A Human Rights Based Approach To Reproductive Health Amongst Adolescent Girls in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The universality of all human rights cannot be denied. The discourse on human rights includes, reproductive rights, which have emerged to be controversial in African countries. This controversy has been exacerbated by economic, social, religious and political factors. The key issues posed in this thesis are, debates about whether adolescent girls should have access to dual protection methods, dual information measures, the right to education on sexuality and the right to participation in reproductive health programmes. This has led to the need to engage in Human Rights Based Approaches to Development (herein referred to as RBAD.) This is due to the fact that human rights, human development and development have proved to be mutually dependent concepts.

This work demonstrates that civil, political, economic and social rights are interdependent, interlinked, interrelated and indivisible. I argue that due to the indivisibility of human rights, governments should not prioritize any single category of rights. As evidenced by the Zimbabwean case study which shows the existence of a hierarchy of rights where civil and political rights are given primacy over economic and social rights. Religious and cultural norms greatly influence adolescent girls` enjoyment of reproductive rights. National laws should not be used to go against the “democratic genesis” of international and regional human rights law. These practices should be abolished because Zimbabwe has ratified human rights conventions dealing with adolescent girls` right to information, protection measures, education and participation without any reservations. In this instance, treaty law is binding and Zimbabwe has to enforce the treaties in good faith. Finally I point that the Rights Based Approach to Development contribute to the politics of governance, service provision and shapes the policy making discourse. Zimbabwe should use the rights based approach in shaping its agenda for political, economic, social and religious governance. This study is multi disciplinary and is based on the RBAD and the Actors and structures methodology in international human rights law.