ARROW Executive Director Sivananthi Thanenthiran made this presentation during the strategy session of the Post-2015 Women's Coalition held in March 2016.

1. SETTING FEMINIST STANDARDS
TO MONITOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sivananthi Thanenthiran, ARROW

2. Presented at the
Post-2015 Women’s CoaliGon
Strategy Session
in March 2016

3. Feminist Standards
1) What is the world we want?
2) What do we have now to get
there?
3) What would you change?

4. Feminist Standards
Do we monitor what
governments have set as
targets?
We should monitor these goals
against our own standards, our
own feminist standards.

5. Feminist Standards
Some of our issues can be
monitored within the SDGs.
But another set of issues fall
outside of the SDGs but are
criGcal for feminist poliGcs.

6. Feminist Standards
Some of the issues within the
SDGs
• Violence against women
• Gender-based Violence
• Climate change
• EducaGon
• Health
• Women’s poliGcal parGcipaGon
• Land, access to land

7. Feminist Standards
Issues outside of the SDGs
• Peace and demilitarisaGon
• Macro-economics
• Global corporaGsaGon
• Women Human Rights Defenders
• MigraGon
• Refugees
• Democracy deficit and shrinking spaces
• State sponsored violence

8. Feminist Standards
What are feminist standards?
Are there any we can agree on?
Do they exist?
If they exist what would they
look like?
Do we need a process of
consensus building in order to
arrive at this?

9. Feminist Standards
There are exisGng feminist
standards which we call our
own and hold dearly to.
These are derived from the
• Beijing Plaorm for AcGon
(BPfA)
• CEDAW

10. Feminist Standards
Let’s take Goal 3 on Heath as an
example:
Covers maternal mortality raGo
reducGon, universal access to
SRH, universal health coverage,
reducGon of deaths due to HIV/
AIDs, malaria, tuberculosis ,
traffic accidents, etc.

11. Feminist Standards
What does BPFA menGon on health?
Paras 89-105, para 106 on acGons to be taken
BPfA locates health in:
• Women’s right to enjoy highest acainable
standard of health,
• The analysis that inequality is the barrier to
enjoying good health, unequal access to and use
of health resources, perpetuaGon of gender
stereotypes in health policies, tackles
privaGsaGon of health, sexual and reproducGve
health, sexuality of women
• The human rights of women include their right
to have control over and decide freely and
responsibly on macers related to their sexuality,
including sexual and reproducGve health, free of
coercion, discriminaGon and violence.
• Mental health

12. Feminist Standards
Para 106 – talks of acGons
1) Reaffirm, protect and fulfill the right to highest
acainable standard of health – review exisGng
legislaGon on health
2) Gender sensiGve health services
3) Women’s equal access to social security
systems, and whether universal health
coverage covers SRH services
4) Affordable health care
5) Uphold privacy, confidenGality, non-coercion
6) Enable access to safe aborGon
7) Girls – difference in neo-natal mortality, infant
mortality, child mortality, nutriGonal status
8) Non-discriminaGon based on age, ethnicity,
disability, income

13. Feminist Standards
What does CEDAW menGon on health?
CEDAW ArGcle 12:
12.1 – negaGve obligaGon, not to discriminate against
women
12.2 – posiGve obligaGon, lay the foundaGon for women’s
reproducGve autonomy/choices - States parGes shall
ensure to women appropriate services in connecGon with
pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period,
granGng free services where necessary, as well as
adequate nutriGon during pregnancy and lactaGon
12.1 – non-discriminaGon –
Direct discriminaGon - access dependent on marital
status, differenGal treatment based on biological diff,
Indirect discriminaGon – systemic prioriGsaGon of ‘male’
diseases over female, health systems respecul of norms,
but not perpetuate harmful cultural norms,
12.2 – lay foundaGon for women’s reproducGve
autonomy – 16.1 e -marriage and family life , 10h – info
on contracepGon, 14b – equal access to health care
services

14. Feminist Standards
General Comment 24
• Health laws and policies,
• Disaggregated data,
• Health condiGons, hazardous condiGons affecGng
women
• Provision of repro health, conscienGous objecGon,
referral
• Specific biological factors – prone to HIV; socio-
economic – violence; psycho-social – post-partum
depression, anorexia, bulimia
• ConfidenGality
• Spousal consent, parental consent
• Laws that criminalize medical procedures only
needed by women punish women who undergo
those procedures.
• TreaGng violence against women through healthcare
system

15. Feminist Standards
General Comment 24
• States should have naGonal strategies for
women’s health covering life cycle of women
• Allocate resources
• Gender perspecGve in policy-making,
programme development parGcipaGon of
women in policy making prog development
• Removal of barriers especially on SRH
• PrioriGse reducGon on unintended pregnancy
through access to family planning, sex
educaGon, safe motherhood services, enable
access to safe aborGon – repeal laws, enforce
posiGve laws
• Rights to autonomy, privacy, confidenGality,
informed consent and choice

16. Feminist Standards
Deriving from these two documents how can we arrive
at feminist standards for health? What rights are part
of the health goal?
Some suggesGons:
1) Right of women to enjoy the highest acainable standard
of health throughout the life-cycle (enshrined where,
how, for whom?)
2) Right to access health services and informaGon (impaired
by barriers – gender specific, structural)
3) Right to privacy, confidenGality, informed consent and
decision-making
4) Right to non-coercion
5) Right to non-discriminaGon in health care (i.e. states
need to provide access to services which only women
may need)
6) Right to non-discriminaGon (principle of equality)
7) Right to seek, receive, impart informaGon

17. Feminist Standards
Now let’s look at the Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3
3.7 By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and
reproducGve health-care services, including for family
planning, informaGon and educaGon, and the integraGon of
reproducGve health into naGonal strategies and programmes
3.7.1 Percentage of women of reproducGve age (aged 15-49)
who have their need for family planning saGsfied with modern
methods

18. Feminist Standards
3.7.2 Adolescent birth rate (aged 10-14; aged 15-19) per
1,000 women in that age group
• Right to access health services and informaGon
(impaired by barriers – structural, financial, legal),
• Right to privacy, confidenGality, informed consent
and decision-making, Right to non-coercion, non-
discriminaGon (marital status, spousal, parental
consent)
• Right to non-discriminaGon (on principle of equality) –
on early marriage, ending detrimental cultural
pracGces

19. Feminist Standards
AKainment of numbers in accordance with aKainment in
rights
Case Study: Bangladesh
• Adolescent birth rate in Bangladesh reduced from 157
(1994) 133 (2004) 128 (2009) 118 (2011)
• SGll very high, and slow progress on reducGon over 20
years
• A naGonal policy on Adolescents ReproducGve Health was
only introduced in 2007, recognizes right highest
acainable standard of health
• Talks about addressing discriminatory pracGces
• Weak because focuses acGons on effecGve disseminaGon
on info, mass media, community mobilisaGon
• On laws – awareness raising on laws, mobilising
communiGes on laws
• Policy silent on recogniGon of adolescent rights, that law
on minimum age of marriage is not implemented, age of
consent is 14, no register of early marriages, not punished.

20. Feminist Standards
• Median age of marriage for women 15.8, for men 24.2;
• 65% of women married before age 18 (minimum age of
marriage) – Right to non-discriminaGon (equality) based
on sex, and on cultural norms
• Right to access health services and informaGon (impaired
by barriers – structural, financial, legal), Right to privacy,
confidenGality, informed consent and decision-making,
Right to non-coercion, non-discriminaGon (marital status,
spousal, parental consent)
• Policy reinforces role of gate keepers – rather than
individual rights – right to access health services and
informaGon impaired by this, though gate keepers
amtudes need to be transformed it need be transformed
by recogniGon of adolescent rights
• Study showed providers were onen judgmental, imposed
unnecessary precondiGons such as spousal or parental
consent, refused services on religious grounds and denied
MR services at public faciliGes so that they could provide
the same privately at their homes.
• Studies also show lack of privacy and confidenGality.

21. Feminist Standards
Semng feminist standards calls for an
intersecGonal analysis
Adolescent birth rate has to also be analysed
through:
• condiGons of poverty resulGng in entering the
workforce early
• lack of educaGonal opportunity increased
fundamentalism limiGng women and girls’ bodily
autonomy (mobility, dressing) including sexual
and reproducGve rights
• policy context that is increasingly influenced by
fundamentalist groups

22. Feminist Standards
For issues that fall outside of the SDGs, but
are essenGal for feminist poliGcs and
gender equality, some suggesGons
include:
1) Scholarship – wriGng of problem
analysis, perspecGves, jusGficaGons,
alternaGves based on a feminist vision
2) Movement building – working with
women/ feminists in different
movements to provide the scholarship
3) Advocacy – to the larger world

23. Feminist Standards
“It is never easy to demand the most
from ourselves, from our lives, from
our work. To encourage excellence is
to go beyond the encouraged
mediocrity of our society. But giving
in to the fear of feeling and working
to capacity is a luxury only the
uninten?onal can afford, and the
uninten?onal are those who do not
wish to guide their own des?nies.”
— “Uses of the Ero?c,” Sister
Outsider