Right to Health and Freedom From Violence

Plain-language summary

Bangladesh has the earliest patterns of marriage in the current developing world, high adolescent fertility and high rates of spousal violence against women and girls. Women and girls are often denied the right to choice or consent with respect to marriage, sex, contraceptive use and childbearing. However, the denial of these rights and its consequences, have not been adequately recognized and addressed in the context of the existing discourse or interventions in Bangladesh on sexual and reproductive health or violence against women. It is envisaged that the focus on realizing the right to choice and consent will bring about change in attitudes and behaviors that could not be achieved through a single intervention. A multi-sectoral action research-based intervention is proposed, involving access to information about rights, available remedies and related referrals. Information will be coupled with access to legal and health services. This action research project aims to create a body of evidence. This multi-sectoral intervention in urban Bangladesh will highlight the critical element of expressing or refusing consent and choice, through a strong network between legal services, reproductive and sexual health service providers, human rights advocates, and research organizations. This project proposes to implement an integrated intervention with both primary preventions and curative components based on the findings of the formative research. This project will document the program implementation and impact through detailed quantitative and qualitative evidence gathering, and carrying out an advocacy program to disseminate the results and bring about change. It includes: * designing culturally sensitive intervention activities with a joined up approach. * a strong community mobilization campaign for creating an enabling environment for women to live violence free lives. * individual access to reproductive and sexual health services provided through health clinics and legal services, with legal clinics providing information, advice and support access to judicial remedies for redress in cases of serious violence. * broader advocacy activities involving key stakeholders to reflect upon the findings and understandings geneated by the study and their relevance for the administration of justice delivery mechanisms. Community engagement in the project will occur at multiple levels. At the local level the project will engage through community mobilisation and service delivery with adolescent girls, women and men living in urban slums of Dhaka city. It will also undertake targeted advocacy programmes with the frontlines of the justice delivery system relevant to these areas. Finally, it will engage at a national level with policymakers, researchers and key stakeholders in the justice system and health through its advocacy related interventions, drawing directly upon its findings.

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