Gender refers to sets of relationships, attributes, roles, beliefs and attitudes that define what being a woman or a man is within society. In most societies, gender relations are unequal and unbalanced in the extent of power they assign to women and men. Gender biases are reflected in a society's laws, policies and social practices, and in the self-identities, attitudes and behaviour of people. Unequal gender relations tend to deepen other social inequalities and discrimination based on class, race, caste, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, language or religion, among others. Gender attributes and roles are not determined by biological sex. They are historically and socially constructed and can be transformed.

Gender equality is a principle of human rights and a development goal. Gender equality requires achieving a re-balancing of power between women and men in terms of economic resources, legal rights, political participation and personal relations. Gender equity requires the full recognition of the specific needs that women may have, whether these arise from historical patterns of gender bias, biological differences or social inequality. The achievement of gender justice requires combining both gender equality and equity principles as a basis for policies and social actions.

Women's ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights requires a legal and policy environment favourable to gender equality and equity. Gender equality is essential for women to be able to have greater voice and control in sexual and reproductive decisions. Laws and policies that aim for gender equality and equity in the distribution of resources, political participation, and decision-making has positive impacts on women's sexual and reproductive health by:

- reducing their excessive work-burdens;

- addressing the specific needs of particular sub-groups of women who are disadvantaged or discriminated against.

• Sign, ratify and remove reservations to human rights instruments such as CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women).

• When interpreting and applying human rights instruments, use the gender concepts in the agreements reached at the world conferences on human rights (1993), population and development (1994), social development (1995) and women (1995).

• Modify and transform existing national laws, in the areas of family, marriage, inheritance, sexuality and reproduction, based on principles of gender equality.

• Review and transform existing national laws in the areas of political participation, labour, and access to economic resources, such as land, credit, and technology, based on principles of gender equality and equity, using instruments such as quotas and affirmative action as appropriate.

• Incorporate gender analysis and gender audits as a standard process in policy design, implementation and evaluation, especially in the area of health.

• Modify information systems to include gender disaggregated data, indicators of gender equality, and special assessments of women's needs.

• Develop and implement guidelines for the participation of women and women's organizations in consultative bodies and in decision making at all levels.

• Incorporate affirmative action strategies into policies and programmes in both public and private sectors.

• Strengthen women's access to legal services that will enable them to challenge gender discrimination and inequalities.

• Enhance gender equity in health services through redressing imbalances in priority setting, resource allocation regarding women's specific needs, and the needs of particular groups of women.

• Promote sensitization about gender equality, train policy makers, health service providers, and personnel within the legal and judicial systems on gender analysis and means to address gender inequality.

• Promote human rights literacy programmes for both women and men that demonstrate the personal and social benefits of gender equality.

• Meet established goals for eradication of female illiteracy and for girls' schooling.

• Educate boys and men to respect women's rights and gender justice.

• Transform school curricula, revise text books and train teachers to promote gender equality.

• Develop and disseminate gender analyses of language used in laws, policy documents, text books, informal education material and the media.

• Provide programmes for media professionals to sensitize them to gender inequality, and increase women's professional participation at all levels of programming.

• Support public awareness campaigns on gender equality and women's rights.

• Portray images and situations that challenge gender inequality and eliminate gender stereotypes.

MEN’S ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND HEALTH

Special efforts should be made to emphasize men’s shared responsibility and promote their active involvement in responsible parenthood, sexual and reproductive behaviour, including family planning; prenatal, maternal and child health; prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV; prevention of unwanted and high risk pregnancies; shared control and contribution to family income, children’s education, health and nutrition; and recognition and promotion of the equal value of children of both sexes. Male responsibilities in family life must be included in the education of children from the earliest ages. Special emphasis should be placed on the prevention of violence against women and children.

In order for men and women to live their lives to their full potential, they need to participate in all levels of civil society, family life, public life, work and leisure. This requires men to undertake many behavioural roles which at present, in most societies, are the sole responsibility of women. This would give men the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures and personal growth inherent in supporting their partners through childbirth, in sharing responsibility for child rearing and domestic life, and in supporting their partner's fulfillment through both family and public life. It allows men to experience the full range of human emotions, including tenderness and vulnerability.

Manhood is most fully experienced amongst men who enjoy and take responsibility for their own sexuality and reproductive choices. Being a man requires rejoicing in the experience of equality with women; promoting women’s rights and equal partnerships with women; and supporting women’s reproductive choices and sexual pleasure. However, socialization at present leads men to assume an attitude of privilege and entitlement in relation to women. Prevailing social norms promote double standards for men and women in economic, political, social, cultural, family and sexual life.

Men’s responsibility means men understanding and accepting that they are personally answerable for their decisions and their behaviour, based on mutual respect in relations with others. Encouraging men’s responsibility for their own behaviour should in no way undermine women’s autonomy over their own sexual and reproductive lives. Work with men needs to be aimed at achieving gender equality and equity. It requires allocation of resources other than those allocated for women's empowerment and women’s sexual and reproductive health needs.

Men’s attitudes and behaviours, especially in the sexual sphere, too often have a considerable negative impact on women’s overall health and well-being. Men's sexual activity frequently does not take account of women’s sexual needs; puts women at risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy; and too often involves violence, including violence against women who try to assert what they want regarding sexuality and reproduction. By contrast, men who recognize their shared responsibility for attaining gender equality and equity support the removal of barriers to women’s participation in the labour force, political and community life, and to ensure women’s mental, emotional, physical, sexual and reproductive health and rights. Shared responsibility thus enhances men's participation in civil society.

Reallocate and efficiently use public and private funds in support of the following actions:

• Develop training curricula and train men and women teachers to avoid using stereotypes of male entitlement and dominance in the classroom, and to present options and strategies for achieving gender equality.

• Foster curricula, materials and activities in educational institutions, literacy and other adult education programs, social and sports clubs, trade unions and other places that men and women gather, which:

- address gender inequality;

- present images of and strategies for achieving gender equality;

- promote understanding and support for women's autonomy in sexual and reproductive decision-making.

• Ensure that information, education and communication (IEC) programs, materials and public service announcements portray positive images of male involvement in family responsibilities and do not encourage dominant male behaviours in the private and public spheres.

• Work with government communication agencies, private media and advertisers, and other media professionals to encourage them to present men who are aware of, promote and enjoy women' equal participation in public and family life.

• Persuade men who are political and community leaders to speak out for women's rights, to promote images of men who respect women, to encourage other men to have equitable social and intimate relationships, and to deplore violence against women as well as other discriminatory or abusive behaviour.

• Remove formal barriers, including parental consent and age requirements, to men's access to sexual and reproductive health services; train and support health care providers and managers to reduce informal barriers (e.g., the image that family planning and maternal child health clinics are Awomen's spaces@).

• Train staff to promote the concept of gender equality and take every opportunity to support men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour, in particular for preventing unintended pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

• Provide information about men's and women’s sexual and reproductive functions and, in particular, educate men on the importance of health services for women during pregnancy, delivery, and after birth; and on the facts that men's sperm determine the sex of the child, and sexually transmitted diseases cause infertility in both men and women as well as cervical cancer in women.

• Promote and provide condoms and encourage men to use them to prevent sexually transmitted diseases as well as unintended pregnancies, both with their wives or primary partners, and in all casual or commercial sex encounters.

• Ensure contact tracing and adequate treatment for women partners as part of programmes to prevent and manage sexually transmitted diseases.

• Promote vasectomies for men who do not wish to have more children.

• Educate men to respect their partners' autonomy in fertility regulation, choice and use of contraception, and remove spousal consent requirements in women's reproductive health services.

• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of services, in consultation with both men and women's groups.

• Sign, ratify and remove reservations to human rights instruments, such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in order to create the enabling conditions for gender equality, and sexual and reproductive rights and health.

• Encourage and pressure governments to review, modify and enforce international, regional and national legislation so that it is, at a minimum, consistent with the agreements of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, particularly in relation to legislation which:

- prohibits early marriage, removes gender inequality in legal age at marriage, and ensures that marriage is entered into with the fully informed and free choice of both people;

- provides for gender equity and equality in property ownership, acquisition, management and administration, in inheritance laws, and in access to credit and employment; and

- provides for parental leave benefits and encourages men to take time off from employment to participate in the birth and care of their child and share household management.

• Train judges, police, lawyers and health personnel on the meaning of such legislation and how to implement it.

• Inform the public, women and men, about this legislation and advocate for the full enforcement of it.

• Support the work of non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations to develop and to mobilize support for such improved legislation; build public sector and non-governmental organizations' institutional capacity to enforce legislation; and monitor and evaluate enforcement.

Collect and analyze data to build understanding of barriers to and means to facilitate men’s responsibility for sexual and reproductive health, including such topics as:

- men’s total fertility by age groups as a means of drawing attention to male reproductive behaviour;

- design and enforcement of legislation which promotes men’s responsibility; and

- best practice in programmes to build gender equality.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Reproductive rights include the rights of all individuals to control their own bodies, to have sex that is consensual, free from violence and coercion, and to enter marriage with the full and free consent of both parties. Reproductive rights are essential for women's exercise of their right to health, and include the right to comprehensive, good quality reproductive health services that ensure privacy, fully informed and free consent, confidentiality and respect.

Reproductive health requires good, basic health and nutrition, protection from violence and reduction of occupational and environmental health hazards throughout the life-span. While the concept of reproductive health applies to both women and men, it has far greater impact on women and, as such, requires preferential allocation of resources to women's health, in particular to reduce health risks that only women face.

Reproductive rights and reproductive health are integral to human rights, and essential for enjoyment of one's full human potential, mental, emotional and physical well-being, enhancement of relationships, women's empowerment and achievement of gender equality. Respect for women's reproductive rights and provision of reproductive health services also provides the basis for neonatal health and survival, for the health and development of children, and for the overall well-being of the family.

Reallocate and efficiently use public and private funds in support of the following actions:

Effective sexual and reproductive health services require a functioning health system that provides universal access to good quality primary care, as well as effective referral systems for higher level care. These services require skilled health professionals, facilities and resources both to provide preventive information and services and to meet challenges such as obstetric emergencies, or clinical diagnosis and effective treatment of STDs, especially in women who do not have symptoms of infection. To the extent possible, primary services need to be provided at the same place and time with consistent access to health providers. The highest possible standard of care should always be sought. Decisions on whether to introduce new technologies should be based on careful assessment of the capacity of the health system to ensure protection of women's health and rights, as well as their choices, in the use of such technologies.

• Ensure access to reproductive health services, that respect reproductive rights for all women regardless of age, marital status, income, residence or sexual orientation including:

• Recognizing that sexual and reproductive health services in most countries fall far short of this comprehensive standard, and that hard choices may often have to be made in the allocation of resources and the setting of priorities, involve women's organizations in deliberations and decisions at all levels of policy making and programme design, involve more women in managerial and supervisory positions in government health services, and consult women in the communities to be served regarding their priorities.

• Invest in the re-training and orientation of health professionals to provide comprehensive, gender-sensitive services and information that are respectful of reproductive rights.

• Develop and use Aprocess@ indicators to monitor services, rather than relying on narrow Aoutcome@ indicators such as reduction in maternal mortality, and support community involvement in programme monitoring.

• Provide sexuality education in schools and in non-formal programmes, for all girls and women, about all aspects of sexual and reproductive health, about reproductive rights as human rights, and about where to obtain relevant services; give particular attention to how pregnancies and STDs occur, effective means of prevention, facts that help women protect themselves from harm, including their right to decide about sex, the fact that the man's sperm determines the sex of the child, danger signs in pregnancy and when to seek care, and non-directive information and services for pregnancy termination.

• Provide sexuality education in schools and in non-formal programmes, for all boys and men, about all aspects of women's reproductive health and rights, emphasizing gender equality and men's responsibility to allow and assist their partners to have the health services they need (all should know danger signs during pregnancy, and where and how to get emergency care), to prevent transmission of STDs and unwanted pregnancy, to foster mutual respect, caring and pleasure in sexual relations, and to support their partners' decisions about safe sex practice and contraception; sensitize boys and men to the positive experience of gender equality.

• Train staff of international and national development agencies to support, finance and promote reproductive rights and comprehensive, good quality sexual and reproductive health services.

• Educate management and staff about the importance of reproductive rights and health, and their role in disseminating factual, gender-sensitive information to promote reproductive rights and health as well as gender equality.

• Develop multi-media advocacy strategies and campaigns for the public, including decision-makers and programme planners, that provide accurate information on reproductive health problems, when and where to seek services, including special campaigns on, for example, the danger signs of pregnancy and the importance of seeking care, violence against women, harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, the rationale for and development of laws and policies to ensure access to safe abortion services, among others.

• Encourage investigative and documentary reporting on best practice and on health system abuses relating to reproductive health.

Promote action-oriented research for informed decision-making at all levels, especially on critical or relatively neglected issues, such as:

• Develop and enforce legislation to ensure all girls' and women's reproductive rights and access to sexual and reproductive health information, good quality services, and sexuality education, including removal of barriers such as parental or spousal consent; remove restrictions on access to safe abortion, safe contraception and sterilization; and eliminate discriminatory practices based on marital status, age, disability or other factors.

• Develop and support effective national and international ethical review committees to ensure the human rights of participants in research and to prevent introduction and use of untested reproductive technologies, such as the quinacrine method of sterilization, that may be harmful to women's health.

• Review, modify as necessary, and enforce legislation to end early marriage, remove gender inequality in laws governing age at marriage, and ensure that marriage is entered into with the fully informed and free choice of both people.

• Develop and enforce legislation to ensure ethical, medical and human rights standards in infertility services.

• Ensure protection of reproductive rights of women and men in labour laws and standards.

• Develop and enforce legislation which protects all women's access to good quality sexual and reproductive health services in the face of health sector reform, fees for services and increasing privatization of health services.

At a minimum, meet governments' and donors' commitments made in the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, and ensure that these budget allocations are used to build toward and achieve comprehensive, good quality reproductive health services.

• Allocate funds to strengthen basic health systems, prioritizing the facilities, staff and functions needed to meet sexual and reproductive health needs.
• Ensure a sound Asafety net@ for low income or other women who cannot pay for services.

SEXUAL HEALTH

The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its consequences.@

SEXUAL RIGHTS

Sexual rights are a fundamental element of human rights. They encompass the right to experience a pleasurable sexuality, which is essential in and of itself and, at the same time, is a fundamental vehicle of communication and love between people. Sexual rights include the right to liberty and autonomy in the responsible exercise of sexuality.

Sexual rights enhance mutual respect within interpersonal relationships, and ensure that people are able to enjoy sexuality as deep intimacy between human beings, which is essential to the well-being of individuals, partners, families and society. Gender equality therefore cannot be achieved without sexual rights, and vice versa. Respect for sexual rights as human rights provides the basis for elimination of violence against women, which violates, impairs or nullifies girls' and women's fundamental freedoms, leaving them at risk of genital mutilation, sexual harassment and abuse, rape, prostitution, domestic battering and sexual slavery.

• The right to happiness, dreams and fantasies.

• The right to explore one's sexuality free from fear, shame, guilt, false beliefs and other impediments to the free expression of one's desires.

• The right to live one's sexuality free from violence, discrimination and coercion, within a framework of relationships based on equality, respect and justice.

• The right to choose one's sexual partners without discrimination.

• The right to full respect for the physical integrity of the body.

• The right to choose to be sexually active or not, including the right to have sex that is consensual and to enter into marriage with the full and free consent of both people.

• The right to be free and autonomous in expressing one's sexual orientation.

• The right to express sexuality independent of reproduction.

• The right to insist on and practice safe sex for the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
• The right to sexual health, which requires access to the full range of sexuality and sexual health information, education and confidential services of the highest possible quality.

Reallocate and efficiently use public and private funds in support of the following actions:

• Promote the empowerment of women, including education, for the achievement of equal relationships between men and women.

• Provide sexuality education for all age groups and both sexes, in formal and informal education, and in youth organizations and programmes, which emphasize gender equality and sexual rights, including information on forms of sexual orientation.

• Educate both sexes about sexual rights so that they can make and act on their own decisions in relation to sexual expression, take responsibility for their sexual behaviour and its consequences, prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and practice fertility regulation for a mutually safe and satisfying sexual life.

• Educate human rights workers and advocates to recognize, promote and support sexual rights as human rights.

• Train and sensitize educators and health care professionals about sexual rights and the conditions necessary for those rights to be exercised.

• Disseminate information through public fora and all media, both written and electronic, to create an environment accepting of and supportive to women and men's enjoyment of sexual rights.

• Develop broad-based campaigns which promote respect and tolerance for diversity and challenge sexual stereotypes and homophobia.

• Ensure access, for all women, to the full range of high quality sexual health services, including contraceptive methods, provision of condoms, diagnosis and treatment of STDs, and safe abortion.

• Ensure support for men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour, including information and services for contraception, and for prevention and treatment of STDs and HIV; information and programmes that promote gender equality and elimination of violence against women; and information and programmes to eliminate harmful practices such as female genital mutilation.

• Ensure that health care providers respond effectively to suspected and actual instances of sexual abuse and violence.

• Investigate and document violations of sexual rights and provide legal services to redress instances of abuse and violence.

• Sign, ratify and remove reservations to human rights instruments, such as CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women), in order to create enabling conditions for the promotion of sexual rights.

• Review, modify where necessary, and enforce laws that regulate age of marriage and sexual activity to ensure that they prevent early marriage, allow for and protect mutual consent, and ensure respect for human rights, non-discrimination and gender equality.

• Review, modify and enforce international, regional and national legislation so that it is, at a minimum, consistent with the agreements of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women, in particular paragraph 96 quoted above.

• Remove legal, regulatory and social barriers to access to information on sexual rights, including age and marital status restrictions, parental consent and other forms of discrimination.

• Develop and enforce legislation to eliminate sexual violence, including rape within and outside marriage and as an instrument of armed conflict, female genital mutilation, infanticide, gender-based genocide, paedophilia, incest, sexual exploitation and all forms of trafficking.

• Legalize the right to form mutually consenting relationships of one's choice.

• Develop and enforce legislation which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and provide mechanisms of recourse and compensation for those who are discriminated against; give legal recognition to same sex relationships on an equal footing with married and consensual unions.

• Develop legal frameworks to ensure safe working conditions for commercial sex workers, including education on sexual rights and health, and support and protection to insist on safe sex practices with all clients.

-- International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, para #4.1.

Women's empowerment refers to the processes by which women gain inner power to express and defend their rights and gain greater self-confidence, self identity, self-esteem and control over their own lives and personal and social relationships. Although the extent and circumstances vary across societies and over time within a particular society, girls and women typically have less power than boys and men in both the private and the public spheres. Women's empowerment is the process by which these unequal power relations are transformed in women's favour.

Empowerment means that women:

In the process of challenging existing unequal power relations, women gain greater self-confidence, and enhance their own personal skills and capacities to dialogue and negotiate with others, while gaining greater control over the external factors that influence their lives. While the individual woman is transformed, she may also want and learn to work in groups with other women through processes of mobilization and strategizing that releases their collective strength.

In a fundamental sense, empowerment means that women empower themselves. However, external agents in the form of non-governmental activists and organizations, bureaucrats, officials and sympathetic men can and should support women in their empowerment processes. Women empowering themselves also requires supportive legal frameworks and access to information and resources.

Women empowering themselves is central to women's exercise of their human rights and for achievement of gender equality. Women's empowerment is also important because:

Reallocate and efficiently use public and private funds in support of the following actions:

A democratic political and institutional environment is a co-requisite for women's empowerment as it facilitates women's possibilities to organize and voice their demands in the public sphere. In all contexts the empowerment of women requires the following actions:

• Design and establish legal frameworks for gender equality and equity.

• Develop and enforce affirmative action legislation, particularly quotas for political participation.

• Remove barriers to the formation of women's organizations and guarantee their autonomy.

• Provide open access to information so that non-governmental and other civil society organizations can be equal players in policy arenas.

• Create procedures within agencies and governments to facilitate effective participation by women's organizations in policy formulation, design and review.

• Incorporate gender analysis and gender audits consistently into policy design, implementation and evaluation.

• Design and implement guidelines for women's participation in consultative bodies, and in decision-making at all levels.

• Create procedures to allow for effective participation of women's organizations in policy formulation, design, implementation and review.

• Provide financial and technical support for women's empowerment programmes.

• Provide funding and training to develop the institutional capacity of women's organizations to promote and support women's empowerment and to effectively engage with governments and other agencies on policy and programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation at all levels and in all sectors.

• Promote public education campaigns to eliminate gender discrimination and create an enabling environment for women empowering themselves.

• Disseminate accurate information on laws, regulations, procedures, policies, and available resources to strengthen the capacity of women's organizations and to build effective women's empowerment programmes.

• Sensitize policy makers, programme managers and staff to the importance of women's empowerment as a development objective.

• Exchange information and experiences on women's empowerment -- what works and what does not -- across different agencies, ministries and programmes.

• Meet established goals for the eradication of female illiteracy and for girls' schooling.

• Design and implement continuing education programmes for women.

• Design and implement support services, such as child care, to free women's time and enable them to engage in organizing and awareness-raising.

• Transform school curricula, revise text books and train teachers to promote gender equality as a basis for girls' and women's empowerment.

• Identify and create spaces in which boys and men will be able to share and exchange their perceptions of and understand the need for girls' and women's empowerment.

• Design gender sensitization programmes for media professionals and increase women's professional participation at all levels of programming.

• Support public awareness campaigns on gender equality and women's rights.

• Disseminate information on the experiences and achievements of women's organizations.

• Portray positive images of women and girls, and eliminate gender stereotypes.