Brazil was excluded from a declaration signed by 65 member countries of the United Nations (United Nations) on the sexual and reproductive rights of women. The document, read on Tuesday (6) by Monique van Daalen, the representative of the Netherlands on the body’s Human Rights Council, calls on countries to take measures to guarantee equal rights for women and men. girls.
According to the text, the interruption of women’s health services due to the pandemic “could lead to an increase in teenage and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal mortality”. In addition, countries say it is possible that 13 million girls are forced to marry when they are children. In Brazil, the pandemic has generated an unprecedented crisis in legal abortion services.
The document refers to the Generation Equality forum, held in Mexico and France this year, in which commitments of US $ 40 billion were agreed to expand the gender inequality agenda. One of the lines of action of the meeting was precisely the reproductive and sexual rights of women and girls. As Folha has shown, Brazil ignored invitations to participate in the forum.
“We are deeply concerned by the growing attacks on long-standing international instruments for gender equality, including those on reproductive and sexual health and bodily autonomy,” the statement said. “We must stand firm in supporting these instruments because women and girls need these guarantees more than ever.”
Countries known to promote a progressive agenda when it comes to women signed the document, such as the Scandinavians, Iceland, Sweden and Norway – France, the United States, Portugal, Spain and the Countries -Bas are also among the signatories of the text, in addition to other nations with little tradition in addressing gender inequalities, such as Africans Tunisia, Sierra Leone and Botswana.
In Latin America, the document is signed by the governments of Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama. Folha contacted Itamaraty, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights and Planalto, but did not receive a response until the end of this report.