THE rising tide of conservatism globally is jeopardising efforts to empower women and girls on their rights in making their own choices over sexual and reproductive health. 

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Asia-Pacific regional deputy director Dr Annette Sachs Robertson said child or early marriage rates, though declining, remained unacceptably high in a number of countries, as did the incidence of gender-based violence, gender-biased sex selection and female genital mutilation. 

“It is true that overall, women today have more control over their reproductive lives than at any point in human history. But it’s also true that rising conservatism in the Asia-Pacific region and globally is jeopardising gains that have been made, reinforcing norms often used to rationalise control over women’s sexuality and reproduction. 

“We are seeing increasingly draconian laws and policies being introduced in some places, targeting some of the most vulnerable and marginalised of our fellow human beings with policies that are often extreme and unjustified,” she said, at the launch of the UNFPA report, State of World Population 2019 – Unfinished Business: The Pursuit of Rights and Choices for All, in Kuala Lumpur, today.

Also present were Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, National Population and Family Development Board chairman Dr Narimah Awin, and UNFPA representative for Malaysia, Marcela Suazo.

Robertson said the annual UNFPA flagship report included, for the first time, data on women’s ability to make specific decisions governing their sexual and reproductive health rights, including contraception use and health care. 

The report states that reproductive rights are still out of reach for too many women, including more than 200 million women and adolescent girls – over half of them in Asia and the Pacific – who want to exercise their rights to choose whether or when to have children, how many and with whom.  

“Across the 51 countries where this information is available, 57% of women who are married or in a relationship are able to make their own choices over all of these areas, demonstrating the need to strengthen rights and decision-making for all women in the most intimate aspect of their lives.

“We all have a role in pushing back against forces that would see us return to a time when women had little say in reproductive decisions or any area of their lives,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Saifuddin in his speech, said Malaysia still had an issue where not everyone understood the meaning of empowerment.

“I think Malaysians, including the government and decision-makers, probably do not really understand some of the concepts and framework of work when it comes to women and young women, in particular on the notion of empowering young women.

“Empowered women are transformative agents of change and represent a major asset for every country’s development. So, it is important to ensure their right to live free from fear, violence and harassment, so that they are able to live in equal conditions with the rest of society. 

“We really need to understand the meaning of empowerment of women and young women because it is about enabling them to make decisions and act on their own.

“To some extent in some areas, we are still in a control mode and try to decide too much for the young and women. Hence, we sometimes misinterpret certain things and indirectly face some situations or we allow a situation where a certain level of conservative element clouds the actual practice,” he said. – Bernama, April 10, 2019.