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49. States parties have a core obligation to ensure, at the very least, minimum essential levels of satisfaction of the right to sexual and reproductive health. In this regard, States parties should be guided by contemporary human rights instruments and jurisprudence, 38 as well as the most current international guidelines and protocols established by United Nations agencies, in particular WHO and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). 39 The core obligations include at least the following:

(a) To repeal or eliminate laws, policies and practices that criminalize, obstruct or undermine access by individuals or a particular group to sexual and reproductive health facilities, services, goods and information;

 (b) To adopt and implement a national strategy and action plan, with adequate budget allocation, on sexual and reproductive health, which is devised, periodically reviewed and monitored through a participatory and transparent process, disaggregated by prohibited ground of discrimination;

(c) To guarantee universal and equitable access to affordable, acceptable and quality sexual and reproductive health services, goods and facilities, in particular for women and disadvantaged and marginalized groups;

(d) To enact and enforce the legal prohibition of harmful practices and gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage and domestic and sexual violence, including marital rape, while ensuring privacy, confidentiality and free, informed and responsible decision-making, without coercion, discrimination or fear of violence, in relation to the sexual and reproductive needs and behaviours of individuals;

(e) To take measures to prevent unsafe abortions and to provide post-abortion care and counselling for those in need;

(f) To ensure all individuals and groups have access to comprehensive education and information on sexual and reproductive health that are non-discriminatory, non-biased, evidence-based, and that take into account the evolving capacities of children and adolescents;

(g) To provide medicines, equipment and technologies essential to sexual and reproductive health, including based on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines; 40

(h) To ensure access to effective and transparent remedies and redress, including administrative and judicial ones, for violations of the right to sexual and reproductive health.

38 See, for example, www.icpdbeyond2014.org; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women communications No. 17/2008, and No. 22/2009, L.C. v. Peru, views adopted on 17 October 2011; and general comments and recommendations of Committee on the Rights of the Child and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. 

39 See e.g. Inter-agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings (Inter-agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises, 2010), available from www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/emergencies/ field_manual_rh_humanitarian_settings.pdf; and publications by UNFPA on sexual and reproductive health, available from www.unfpa.org/sexual-reproductive-health.

40 See WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, sect. 18.3.

https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/089/32/PDF/G1608932.pdf