Demonstration in Kathmandu
5 May, 2014
Amnesty International Nepal organised a demonstration in Kathmandu today urging the government of Nepal to recognise Uterine Prolapse as a human rights issue.
More than 100 people participated in the rally held at New Baneshwar in Kathmandu. Addressing the programme, Abhiram Roy, campaigner at AI Nepal, shed light on the AI campaign related to Uterine Prolapse and Gender Discrimination.
Over 600,000 women in Nepal suffer from uterine prolapse – a painful and debilitating condition which causes unnecessary suffering and difficulties in performing everyday tasks. For Nepali women and girls, persistent gender discrimination is both a cause and a consequence of higher rates of uterine prolapse. In Nepal the condition affects women at a younger age than is the case in many other countries because gender discrimination in their daily lives exposes them to multiple risk factors. Uterine Prolapse and the underlying discrimination is a human rights issue.
The lack of an effective governmental strategy to address the root causes of uterine prolapse amounts to a systemic and serious violation of a range of human rights. Women and girls have the right to live free from all forms of discrimination and violence, to control their sexuality, to make informed choices about reproduction, and to access appropriate health information and services to prevent and treat the conditions they suffer. The Government must commit to addressing underlying gender discrimination in order to reduce women’s and girls’ risk of developing uterine prolapse to comply with its international human rights obligations.
Amnesty International Nepal commend the Government of Nepal for its Safe Motherhood programme which targets some of the risk factors for uterine prolapse and for stating that regular and mobile services will be provided for women suffering from uterine prolapse. However, the Safe Motherhood programme is not sufficient. Current government efforts focus overwhelmingly on surgeries and neglect preventative actions that address the gender-based discrimination which puts women and girls at risk of this condition.
Mainly we urge government of Nepal to publicly recognise that uterine prolapse is a human rights issue that needs to be addressed and make a commitment that relevant Ministries will cooperate to establish, fund and implement effective policies and programmes to address the gender discrimination which underpins the risk factors for uterine prolapsed.