the Caribbean issued a declaration on sexual and reproductive rights

The Committee of Experts (CEVI) of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará” (MESECVI) issued a Declaration on Violence against Women, Girls and Adolescents and their Sexual and Reproductive Rights (English, Spanish). In the declaration CEVI reaffirmed sexual and reproductive rights as human rights protected and defended by the universal and inter-American human rights systems. The Committee of Experts recommended among other things to guarantee the sexual and reproductive health of women and their right to life by eliminating unsafe abortion and establishing laws and policies that enable the termination of pregnancy, at the very least in cases when pregnancy threatens individual’s life and health, when fetus in malformed, and when pregnancy is a result of  sexual violence, incest and forced insemination. Also, CEVI recommended guaranteeing that women and adolescents have immediate access to affordable contraceptives, including emergency oral contraceptives, thereby eliminating the discriminatory effects on women of denying them services on the basis of stereotypes that reduce the primary role of women to motherhood and prevent them from making decisions about their sexuality and reproduction.