The Right to Choose Their Own Path: Increasing Youths’ Capacity to Aspire Through a Human Rights Approach to Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights Education in Bolivia

Abstract

In 2013, the Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) undertook a comparative study in 12 Latin American countries, in which Bolivia came first in physical and sexualized violence against women, perpetrated by their partner or ex-partner, with 53% of all Bolivian women being affected (Camacho Justiniano, 2015) . Under Bolivian law, girls are guaranteed the right to ask and receive information and training in all areas of health, sexual and reproductive rights, as prescribed in Law No. 342 (Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional de Bolivia, 2013). However, adolescent girls and women in Bolivia are systematically denied access to information and education on their sexual health and reproductive rights. Therefore, they are at greater risk of experiencing the high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) and adolescent pregnancy that are pervasive in the country. As a result of this denial of their right to information and education, women and girls in Bolivia are often unaware of their legal rights and the resources that exist within their local context. Youth continue to be denied access to information and sexual health and reproductive rights (SHRR) education, and therefore are unable to exercise the agency to be able to make their own informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. This leaves them vulnerable to adolescent pregnancy and increased rates of gender-based violence.