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…systematic denial and withholding of access to safe and legal abortion through restrictive laws on the one hand and through obstructing access to services on the other hand constitutes an act of institutional violence which has a detrimental effect in the lives of all women in need of safe abortion services, specifically impacting the most marginalised groups such as young unmarried women, women with disabilities, HIV positive women, ethnic minorities, sex workers, LGBT and others.

It is deeply worrying that the government of Ireland -a member country of the European Union- still does not protect, respect and fulfill women’s rights even thought they have signed and ratified international instruments, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and ICPD PoA Declarations, which establish sexual and reproductive rights as human rights. The women’s right to access to integral reproductive health services, including abortion, is ingrained in the international human rights standards, which assures the right to life, health, privacy, and non-discrimination of women.

Forced abortion and sterilisation is a human rights violation. China is accountable to its obligations to the international standards that its State is party to.

WGNRR urgently calls on the national government of Morocco to stop harassing the Abortion Ship and to immediately allow its safe return to the Smir harbour to complete the mission. We demand that all women should have access to affordable, accessible, safe abortion i to ensure that no woman will die due to unsafe methods of abortion.

The Dominican Parliament is considering to change its penal code in ways that are very harmful to women, diminishing sanctions for violence, banning abortion completely, and reducing sanctions against incest and sexual harassment.

WHRD IC believes the detention, seizure and raid on the organization’s offices were arbitrary. They also consider the act of arresting and charging WONETHA’s staff members as an attempt to criminalize the legal activities of a women human rights organization. WHRD IC assert that this behaviour is based solely on discrimination against sex workers, the community WONETHA serves.

Intisar Sharif Abdallah was sentenced by Judge Sami Ibrahim Shabo at Ombada criminal court in Omdurman on 22 April on charges of adultery, under article 146A of Sudan’s criminal code. She was accused of having a relationship and becoming pregnant by a man who was not her husband. She was found guilty after an “admission of guilt” following torture and brutal beatings by her brother who instigated the case. According to reports, Intisar did not have access to a lawyer during her trial, and her accused lover remains un-convicted and walks free. Besides, Intisar, who has three children, is being detained with her newborn baby. In addition, she has a limited knowledge of Arabic and was denied a translator in court, an Amnesty International report stated.

WGNRR is pleased to know the step you are taking to uphold sexual and reproductive health and rights and justice in Rwanda. We applaud the recent approval by your cabinet of the draft Presidential Order lifting the reservation made by Rwanda to the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa