Above: Kakenya Ntaiya was the first Masai woman to ever get a PhD and it landed her in the United Nations. Now she’s fighting female genital mutilation in the UN.
The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has called out the Morrison government for failing to sign on to a United Nations International Women’s Day statement calling for better abortion access for women.
The motion was proposed by Finland and Mexico and broadly called for greater accountability for human rights violations against women and girls.
The statement proposed greater implementation of ‘policies and legislation that respect women and girls’ right to bodily autonomy’.
This included guaranteed universal protection of women’s sexual and reproductive health, comprehensive sexuality education and access to safe abortion.
The HRLC says Australia was not one of the 57 countries who signed on.
The centre’s Legal Director Edwina MacDonald was at the session in Geneva. She’s called the decision ‘extremely disappointing’.
