The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released The State of World Population 2021 to call attention to bodily autonomy

BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- On April 16, the United Nations Population Fund released its annual report "The State of world population 2021" in Beijing.

At the press conference, Chang Qide, UN System Coordinator in China, praised China's efforts in gender equality. He said that one of the reasons why China has been able to achieve high GDP growth is equality between men and women. Chang Qide said that the covid-19 pandemic has put many issues in the spotlight, and equal rights issues are also one of them, so he hopes that the release of this important report will arouse attention to related issues.

Yang Wenzhuang, director of the Department of Population Monitoring and Family Development of the National Health Commission, said that the report has reference significance for China's work on related issues. He stressed that equality between men and women has been written into China's basic national policy, and China resolutely opposes forced sterilization and other anti-human rights acts. Yang Wenzhuang also said that there are still cases of extreme religion affecting women's fertility in some parts of China, and China is not hesitant to share its experience on governance-related issues with the world.

Su Renna, Executive Representative of the United Nations Population Fund in China, briefly introduced the main contents of the report. She said that body autonomy is a basic human right, a universal value, and the basis for enjoying other human rights such as the right to education and the right to information. However, women enjoy only 75% of men's rights, and no country in the world is currently qualified to say that it has achieved true gender equality.

Jiang Xiuhua, deputy director of the Women's Research Institute of the All-China Women's Federation, reviewed China's progress in protecting women's rights, saying that the state's will to protect women is constantly strengthening, the mechanism is constantly improving, and it has been written into the administrative program.

Dr. Fang Gang, founder and co-convener of the China White Ribbon Volunteer Network Project, emphasized the importance of men in the process of building gender equality. He said that some men are not born with unequal ideas, and that acquired advocacy can help build gender equality.

This year, the report, titled "My Body Is My Own– Exercising Everyone's Right to Bodily Autonomy and Self-Determination," focuses on the topic of "bodily autonomy," the ability and agency of people to make choices about their own bodies without fear of violence or decisions made by others.

According to the report, only 55% of women globally have physical autonomy and are able to make autonomous choices about health care, contraception and whether to have sex.

According to statistics, 20 countries or regions have reported legal provisions "marry the person who raped you", allowing the person responsible for the rape to marry the victim to avoid criminal prosecution. Another 43 countries do not have legal provisions against marital rape, and more than 30 countries restrict women's right to move freely outside the home.

The report highlights that the most entrenched obstacles to achieving bodily autonomy come from stereotypes, subjective assumptions and misconceptions about this right and the rights of women and girls in the wider world.

The report lists 7 of the most common misconceptions about body autonomy: body autonomy is a Western concept; body autonomy is not a human right; body autonomy symbolizes extreme individualism that undermines group decision-making; achieving one person's body autonomy may undermine other people's body autonomy; some groups do not enjoy body autonomy; body autonomy undermines tradition and religion; and body autonomy is just another "women's issue."

Accordingly, the report calls for a truly empowered individual to make decisions about their own body and plan for the future, so that communities and countries can flourish and a more just and world for all to benefit. (End)

Source: China News Network