By Precious D. Freeman
The Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard Taylor says the purpose of education is not the race to the end, but education keeps you away from power dominance, gender and domestic violence and secure the next generation, so that anything that will keep young people in the circle of violence and doing something over, actually affects the productivity of the country.
She made the statement at the opening of the Liberia’s first conference on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) at the Ministerial Complex in Congo Town.
The SRHR conference which was held from May 26-28, 2023 brought together 400 delegates including adolescent girls and boys, men and women, person with disabilities, sexual minorities and other groups from rural and urban Liberia was organized by the Amplifying Rights Network (ARN), a coalition of ten civil society organizations from diverse backgrounds.
Madam Taylor said the more people especially women get involved in discussing sexual reproductive health issues, the better it is, because there are thousands of young women and girls around the country that need such education.
“I believe that the issues of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) should not be left with one person but should rather be a collective effort of all,” she asserted
She added that if young women and girls are adequate educated on their sexual and reproductive system and at the same time understand the danger that early parenthood poses, other resulting processes have to be looked at.
VP Taylor mentioned that the reproductive life circle of young people must be a priority for all, committing the Liberian Government in working to ensure that all legal and social barriers are removed so that the people regardless of their age can exercise their full rights.
The three-day conference brought together SRHR actors and right groups to discuss and build consensus for the critical need for access to comprehensive sex education and other age-responsive Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) practices, and influence SRH practices with evidence based and human rights-based approaches for improved access to reproductive health commodities.
Madam Taylor noted that the SRHR conference has marked an important issue that is needed to be at the forefront, and that more needs to be done to address the issue of sexual and reproductive issues across Liberia.
She noted that the GOL in 2019 made a commitment to the ICPD 25 in Nairobi, pledging to create access to family planning services and ensuring that sexual reproductive and everything accompany them are more available.
She however thanked all partners, local and international, and members of the Diplomatic Corps for continuing to secure the voices over the past years so that access and opportunities and the fact that SRHR is now a human rights organization should be looked at in their critical view.
Also speaking at the occasion, the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights to Health, Tlaleng Mofokeng mentioned that SRHR enables one to realize human rights and indicated that there are many obstacles in the way of realizing SRHR, and these obstacles are interrelated and operate at many different levels, including healthcare when trying to get services.
She emphasized that the right to health is an inclusive right that extends not only to appropriate healthcare but also to the treatment of health, and some of the amazing campaigns she has been following over the year raise the point that the right to health is an enabling right, including access to safe water and sanitation.
She stressed that adolescents, girls, boys, women, and men have the right to express themselves in all ways relating to their health and sexuality and to access free and confidential sexual reproductive health services, information, and education both online and in person.
“Sexual health information, including reproductive health is key. Sexual and reproductive health is not a woman’s only issue. The right to health gives you freedom and entitlement, and one of the most fundamental freedoms is to ensure one’s own health. You determine what you want in your body and what you don’t want. It also includes the rights to health means that you have a right to be free from non-conceptual context. Your entitlement to the right to health means that you have a right to accessible health protection, which means healthcare, but also underlines the different kinds of health,” she stated.
Dr. Mofokeng also indicated that there is need to access health services that are comprehensive and holistic.
The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) in Swedish, Aminata Kamara Sneh said the conference began at a very strategic moment where they needed to come together as a community of advocates to ensure that SRHR are central to the advocacy for human rights and gender equality.
She observed that though there has been some progress on SRHR, but the pace remains far too slow.
“SRHR must be mainstreamed in Liberia to address the structural causes of discrimination and marginalization, leaving women, adolescents, people with disabilities, and people with different Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities, Expressions, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) disproportionately affected,” Madam Sneh said.
She pointed out that RFSU has worked at the Human Rights Council for a long time, actively engaged in the promotion of SRHR, under two main premises, the first one is that sexual and reproductive rights are not a matter belonging to some particular ideologies or cultures, but about concrete life conditions and opportunities of real persons.
“The second premise is that strong language on sexual and reproductive rights becomes even stronger when it can effectively address the needs of real persons. This is why we strongly believe that words are important, and their absence may direct consequences for the health and rights of people,” she said.
She claimed that RFSU has recently adopted a new strategy, where they embrace the obvious realities told by their partners, that sexual and reproductive health rights cannot be achieved in a vacuum, but as a result of the interaction among several factors, and that relevant intersectionality should be addressed when working for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
“We must recognize that the lack of control over one’s own body and sexuality is a violation of their rights. So, the answer is ‘Yes’, we need to strengthen health systems. We need comprehensive sexuality education. We need gender-responsive and rights-based healthcare. But we also need to improve the legal and justice system, the education system, the political system, the labor market, and the financial system to deliver for those disproportionately affected, and we have to be bold as we go together” she said.
Giving the overview of SRHR, Madam Naomi Tulay-Solanke explained that SRHR are the bedrock for growth and prosperity for all individuals and societies, and that countries that invest in people, their rights, and their choices invest in promoting well-being, wealth, and sustainable development.
According to her, Liberia has made some progress around maternal mortality, girls’ education, and improve access to contraception but the pace remains too slow.
“A prosperous Liberian society requires access to comprehensive health care, quality, gender-responsive, and inclusive SRHR so that all Liberians, and in particular women, girls, sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, and persons in vulnerable situations, have the tools, information, and services to make choices, asserts their rights and control over their bodies, their sexuality, and to use services that enable them to exercise with full dignity, their fundamental human rights to healthy sexual health and decision making over their reproductive rights,” she said.
ARN comprises ten diverse community-based and national SRHR actors in Liberia. Community Healthcare Initiative; West Point Women for Health and Development Organization; Youth Alive Liberia; PAYOWI, RWRS, CoSARL, LIPRIDE, inclusive Development Initiative, NHR Advocacy Platform, Women in Media, and Development.
Meanwhile, the participants applauded Amplifying Rights Network (ARN) for organizing the Liberia’s first conference on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), and promised that the knowledge they have gained will be implemented.
