tailieunhanh - Implementing Adolescent Reproductive Rights Through the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Some 529,000 women die each year in delivery and pregnancy – the over- whelming majority in developing countries. While women in industrialized countries face a 1 in 2,800 chance of dying in pregnancy or delivery, the risk in developing regions is 1 in 61. In sub-Saharan Africa it is as high as 1 in 16. This lifetime risk of death ref lects both pregnancy rates and the qual- ity of delivery care associated with each pregnancy. Maternal deaths occur from both direct and indirect complications. Direct complications account for 80 percent of maternal deaths and include hemorrhage, sepsis, hypertensive disorders from pregnancy,. | BRIEFING PAPER CENTER FOL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Implementing Adolescent Reproductive Rights Through the Convention on the Rights of the Child One out of five people in the world is an adolescent. Like many other groups adolescents all over the world have specific concerns and problems. The Convention on the Rights of the Child Children s Convention addresses the human rights of all persons below age Since most people who are considered adolescents see box are below the age of 18 the Children s Convention encompasses their human rights. The Programme of Action agreed to at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development ICPD and the 1995 Platform for Action agreed to at the Fourth World Conference on Women FWCW provide that reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws international human rights documents and other consensus documents. 2 The Children s Convention is one of the key international human rights documents that contain numerous provisions encompassing the reproductive rights of adolescents. There remains a significant gap between the provisions contained in the Children s Convention and the reality of adolescents reproductive health and lives. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has addressed adolescent reproductive rights issues in many of its Concluding Observations to governments often stressing the need for governments to take steps to ensure these rights. In too many cases governments and societies have tended either to ignore adolescent reproductive health issues or to consider them indistinguishable from childhood health concerns. An exception to this statement has been in contexts in which married adolescent girls have begun to bear children. Such adolescents have generally been considered women even though they have not reached physical or emotional maturity. This briefing paper will examine the major reproductive health and rights issues affecting adolescents in light of .