It's Your Body! Know Your Rights!
Everyone has sexual and reproductive rights. Governments have an obligation to ensure that everyone can enjoy these rights freely, without fear, coercion, or discrimination.
You have the right to:
- Make decisions about your own health
- Ask for and receive information about health services
- Decide whether and when to have children
- Choose whether or not to marry
- Access family planning; contraception; legal abortion in cases of rape, incest, or threat to health or life; and maternal health care, among a range of other heath care services
- Live free from rape and other violence
Being able to make our own decisions about our bodies and our lives is a basic human right. But for millions worldwide, it's a right violated daily. That's why Amnesty International is launching My Body, My Rights, a campaign focused on sexual and reproductive health rights.
Today, many of the 1.8 billion young people globally still struggle to access the information, sexuality education, and sexual and reproductive health services they need for a safe and healthy life. The consequences are shocking - for example, nearly 3,000 young people are infected with HIV every day, yet only 34% of young people in developing countries can answer the five basic questions about HIV and how to prevent it.
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by restrictions on their sexual and reproductive rights. Young women and adolescent girls from disadvantaged groups are most affected due to the inequality and discrimination they face, preventing them from accessing the sexual and reproductive health information and services they need. Complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries.
Everyone has the right to have access to quality, comprehensive, integrated sexual and reproductive health services, counseling, comprehensive sexuality education and information. Laws, policies and other barriers to the services and information women and girls need for a healthy life have to be removed.
You can make a difference!
Below you'll find links that take you to a variety of resources, including direct actions, ideas for more action, fact-sheets, and more!
You can also call your Regional Office at 1-866-A-REGION to get a number of free materials like t-shirts, stickers, posters, and more!
Finally, we'd like to hear from you about your planned events, activities, and materials. Please send you My Body, My Rights plans to us at firstname.lastname@example.org so we can chart and recognize the amazing activism we all are doing on behalf of women's human rights.