UNDERSTANDING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Reproductive healthcare is defined as the constellation of methods, techniques, services, goods and facilities that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive health problems. It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases.7 Sexual health and reproductive health overlap and, in addition to supporting physiological functions such as pregnancy and childbirth, aim to reduce adverse outcomes of sexual activity and reproduction. They are also about enabling people of all ages, including adolescents and those older than the reproductive years, to have safe and satisfying sexual relationships by tackling obstacles such as gender discrimination, inequalities in access to health services, 7 International Conference on Population and Development, 1994 Program of Action (United Nations, 1995). restrictive laws, sexual coercion, exploitation, and gender-based violence. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sexual and reproductive health involves five key components, namely: • Ensuring contraceptive choice and safety and infertility services; • Improving maternal and new born health; • Reducing sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and other reproductive morbidities; • Eliminating unsafe abortion and providing post-abortion care; and • Promoting healthy sexuality, including adolescent health, and reducing harmful practices.8 8 UNFPA. Sexual and Reproductive Health for All. 2010. INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS – A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Before the 1990’s, issues related to reproductive health focused on controlling women’s fertility in order to diminish population growth and not much more than that. Health was the key entry point and rather than reproductive wellbeing more broadly. This is no longer the case. Several consensus documents explaining the relationship between human rights and sexual and 24 reproductive health have been developed; some examples are as follows: The first document to formally embed reproductive rights within human rights was the 1968 Final Act of the Tehran Conference on Human Rights,9 which states in 9 UN Doc. A/CONF. 32/41.