‘Legalisation Not Enough to Make Abortion Safe’

The Kathmandu Post - Kathmandu, Nepal, 9/29/2016

As the world celebrated International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, 2016, women rights organisations said only legalising abortion is not enough unless they ensure safe abortions. The Women Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) said in a statement that unsafe abortion causes up to 20-27 percent of maternal deaths in hospitals in the country which is significantly higher than the global average of 13 percent. Women rights groups have urged the Government to improve women’s access to reproductive health in the country and increase their access to safe abortion.

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Recognising Best Practices

Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh, 9/29/2016

With support from the Dutch Embassy, SNV Bangladesh is implementing a project on 'Promoting sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) through inclusive business practices within ready made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh’. To achieve this, SNV’s project is working with 19 factories and selected 10 SRHR service providers and private sector partners to pilot and test activities that deliver win-win solutions for businesses and workers. In the process, the project also ensures workers’ right to information and quality services.

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Is The Philippines’ ‘War on Drugs’ Fuelling an HIV Epidemic?

Thomson Reuters Foundation - Cebu, Philippines, 9/27/2016

Efforts to protect drug users, including the distribution of clean needles, began in Cebu, particularly in Kamagayan, in 1993 but were halted by city officials in 2009. ‘The following year prevalence of HIV amongst people who inject drugs went from less than 0.5 percent to 53 percent,’ said Ilya Tac-an, who leads the STD and AIDS detection unit at Cebu City Health Department. Jerson See, founder and president of Cebu Plus, an HIV care organisation also said ‘The police and drug enforcement agency’s mandates are a supply and demand reduction programme but we just hope the government will reconsider the harm reduction programme because it is also a way of halting the spread of HIV.’

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Asha Reaches Out to All: Free Contraceptives at Doorstep Gets a Healthy Acceptance

The Indian Express - Maharashtra, India, 9/26/2016

On the occasion of World Contraception Day, September 26, 2016, a quarterly report by the Demographic and Evaluation Cell of the State Family Welfare in Pune, from April to June this year showed that at least 10.74 lakh condoms were distributed by the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers free of cost at all 34 districts. Another 2.5 lakh oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) were delivered to rural homes while there was an increasing demand for emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) with ASHA workers delivering 12,250 in the first three months.

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Sri Lanka Maintains Lowest HIV/AIDS Prevalence in S.E.Asia

Daily News, Sri Lanka, 9/24/2016

Sri Lanka still maintains the lowest HIV and AIDS prevalence in South East Asia which is less than 0.01. Addressing a press briefing at the Health Education Bureau Auditorium on September 23, 2016, in Colombo, Health Services Director General Dr. Palitha Mahipala said, 2,436 HIV and AIDS cases had been reported from Sri Lanka so far from the day the first cases were detected in 1987. ‘Sri Lanka cannot be satisfied and rest because this is a result of hard work which should continue, strengthened and expanded,’ he said.

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'New Bill Criminalizes Voluntary Sex Work'

The Times of India - Gujarat, India, 9/24/2016

While the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) unveiled its draft of the trafficking bill 2016 earlier this year, representatives of the All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW) feel that it may wrongly criminalise voluntary sex workers. A consultation with 80 representatives of a sex workers collective from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, held in Ahmedabad on September 23, 2016 and was jointly organised by ANISW, Lawyers Collective and Centre for Advocacy and Research and CREA. Members of the collective said that not all sex workers are trafficked and most turn to sex work voluntarily, to earn and living and are the sole breadwinners for their families.

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SC Verdict on Closure of Sterilisation Camps a Landmark Judgment: ARC, Activists

The Indian Express - New Delhi, India, 9/23/2016

Members of the Advocating Reproductive Choices (ARC) coalition and other activists have welcomed the Supreme Court’s recent verdict on closure of sterilisation camps across the country. At the Population Foundation of India, Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director has said that the SC judgement was a landmark one. Providing quality services to and upholding the dignity of women will now be placed strongly on the national agenda. At the State and District levels, the quality consciousness and assurance have not been part of the health system in general.

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Muslim Law Reform Group Says Muslim Marriage And Divorce Act Violates Women’s Rights, Calls For Equality in New Constitution

Colombo Telegraph, Sri Lanka, 9/22/2016

While emphasising that the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) violates the rights of Muslim women, Muslim Personal Law (MPL) Reforms Action Group has appealed to the leaders of Sri Lanka and those formulating the new Constitution to uphold a clear vision of equality for all citizens. Muslim women’s groups have been advocating for reforms of the MMDA for over 25 years and there have been at least four official committees set up since 1970’s with no progress on reforms. The current 16-member Muslim Personal Law (MPL) Reforms Committee headed by Justice Saleem Marsoof was set up in 2009, by the then Minister of Justice Milinda Moragoda in view that ‘certain reforms to the Muslim personal law was urgently needed’. Seven years later, the report is still pending.

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HC Highlights Contradictions Among Laws Related to Adolescents’ Consensual Sex

The Hindu - Chennai, India, 9/21/2016

The Madras High Court Bench has pointed out several contradictions and conflicts among the provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Prohibition of Child Marriage (PCM) Act, 2006, and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Dealing with a case related to sexual relationship between two minors, Justice S. Vimala said the PCM Act prohibited marriage of a girl below 18 years of age and a youth below 21 years of age. It prescribed penalties and a male above 18 years of age could be punished under the Act for contracting a marriage with a girl under 18 years of age.

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Court Hears Suit by Gay Man Forced Into Mental Hospital For Sexuality

Global Times, China, 9/21/2016

A gay man’s lawsuit against a mental hospital in Central China's Henan Province will be heard September 21, 2016, after he was forcibly hospitalised for 19 days to receive treatment for a so-called sexual preference disorder. During hospitalisation he was forced to receive injections and take medicines like antidepressants. ‘I tried to say that I have no metal illnesses’ he said. ‘But the hospital rejected my release and treated me as a patient who has a sexual orientation problem.’

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