Nepal CSO Commitment
Commitment description:Current context
• Political commitment:
Nepal is a party to major international commitments & UN treaties. The Constitution of Nepal ensures safe motherhood & RH as fundamental right, right against violence & child marriage.
• Conducive laws & policies:
Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Rights Act, 2075, covers safe motherhood, family planning, RH related morbidity & safe abortion. It ensures free healthcare services recognizing abortion as reproductive right of woman.
Issues:
• Delay in the adoption of RH Regulation to implement RHR Act
Government has not adopted a Regulation to implement RHR Act affecting women and girl’s RH.
• Inadequate allocation of budget & human resources
Lack of budget & human resources compel women to seek costly SRHR services affecting marginalized women.
• Inadequate & inaccessible SRHR information and services
Lack of awareness of RHR & services, social stigma against SRHR services etc has affected women’s RH.
• Criminalizing women for seeking abortion beyond legal setting
The RHR Act fails to decriminalize women for undertaking abortion beyond legal conditions.
• High prevalence of early & forced marriage
Child marriage forces child to unprotected sex, resulting unplanned pregnancy and morbidity in RH.
Recommendations:
• Adopt RH Regulation, procedures, guidelines and mechanisms for effective execution of RHR Act
• Allocate sufficient budget in health sector, including for SRHR services
• Integrate inclusive & age specific sexuality education in the school curriculum
● Mobilize sufficient health care experts
● Remove provisions to decriminalize abortion
● Raise awareness about RH services & legal provisions especially in remote and rural areas
• Remove taxes on sanitary pad
• Inclusion of GBV, early & forced marriage, any form of discrimination
• Ensure public private partnership and effective monitoring mechanism of private health system
• Strengthen effective and efficient government financial mechanism
Modes of engagement:
- Change or creation of legislationRHRWG has been engaged in policy reformation process, drafting new policies, recognition of RH as fundamental right, effort on introducing Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Right Act, 2075 in Nepal.
- Programmatic actionOrganize educational & orientation programs along with participation of professionals, people from various background & expertise so that the information could be transferred & issues could be said & heard. Advocacy in SRHR related issues.
Achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health as a part of universal health coverage (UHC)(3) Zero preventable maternal deaths and maternal morbidities, such as obstetric fistulas, by, inter alia, integrating a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health interventions, including access to safe abortion to the full extent of the law, measures for preventing and avoiding unsafe abortions, and for the provision of post-abortion care, into national UHC strategies, policies and programmes, and to protect and ensure all individuals’ right to bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights, and to provide access to essential services in support of these rights.
