Haz click aquí para leer este resumen de noticias en español.
IPPF ACRO's June News Round-Up
If you want to receive SRHR news directly from the ground to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter Rising the Tide: Subscribe
🇧🇷 Brazil | Gestos joins protests against regressive abortion legislation
On June 17th, Gestos, IPPF Collaborative Partner in Brazil, joined protests in Recife to express their deep indignation at the urgent approval of Bill 1904/2024, which equates legal abortion with homicide if performed after 22 weeks of gestation.
For such a bill to pass to the plenary for a vote, without being analysed by the Commissions of the Chamber of Deputies, is a direct attack on the rights of all women, girls, and people who have abortions in Brazil.
🇨🇱 Chile | APROFA joins the official delegation at the 30th anniversary of the Belem Do Pará Convention
On June 11 and 12, at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago de Chile, the 9th Conference of States Parties (CSP) of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) was held. This convention was the first to ever propose at an international level that violence against women is a violation of human rights.
APROFA, IPPF Member Association, was appointed to participate in this event as part of the official Chilean delegation, along with other civil society organisations. During the conference, relevant topics for the visibility and promotion of women's rights were addressed, including gender-based violence against Afro-descendant women and access to justice, truth and reparation in Latin America.
🇬🇩 Grenada | Grenada Planned Parenthood Association’s (GPPA) Board President reflects on how Roe v. Wade's overturn impacted the Caribbean
The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in June 24, 2022. The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ignited legislative efforts, demonstrations, and a multitude of legal challenges, making the issue a central political topic regionwide. Currently, abortion is prohibited at all stages of pregnancy, with only a few exceptions, in 14 states governed by Republicans. In three additional states, it is banned after roughly six weeks, often before many realize they are pregnant.
Two years later, IPPF reached out to Dr. Tonia Frame, President of the Board of Directors at the Grenada Planned Parenthood Federation, to ask how Roe V. Wade’s overturn has impacted the Caribbean:
“It appears that since the overturn of Roe v Wade, the abortion movement in the region has been revitalized. [...] Interestingly, Caribbean countries with stricter abortion laws are being challenged. [...] However, we recognize that we cannot remain complacent, as there has been a rise in the anti-abortion rhetoric and policies. In some Latin American countries, for example, Peru approved the “fetal personhood” bill, and in Honduras lawmakers increased the number of votes needed to repeal its abortion ban.”
Read full interview in English and Spanish.
🇭🇹 Haiti | Women and girls are experiencing an alarming surge in sexual and gender-based violence
The ongoing violence in Haiti is preventing access to essential sexual and reproductive healthcare services, endangering the lives of mothers and newborns. The Haiti Midwives Association, our partner in Haiti, has informed us, ‘the gangs prohibit the movement of motorcycles and pedestrians, threatening and sometimes shooting in the air to terrorise us further. Due to these difficult conditions, fewer and fewer patients are attending the hospital, whether for prenatal consultations, deliveries or postnatal care.” This inaccessibility has led to a significant increase in maternal and infant mortality.
On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, IPPF shared a powerful statement to call for zero tolerance toward any form of SGBV, immediate protection of Haitian women, children, and those most at risk, as well as unhindered humanitarian access to allow aid into the country.
Read full statement in English and Spanish.
🇭🇳 Honduras| Llaves shares powerful speech at UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board
Established in 1994, UNAIDS is guided by a Programme Coordinating Board (PCB). On June 27th, Keren Dunway represented Fundación Llaves, IPPF Collaborative Partner in Honduras, in the 54th UNAIDS PCB Meeting, where she participated in the panel A vision for a sustainable HIV response, analysing the role of youth-led organizations in HIV sustainability.
“For the past 10 to 15 years, many organizations, including ours, have consistently issued an urgent call: The HIV response is only effective when communities lead,” she declared. “However, we cannot lead under the heavy uncertainty around sustainability. Many organizations are actively fighting to create policy change and meet the needs of people living with HIV while being under-resourced and without knowing if they will have the funding to continue next year. This is especially true for organizations of key populations, women-led organizations, and youth organizations.”
Read more about her participation here.
🇲🇽 Mexico | Recent elections present a vital opportunity to centre SRHR
On June 2nd, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as the first female president in Mexico. As we watch how extreme-right groups make their way through high-level positions, IPPF ACRO shares our hope that this election represents an opportunity to renew efforts in advancing gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights.
“The cultural shift happening in Mexico that has allowed a woman to be elected as president cannot go unnoticed,” said Eugenia López Uribe, IPPF ACRO Regional Director. “Indeed, it is not only a historic moment for Mexico, but for the region, an opportunity to face the anti-rights movements positioned in the highest government levels, and to react to them with human rights- based polices, programs and services.”
Read the full text in English and Spanish.
🇱🇨 St. Lucia | St. Lucia’s Planned Parenthood Association’s (SLPPA) Youth Action Movement continues to expand menstrual management information to adolescents
On June 13th, the St. Lucia’s Planned Parenthood Association’s Youth Action Movement (YAM) hosted a session for the students at a local Primary School. In partnership with the Marchand Public Library, the Youth Advocacy Movement held a session that covered an extensive overview of the menstruation process: the cycle, symptoms and how to manage it, as well as Period Bag Essentials.
This activity was one of the many held by SLPPA’s YAM for infancies and adolescents, during the month of June. Across different Primary and Secondary schools, they continue to share a wealth of information, consultations, demonstrations and healthy living tips not only about menstruation, but on STIs, decision making, emotional awareness and other vital topics in Comprehensive Sexuality Education.
🌎 Regional Office | IPPF ACRO hosted the first of a series of sessions on Adolescent's Informal Unions in the Caribbean
Given the relevance of addressing Child, Early, and Forced Marriages and Unions (CEFMU) in our region, IPPF ACRO has launched a series of webinars, “Adolescents’ Informal Unions in the Caribbean, to strengthen cross regional dialogue to promote comprehensive initiatives that put adolescents’ rights and autonomy at the centre.
The first of these sessions commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, known as the Convention of Belém do Pará by analysing the situation of adolescent’s informal unions in the region and their link to discrimination and gender-based violence.
As a keynote speaker, Dr. Gabrielle Hosein, researcher and academic from the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, shared the research she conducted from 2021 to 2023 on Child Marriage and Early Unions in the Caribbean commissioned by UNICEF under the Spotlight Initiatives Caribbean Regional Programme.
Read a summary of the session or watch the recording here.
🇻🇪 Venezuela | Members in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador respond to the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis
To address the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, IPPF together with Member Associations in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, have been providing access to sexual and reproductive health for women, girls and people in transit. On June 19th, World Refugee Day marked the occasion to bring attention to the vital importance of emergency sexual and reproductive health services and call on governments to ensure women and girls safety and migration processes free of gender-based violence.
when
region
Americas & the Caribbean
