Field Testing WHO Guidelines

In 2001, Rights and Humanity produced an outline and preliminary ideas for Guidelines for WHO on using the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to strengthen women’s health. We field tested the preliminary guidelines in Jordan where we held a workshop with stakeholders to seek their input and evaluation.

The workshop was held in Amman in co-operation with the Jordanian National Council for Woman and WHO. It brought together 20 governmental, UN and NGO stakeholders.
The participants examined issues of concern in Jordan, identified strategies for action and proposed indicators for measuring progress. The participants found the draft guidelines and the approach taken to be helpful in understanding the impact of discrimination on women’s health and how CEDAW could be used most effectively.

The workshop also raised the profile of women’s health rights in Jordan. As one participant, a practicing doctor, pointed out it was the first time that she had heard formal recognition that teenage girls had specific health needs. She explained that there was a general lack of services for adolescent girls. There was a gap between paediatric care on the one hand, and maternal health care, on the other. She would use the Guidelines, when completed, to lobby for additional services.

Completing Guidelines
The draft Guidelines were completed in early 2002. We held a second workshop in Jordan with JNCW in March, 2002, to present the Guidelines to national and regional WHO staff, officials from the Jordanian Ministry for Health and other stakeholders. The objectives were to identify opportunities offered by the CEDAW reporting process and to seek input from the participants on strengthening the Guidelines.

The draft Guidelines were also reviewed by each of the regional offices of WHO. These provided written comments and also participated in a live video conference to discuss the Guidelines with Rights and Humanity and staff at WHO’s Headquarters.

Comments from WHO staff were included in the final Guidelines. These were submitted to the CEDAW Committee by WHO at its next session later that year by Dr Nafsiah Mboi, Head of the Department of Gender and Women’s Health, WHO.

In 2002, Rights and Humanity was commissioned to produce a companion publication aimed at the members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, explaining the health consequences of discrimination against women.