World Health Organization

This statement explains the WHO's position on progestogen-only implants as a method of contraception. It briefly details various progestogen-only implant systems and describes their mechanisms of action and considers the advantages of this method of contraception. The statement mentions that the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children endorsed contraceptive implants in 2012. The authors dismiss concerns about the effectiveness of progestogen-only implants for women living with HIV and are taking certain

This World Health Organization policy brief assesses the safety and acceptability of using mid-level health care providers as an alternative to doctors for the provision of safe first- trimester abortion. This is considered as a potentially cost effective solution for countries aiming to increase access to safe first-trimester abortion while also preserving scarce health-care resources. The brief reports on a study comparing the safety of first-trimester abortion (manual vacuum aspiration method) by type of provider (nurses, midwives, mid-level

This report recommends policy guidelines to address sexual and intimate partner violence against women. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Guideline Development Group, comprised of clinicians, health service providers, policy makers and women's rights advocates, developed these guidelines at a WHO meeting in September 2011. These guidelines pertain specifically to healthcare providers, who are often the first professional contacts for survivors of sexual or intimate partner violence. Their purpose is to enable health care providers to give survivors non-

This WHO report is the first global systematic review of both intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence perpetuated against women. The report presents global and regional estimates of the prevalence of these two types of violence against women, generated using population data. It also examines the effects of violence upon women's mental, physical, sexual and reproductive health and reveals variances in the rates of violence between countries. This report recommends exploring the factors that contribute to these variances and to

This fact sheet by the World Health Organization discusses violence against women as a health and human rights issue. It is based on the definition of violence against women set out in the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women: "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life".

This information pack produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) about female genital mutilation contains, among other things, a description of the practice, statistics about its prevalence and distribution, a brief discussion of the international standards prohibiting FGM, a list of groups and contact persons working to elminate the practice, and a selected bibliography. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Female Genital Cutting, International]

This information bulletin argues that intimate partner violence should be considered in the campaign against HIV/AIDS.

This bulletin addresses how conflict situations increase the risk of sexual violence and vulnerability to HIV for women and girls: women in conflict have usually fled their homes, lost their families and livelihoods, and have little or no access to health care. The bulletin discusses how these factors allow for situations where abusive sexual relationships are more accepted, and where sex is viewed as an easy service to obtain.

This information sheet from the World Health Organization begins by noting the pervasive lack of respect for women's rights to safe sexuality and links this issue to women's lack of economic security. Other concerns relating to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and women include issues of sexual violence and the lack of education for adolescents on these issues. The publication also contains information regarding human rights issues raised on preventing transmission of the virus from mother to child. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - HIV/AIDS, International]