On March 22, during the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, our statement was read.
Human Rights Council
49th regular session of the Human Rights Council
ITEM 4 General debate 21 March 2022
I make this statement on behalf of the Federation for Women and Family Planning from Poland.
As a result of the Russian invasion on Ukraine, around 2 million Ukrainians fled to Poland[1] majority of whom are women and children. They face increased risks of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, and their sexual and reproductive health and rights are under threat.
Legal restrictions on SRHR in Poland are severely impeding access to urgent and essential sexual and reproductive health care for women and girls fleeing Ukraine. These include in particular access to emergency contraception and other contraceptive methods, abortion care including medical abortion, antenatal care and maternal health care.
FEDERA and other organisations replace the State in this regard and took over the burden of providing support to women and girls in need of sexual and reproductive health care. We all have very limited financial and human resources.
We call on international community to take coordinated action to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls affected by the war in Ukraine. We call on the UN to assure accountability of Poland for human rights commitments they have made by requiring from Poland to implement the international human rights law and humanitarian law. Without it, access to critical SRHS would continue to be undermined for all of us on the Polish territory.
I thank you.