A/HRC/39/26
the high-level political forum. It was furthermore instrumental in shaping the actions of
OHCHR to meet and report on its commitments to the World Humanitarian Summit. The
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child also
continued to call on States parties to implement the technical guidance in their concluding
observations.
8.
In an effort to make the guidance more accessible for specific stakeholder groups,
OHCHR — in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World
Health Organization (WHO), the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and
the François-Xavier Bagnoud Centre for Health and Human Rights of Harvard University
— produced practical guidance for the judiciary on key considerations in applying a rightsbased approach to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and under-5 child health.4 This
adds to the series of reflection guides highlighted in previous reports, including for health
policymakers, national human rights institutions and health workers.
9.
OHCHR worked closely with other United Nations agencies to integrate the
technical guidance in wider United Nations processes, notably the Global Strategy on
Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, including through the convening of the
High-level Working Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and
Adolescents, established by WHO and OHCHR. In its report,5 launched in May and June
2017 at both the World Health Assembly and the Human Rights Council, the Working
Group put forward a holistic, integrated approach, asserting that the health of women,
children and adolescents could only be improved if human rights were upheld and if there
was strong political will and leadership. As a result of the work of the Working Group,
WHO and OHCHR concluded a framework of cooperation and are developing a joint
programme of work to support further implementation of the recommendations, which will
include efforts to further promote implementation of the technical guidance.
III. Utilization of the technical guidance
A.
National level multi-stakeholder processes
10.
The technical guidance supports the convening of multi-stakeholder processes to
consider and prioritize action on human rights related to sexual and reproductive health,
and OHCHR has facilitated such processes with partners since the adoption of the technical
guidance.
11.
For instance, in Malawi, following the 2015 multi-stakeholder dialogue on the
human rights assessment and national inquiry, efforts continued to implement the action
plan that emerged from that process. The follow-up efforts included: monitoring
implementation of the recommendations; working towards accountability through
dissemination meetings in 10 districts; providing training to strengthen the capacity of
service providers; and establishing real-time reporting and early warning signs of violations
of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Those processes also supported legislative
reform efforts, such as increasing the age of marriage to 18 years and revisions to the
national sexual and reproductive health policy, which raised budget allocations for
contraception and sets out a strategy for strengthened community and youth-based sexual
and reproductive health initiatives. That work, which was supported by UNFPA, was
coordinated by a national task force, established by the Malawi Human Rights Commission
and composed of civil society organizations and State institutions.
12.
Following the 2014 multi-stakeholder consultation in Uganda, OHCHR continued to
work closely with the Ministry of Health, UNFPA, WHO, the Uganda Human Rights
Commission and civil society on the technical guidance, including support to the Ministry
of Health in the development and elaboration of its multi-sectoral strategy on the
4
5
4
See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/JudiciaryGuide.pdf.
Available at www.who.int/life-course/publications/hhr-of-women-children-adolescents-report/en/.
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