On 27th November, JOICFP, in cooperation with Japan's Network for Women and Health (WHJ), held the second seminar in its efforts to raise public awareness and gather support for the ICPD Program of Action (PoA) in 2004, the year of ICPD + 10.

Sumie Ishii, Executive Director, JOICFP, spoke about the milestone that was ICPD and how it stressed reproductive health and rights (RH/R). She also spoke about the current world RH situation, and activities to raise awareness of ICPD + 10, including the Global Roundtable.

Ishii emphasizes the importance
of the ICPD Program of Action

She was followed by a panel discussion among Sumie Tanida, Staff, Women's Center Osaka (winners of the 2002 Kato Award), Kyoko Hasegawa, Lawyer, and Momoko Momokawa, a commercial sex worker. Chika Hyodo, and Prof. Hiroko Hara, WHJ coordinated the discussion.

Tanida told the audience that ten years after Cairo, much more information on RH/R was available and that 'women's issues' had previously only been dealt with within the context of maternal and child health. Now, even though women could get access to the necessary information, it was important for them to know that they could make RH decisions on their own and not have to rely on the opinions of doctors, husbands or family members.

Domestic violence in Japan

Hasegawa explained how since the law on domestic violence in Japan had been passed, the number of reported assaults and injuries on women had risen over four-fold, and the number of restraining orders had also sharply risen. In addition, she emphasized that administration of the law by, for example, the police, lawyers and judges, had a major impact on its effectiveness and the victim's lives.

Commercial sex workers

Momoka has organized a network of sex workers to help them understand how to work in a safe environment and be able to quit when they want. She explained that what sex workers wanted was what the ICPD PoA proposed, i.e. mental, physical and social wellbeing.

Momoka also spoke about her activities in delivering RH information to young people at nightclubs, saying that she was now able to talk about matters that ten years ago could not be spoken about.

After the seminar, JOICFP handed out Japanese translations of The Road to Global Reproductive Health, which outlines the history of relevant international conferences and how RH has been dealt within them.