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Disturbing data on unintended pregnancy is the basis of the CNDH’s advocacy for addressing this issue within the context of combating violence against women and preventing child marriage

The office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Rabat, Morocco, in partnership with the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), organized on Thursday 10 november 2022, a meeting to present its report on the State of World Population 2022, entitled “Seeing the Unseen: The Case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended Pregnancy” .

Several civil and institutional representatives and health workers took part in this meeting.

On this occasion, Mrs. Amina Bouayach, CNDH Chairperson, underlined the importance of the strategic partnership between the CNDH and the UNFPA and their joint actions to combat all forms of violence against women and girls and child marriage. She also noted that the report shed light on the unintended pregnancy issue, which poses challenges to human rights defenders and is often viewed from a social angle full of prejudices and stereotypes, with sometimes unjustified silence.

Within this context, Mrs. Bouayach stated that the UNFPA report highlights a crisis affecting half of the pregnancies worldwide. There were 121 million unintended pregnancies each year. The report warns that this human rights crisis has serious consequences for societies, women and girls, and world health.

When some women resort to unsafe abortions, which in most cases are carried out in inappropriate and dangerous conditions, it does not threaten their health only but affects their fundamental right, which is their right to life, added Mrs. Bouayach.

She considered that the disturbing numbers and data raised by the report are the basis of the CNDH’s advocacy for addressing this issue within the context of combating violence against women and preventing child marriage.

At the end of her statement, the CNDH Chairperson called for strengthening advocacy for the prohibition of all forms of violence against women, including marital rape, legalizing abortion as stipulated by the World Health Organization, conducting awareness campaigns on contraception, promoting sex education, family planning, etc.

For his part, Mr. Luis Mora, UNFPA Morocco Representative, drew attention to the fact that despite the tragic nature of this phenomenon and its repercussions, this crisis has always remained hidden because it is being treated as a "women's problem" or a "private matter". On this basis, he called the international community to address this issue as a global crisis that threatens health, humanity, the protection of fundamental rights, the achievement of development, etc.

The report " Seeing the Unseen: The Case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended Pregnancy" indicates that over 60% of unintended pregnancies end in abortion, and it is estimated that 45% of abortions are unsafe. Unsafe abortions represent around 5 to 13% of maternal deaths. Therefore this situation compromises seriously the ability to achieve global Sustainable Development Goals.