'Peace at risk if discrimination against women continues'

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned countries that the threats to peace will rise if inequality, particularly that suffered by women, persists.

In its 2017 report, titled "Worlds apart: Reproductive Health and Rights in an Age of Inequality" and released on Tuesday, the UNFPA warned that the disparity and failure to protect the rights of the world's poorest women can undermine the established peace and development goals, reports Efe news.

The price of inequalities, on issues such as health, sexual and reproductive rights, could be extended to all the objectives of the global community, the report said.

The text specifies that failure to provide reproductive health services to economically underprivileged women, such as family planning, can weaken economies and sabotage progress towards the main sustainable development goal: eliminating poverty.

Economic inequality reinforces and is reinforced by other inequalities, including those affecting women's health, where only a privileged few can control their fertility and, as a result, can develop skills and enter the paid labour force, the report points out.

UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem stressed that "inequality today is not only about the haves and have nots... (it) is increasingly about the cans and cannots".

She also regretted the plight of poor women who do not have the means to make their own decisions about the size of their families or those who fall ill due to the inadequate means of access to sexual health.

In most developed countries, women with fewer resources have little options in family planning, less access to prenatal care, and more likely give birth without the help of a doctor or midwife, according to the report.

Limited access to family planning translates into 89 million unanticipated pregnancies and 48 million annual abortions in developing countries.

This not only harms women's health, the report argues, but also limits their ability to join or stay in the labour market and move towards achieving economic independence.

Lack of access to related services, such as affordable care for children, also makes it difficult for them to look for jobs outside the family home.

For women in the workforce, the absence of a paid maternity leave and the discrimination of employers against those who become pregnant are added to the "punishment" that involves being a mother, forcing many to choose between their career and children.

In this sense, Kanem pointed out that countries that want to eradicate economic inequality and avoid threats to peace can combat social, institutional and other obstacles that prevent women from reaching their full potential.

--IANS

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