Ensuring bodily autonomy is key for empowering women and girls, speakers say at regional UNFPA conference in Skopje

Ensuring bodily autonomy is key for achieving gender equality and for unlocking the full potential of women and girls in the region, speakers said at the opening of a high-level event organized by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, together with the Spouse of the President of North Macedonia and under the auspices of the President.

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Regional Conference on ICPD

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Opinion: Population anxieties must not lead to denial of women’s rights and bodily autonomy

In November 2022, the human population surpassed 8 billion people. At the same time, two thirds of people on the planet already lived in places where fertility rates had fallen below the so-called “replacement level” of 2.1 births per woman. The big demographic transition — the shift from higher to lower mortality and fertility — is happening everywhere, but in some parts of the world it has set in earlier than in others.

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Bodily autonomy is a human right

In April this year, Aizada Kanatbekova, a young woman of 27 years, was abducted by a group of men in broad daylight as she walked on the street in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The men forced her into a car and drove away with her. Two days later, she was found in the car. She had been strangled to death. The horrific murder of Aizada Kanatbekova is an example of the most extreme form of violation of bodily autonomy and bodily integrity. But, all around the world, including in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, women and girls are not in control over their bodies and their lives. Globally, too many women and girls are subjected to brutal practices such as female genital mutilation, virginity testing and rape with impunity. In the countries where we have data, nearly half of women lack the power to make their own decisions about whether to have sex with their partner, whether to use contraception and whether to see a doctor. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the share of women who aren’t allowed to make decisions in at least one of these areas is generally lower, but is still considerable. 19 per cent in Ukraine, 23 per cent in Kyrgyzstan, 31 per cent in Albania, and 34 per cent in Armenia. In Tajikistan the figures are far higher; 67 per cent of women can’t make autonomous decisions on these fundamental issues.

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