Topic: Reproductive Health
Country: Belgium
Delegate Name: Jennifer Bell
School: Grand Rapids City High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Belgium position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Providing women with access to reproductive health care is essential to achieving gender equality. Internationally, women are denied access to birth control, abortions, and stigma-free knowledge about sexual health, as well as being subject to domestic violence, rape, female-genital mutilation, and forced marriages. HIV/AIDS is becoming a feminized disease because women are denied access to reproductive healthcare. Limited access to sexual and reproductive health and rights furthers gender inequality. To ensure the equality, safety, and health of women, it is imperative to provide equal access to reproductive health services. In order to do this, societies need to change the way gender norms and constructs are viewed and upheld. The rights and health of women need to be prioritized above the continuation of cultural norms. Belgium has implemented programs to analyze the cultural impact of norms regarding gender and sexuality. This analysis will help to adequately implement a transformative approach to addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights, both in policy and society. This approach of analyzing and understanding the norms of cultures and implementing policy based on the needs of the society should be adopted in international policy. Belgium seeks to support organizations and community leaders that promote gender equality, reproductive rights, and the advancement of women, girls and the LGBTI community. Women’s right to reproductive health care needs to be ensured and protected by law, and supported by cultural norms.
