In the last five years a quiet revolution has been going on in women s health, writes Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. The international community is finally waking up to the fact that recognising women's health rights also means recognising their autonomy to make decisions in their own lives. We have recognised for a long time that health is much more than not being ill, but it is another matter to decide what being healthy is.
Health is a state of complete mental, physical and social well-being.
In the mid-1990s, the Cairo conference on population and development and the Beijing conference on women focused attention on just what it means for a woman to be healthy. They agreed that women were not yet able to exercise their right to health - including reproductive health. One of the reasons is that women's special health needs have not been recognised - or, being recognised, have not been met. This is especially the case where girls get married very young and start having children immediately. This vulnerability increases if they choose to move or are forced outside the so-called 'protection' offered by the family.