Pan American Health Organization(Regional office of the WHO)発行のFact Sheet（Healthy Mothers and Children: The Role of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality）より
Introduction
The starting point for reaching a state of healthy mothers and
children is the empowerment of women and gender equality. Gender
equality and women’s empowerment in health must consider the
extent to which women and men have the same ability and
access to exercise their right to health and realize their potential
to be healthy, contribute to and have control over their healthy
development, benefit from medical and technological developments
that affect their health, make decisions about their health
needs and care, and participate in decision-making that affects
their health and that of their children.More specifically, enabling and ensuring women’s equal access
to (equality) and ability to utilize (empowerment) sexual and
reproductive health services are fundamental to safeguarding
their health and that of their children. The global commitment
to ensuring sexual and reproductive health for women and men is
reflected in the adoption of the World Health Organization’s first
strategy on reproductive health by the 57th Global Health Assembly
in May 2004 which focuses on the provision of family planning
services, combating sexually transmitted diseases, and promoting
sexual health, among other target issues.2Although sexual and reproductive health was not included in the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is widely accepted that
a woman’s ability to exercise her reproductive rights contributes
to the reduction of maternal and child mortality and the
transmission of HIV/AIDS (MDG 4, 5, and 6 respectively).
Women’s access to and use of sexual and reproductive health (SRH)
services and care, and the elimination of intra-family violence are
‘musts’ for achieving a state of healthy mothers and children.
Furthermore, women’s ability to exercise their right to SRH would
contribute to the achievement of gender equality and women’s
empowerment.＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
The commitment to engage men in both sexual and
reproductive health and gender equality was first made at
the International Conference on Population and
Development (Cairo 1994):The objective is to promote gender equality in all
spheres of life, including family and community life, and
to encourage and enable men to take responsibility for
their sexual and reproductive behaviour and their social
and family roles.ICPD Programme of Action (Paragraph 4.25)
