A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Dr Milena Stevanoviќ
Introductory Address
p. 2
Bojan Jovanovski
Miloš Stojanoviќ
Vesna Turmakovska
National Investments
for a Better Sexual and
Reproductive Health
Sexuality of Persons
with Disabilities Must Not
Become a Forbidden
Touches Regime
p. 8
p. 11
Elizabeta Božinoska
Daniel Kalajdžieski
Fifteen Minutes of Your
Time – Fifteen Minutes to
Eliminate the Stigma
Silence
The Joining Thread of the
Sexual and Reproductive
Health Concepts
Clandestine Deprivation
of Women’s Hard-Won
Rights
p. 3-4
Youth Activism.
Who Needs This?
p. 9
Mila Carovska
Andrej Senih
Draško Kostovski
Safe Motherhood in
Macedonia
From the Full Realisation
of Women’s Rights to
Social Justice for All
p. 5-7
Stronger Together,
or, on the Birth
of a Community
p.12-13
Self-Respect as
a Precondition for
Realisation of Rights
p. 10
Who’s Afraid of Sexuality
Education?
p.14-16
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Our Dear Members,
Friends and Associates,
Dr. Milena Stevanoviќ,
President
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) marks its
sixtieth anniversary this year. This organisation was established in 1952 in
Mumbai with the purpose of achieving reproductive rights for women.
Today, the organisation has 172 member countries, where some 65,000
clinics have been set up. With an estimated 85 million services a year,
IPPF makes a serious contribution to
the improvement of sexual and reproductive health worldwide. IPPF
grounds its services and efforts in the
conviction that all people, regardless
of their different attributes and social
position, have the right to a healthy
and satisfying sex and reproductive
life and that in realising those rights
they are free to make their choices
independently.
As a full member of IPPF, HERA has
been working guided by this principle for twelve years now, providing
around 35,000 confidential and free
services in sexual and reproductive
health a year. With many steps forward, and sometimes with as many
back, we have cooperated with several administrations elected by the people of Macedonia. In that sense, we
must distinguish the ones who have
always been able to put aside their
own political promotion and partisan
ideology, to recognise the serious,
long-term, and evidence-based approach, and to see the true benefits
for the citizens, not only from HERA’s
activities, but more generally from the
civil sector that helps improve whatsoever segment of the sexual and reproductive health and sexual rights in
Macedonia.
2
In order to celebrate the 60thIPPF anniversary we have decided to make
this publication with the purpose
to inform the public about the importance and the correlations of the
different aspects of sexual and reproductive health and sexual rights in the
society. It is commendable that this
topic has received a greater visibility
over the last decade and has become
a part of the day-to-day discourse,
but, on the other hand, the anachronistic tendencies to limit the right to
choice have also been imposed.
This is why we have decided to invite
the ones who work daily on the accomplishment of our mission to express their opinion. Women and men
working in HERA have tried, in their
writings and through their personal
observations, to underline the problems they face every day and which
hamper the realisation of citizens’
rights relating to sexual and reproductive health. Their form of address
is rather discernible. A short essayistic
account coupled with five facts about
the subject matter. Their commitment
and their experience are their most
objective reference.
Do consider these writings attentively
and leave your convictions and ideologies behind. Because this is the beginning of a dialogue. This concerns
the social justice and a better life for
us all.
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
The Joining Thread of the Sexual
and Reproductive Health Concepts
Everyone will tell you that
human health and dignity know no
compromise. But once we tackle sexual and reproductive health, things
become different; those most voiced
in this position, very often, seek compromises. If we refer to abortion,
contraception, HIV/AIDS, women, adolescents, LGBT persons, we remember the decades-long battle against
social, political and cultural injustice
that bars the way to the benefits from
human health, sexuality and diversity.
Every day we challenge the taboos,
prejudices, stigmatisation and discrimination against the people who
simply want to enjoy their rights of
healthy sexual beings. The sexual and
reproductive health concept includes
not only physical health, or absence
of disease, but also mental and social well-being, whereby people are
free from judgement and violence
and can freely live and celebrate their
sexuality.
Human rights and sexual and reproductive health are interrelated. In circumstances when the right to abortion has been denied, a woman who
wishes to terminate her pregnancy
cannot expect her health to be maintained. A gay man will not be free to
fully live his gender identity so as
not to lose his job, unless the right
to sexual orientation has been protected. The young will know how to
protect their health against sexually
transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy unless schools teach
about sexuality education, or in case
the right to information has been restricted. Such couples where one or
both partners are living with HIV will
not be able to have children if doctors
are not familiar with or even deny the
right to parenthood planning. Women
will not be equal to men if their right
to access to contraception and other medicine, or generally the right to
health services has been restricted.
Sexual and reproductive health is a
public health benefit, and the respect
and recognition of the individual freedoms and rights is its cornerstone.
Here in HERA, hence we’ve begun,
and in that course shall we persist.
Bojan Jovanovski,
Executive Director
[email protected]
The Five Facts
1. The 1994 International Conference
on Population and Development
endorsed a Programme of Action,
the very first international political document defining the reproductive health and rights, as well
as national authorities’ obligations
concerning the sexual and reproductive health;
2. The United Nations Member
States Governments adopted in
2001 the political Declaration of
Commitment on HIV/AIDS setting
out various national objectives
and global actions to combat this
epidemic;
3. The 2002 international Technical
Consultation on Sexual Health
convened by the World Health Organisation drew up the technical
definition of sexual rights, which
also defines the right to choose
partners;
4. In 2006, the universal access to reproductive health become part of
the eight Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United
Nations in 2000;
5. In 2001 the Government of the Republic of Macedonia adopted its
first National HIV/AIDS Strategy; ten
years later, in 2011, the National
Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health was adopted.
3
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Clandestine Deprivation of
Women’s Hard-Won Rights
Many of us do not know how
cruel the abortion legalisation fight
was in the past. How cumbersome
it was for the women to obtain their
right to abortion, to lead a healthier
life, to have a future on their own. To
be able to decide about their body
by themselves, as it belongs to them
alone, and to be able to fully enjoy
the reproductive freedom.
In the mid-20th century, inspired by
civil movements and peace rallies, in
many countries women started consolidating more actively in the fight
for their rights. Women’s movements
grew rapidly, and the taboos about
abortion took up their position in
the public. Anger, pain and fear overwhelmed hundreds of streets while
thousands of women demonstrated
and lobbied for their rights and remembered their friends, daughters,
and relatives whose lives were lost or
maimed in search for abortion. Yes,
abortion was illegal, most often un-
safe, and women were humiliated and
emotionally broken. But the number
of allies who supported women grew
each day, and the battles were slowly but steadily won. Already in 1970s
and 1980s many countries legalised
abortion and recognised the right
to personal choice. The first and the
most important battle was won. Macedonian women, too, celebrated in
the same time period.
But even today, in the 21st century,
thousands of women and organisations in many countries have not
ceased fighting the battle for reproductive and sexual rights recognition.
Women’s rights are still denied, politically and socially unacceptable. The
number of anti-abortion movements
of ideological or religious background
is also growing, with a single objective: criminalisation of abortion and
restriction of women’s freedom to
choice.
The Five Facts
1. For exactly 40 years now (as of
1972) women in Macedonia have
enjoyed the legal right to abortion, as well as the right to a personal choice to terminate their
pregnancy.Also, the Constitution
of the Republic of Macedonia (Article 41) respects the women’s
dignity and self-determination
in exercising their right to termination of pregnancy without
discrimination;
2. The healthcare system in Macedonia does not subsidise any method
of contraception;
4
In Macedonia, too, organisations, intellectuals, individuals, politicians
and religious leaders have arisen over
the past years trying to deny or stigmatise the women’s rights already
gained. Posters of frightening images
of dead foetuses, campaigns moralising about the consequences of abortion, statements arguing in favour of
foetus’ right to life, but disregarding
a woman’s right to health and life. In
the name of what? What would be
the impact of taking away the right
to choice, to life, to health, to a better
future from women and their families? Many decades later, are we going
to allow someone to toy with gender
equality and women’s dignity? No,
we will keep supporting the right to
abortion, and shout out loudly and
proudly: “My body, my life. My right to
decide.”
3. Since the legalisation of pregnancy termination, in Macedonia
there have been no official records
of maternal deaths resulting from
unsafe abortion;
4. Medical abortion (termination
of pregnancy by pill) has not yet
been registered and made available to women in Macedonia as an
alternative to surgical methods;
5. The first anti-abortion activities
in Macedonia appeared in 2008,
backed up by aggressive campaigning with monstrous images
of foetuses, followed by emotional
campaigns celebrating life with a
mother and baby representations.
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Safe Motherhood
in Macedonia
If you have chosen a role to
play in your life, say, to be a mother,
or more precisely, to be a mother in
Macedonia, then, I believe, you have
chosen “the right way”. By all means
you will endow this country with population, and in return, the country will
provide you with the prerequisites for
safe motherhood in compliance with
the Safe Motherhood National Strategy. If you are a single mother, you will
be enjoying the privilege of receiving
a child benefit from the Ministry of
Labour and Social Policy. Further on,
if you are a mother at risk of giving
up your child for being single, then,
the state will call upon the My Family Project implemented by the Social
Affairs Institute to offer you an expert
support and assistance to build your
capacities as a single mother and a
single-parent family at risk, with the
purpose of preventing your giving up
the child and entrusting it to the care
of the state.
This would be nice, if it were true.
A woman who chooses to have a child
will first have to pay for her examinations by the primary care gynaecologist, to which she is otherwise entitled
free of charge. This may not pose a
problem to the employed and well-off
women who would say “well, 300-500
denars is not really much”, but they
forget about their guaranteed right
to free exams throughout pregnancy.
However, to a woman coming from
the social risk groups in Macedonia,
this may well pose a problem. These
women decide not to see a gynaecologist, believing that everything will
be fine with their child, and pleading
with the Cosmos to preserve the fruit
of their womb. And if we are to ignore
the fact that pregnant women receive
poor healthcare, we will seek justification for the increasing number of babies born with health complications
and the 30 infant deaths in the first
trimester of 2011 in the contemporary
lifestyle of women and the growing
incidence of STI. On the other hand,
if we are to look at the number of the
registered STI cases in Macedonia, we
will stand amazed at how small it is,
and will wonder whether it would be
possible to consider it relevant at all.
Enjoying your privilege to be a single
mother and the amount of child benefit you will be receiving to raise your
child may be either motivating or coercing for you to seek, as soon as possible, a partner to share the expenses
with. The training courses provided
within the My Family Project will certainly explain what it means to be an
empowered woman and how to benefit from the on-going active employment measures by the Government,
but no one will even bother to hear
you out asking questions how to sustain your child and safeguard a dignified life both for yourself and for your
child, let alone lend a helping hand in
a time of dire need.
The Ministry of Health focuses on
performance-based evaluation of
doctors, but fails to deliberate how to
provide a sufficient number of gynaecologists in the primary healthcare
that women in Macedonia need. It
makes me wonder, what is the plan of
improving women’s health and boosting the birth rate – but of healthy
born, wanted children – when we
lack gynaecologist in the larger towns
of Macedonia, let alone its villages?
The proposed measures, part of the
Health Insurance for Every Citizen of
the Republic of Macedonia campaign,
Mila Carovska,
Access to Services
Programme Coordinator
[email protected]
fail to reach those who need them
most, first of all, because a little information reaches the citizens, and second, these measures are not attuned
to the citizens’ needs. And so, we end
up with women giving birth at home
in Skopje in the 21st century, not because they want so, rather because
they have no choice to act otherwise.
5
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
The Five Facts
1. Infant mortality rate (2011): 7.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births;
2. The infant mortality rate is still
three times above the EU average of 4.75 per 1,000 live births.
The major reasons behind this include: restricted antenatal care for
pregnant women or inadequate
health behaviour of the pregnant
women; outdated medical equipment, and outdated recommendations and protocols contributing
to poor service quality; a smaller coverage by immunisation in
certain rural areas or in the Roma
community;
3. As of January 2011, the full health
insurance and health protection
programme for the citizens of the
Republic of Macedonia who have
not been covered by health insurance by 2011 has provided for: the
constitutionally guaranteed right
to health protection; health services for the purpose of establishing,
monitoring and examining one’s
health status; universal access to
health protection for the entire
population, including the people
who have no permanent place
of residence, the homeless, and
other vulnerable groups; and selection of a general practitioner in
the primary health care for all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, which enables the use of services at the primary level of health
protection;
4. 2009/2010 has seen a reduction in
the registered services in the field
of family planning (from 13,331
in 2008 to 7,966), antenatal examinations (from 92,982 in 2008
to 83,287), whereas the community nursing services and the preschool children preventive health
protection teams have grown. The
health status monitoring system
and the volume of health protec-
tion of women during the reproductive period and of infants and
young children has not been fully
developed yet, and adequate recording forms are not in place to
carry out efficient monitoring;
5. The economic factor has taken its
toll on the babies. Pregnant women do not see their primary care
gynaecologists on a regular basis, thus endangering their own
health and the health of their babies. Parents happen to take the
baby to a clinic over a banal issue,
but when the baby is really facing
a health problem, they fail to react
in time.
From the Full Realisation of Women’s
Rights to Social Justice for All
In a column, the President of
the Government, Mr Gruevski, points
out:“Lowered taxes, increased salaries and social assistance payments
are an example of the reformation
capacity and taxation policy of the
Government of the Republic of Macedonia.”My dear friends, I wonder how
to understand this construction, how
to relate it to our reality? We have
spent millions of euros foreign money
to develop strategies that will bring
about social justice, but we do not
6
seem to be able to grasp the need to
reorganise the mind-set of those who
lead us before setting unattainable
objectives.
Encouraged by the international
community, we have adopted the
National Strategy for Gender Equality without allocating funds to it, and
at the same time the Government
of the Republic of Macedonia has introduced incentives aiming at an increased number of live-born children
by way of financial aid – a parenting
allowance for a second, third and
fourth child. How ironic? Working under the pretence of poverty reduction
policies and increased social transfers
by the state, we have destroyed the
woman as a professional, as an active
factor in the national economy development, referring to her as “mother”,
as though it were the only obligation
she is to fulfil in the course of her existence, and, of course, if she were
to feel accomplished. I would say it
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
is nice to give people the option to
either work or care for their families
and be paid for it, but I am somewhat
confused by the fact that the husband or the father can use the benefits of these incentive measures only
in exceptional situations. Is it so that,
in reality, only a woman has the right
to use this ‘privilege’ by the Government? Yes, exactly so: only the women will stay at home, my dear readers,
and take care for their little children,
whereas men will have to serve their
role in the society by working as hard
as possible to provide sustenance for
their families, not because they want
so, but because they do not know or
cannot do otherwise. Will the gender
equality strategy help us overcome
our stereotypes embedded within
since times immemorial? Of course, a
piece of paper cannot change us, but
the measures offered to us as a last
resort for the way out of poverty are
totally gender non-sensitive and will
merely reinforce the unequal gender
roles of men and women. Finally, let
me stress that the recent Aman protests for social justice were organised
by men; once again, women were tac-
it followers of men’s rallying cries. Are
women waiting for the prince to wake
them up from the deep Snow White’s
dream?
The Five Facts
4. Majority of families having unemployed members (54.4%) have not
been covered by the social protection system; in addition to the
unprotected unemployed persons,
9.3% of the elderly people above
65 years of age have not been covered by the pension system;
1. 76% of the households do not
participate in the work of civil society organisations; those who do
participate, however, are predominantly involved in religious organisations (8.9%) or political parties
(7.9%);
2. The poverty rate in the Republic
of Macedonia (30.9%) is almost
the double of the EU27 average
(16.4%), and is higher than the
poverty rate of Bulgaria and Romania (20.7% and 21.1%), and of
Croatia (20.5%);
3. A UNDP research (2010), found
that the Gini index in 2009 was
35%.In 2011 the inequality of income distribution grew compared
to previous years and was 37.8.
A regional analysis shows great
variation in income distribution
per regions within the Republic
of Macedonia (between 33.6 and
46.5), and also great variations between the different ethnic groups
(the inequality among the Roma
is 48.5, whereas among the ethnic
Macedonians is 35.2);
When there are equal opportunities and good education, there is
also a possibility for social mobility,
and with it, for social equality; this
should be the key to social justice in
Macedonia.
5. The National Strategy for Reduction of Poverty and Social Exclusion is the only document dealing
with the status of the vulnerable
groups and the priorities for their
comprehensive inclusion in the
measures and services provided
by the social protection system.
However, the guidelines proposed
by this national document, adopted in 2010, were not implemented
in practice in 2011.
7
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
National Investments for a Better
Sexual and Reproductive Health
The first thing that comes to
mind to most of the people when
they hear the term ‘non-governmental organisation’ is ‘an international
money-laundering machine where
everybody gets huge salaries’. They
may think so drawing on the notion
that for quite a while there have been
11,000 NGOs registered in the Republic of Macedonia, but in reality hardly
1,000 have been active.
Miloš Stojanoviќ,
Administrative & Financial Director
[email protected]
However, the recent amendments
to the civil associations and foundations legislation have filtered the
process of operation of these organisations and, I believe, in due course
only those organisations will keep
running which have, by way of their
commitment and transparent work,
deserved the primacy to be called ‘civil organisations’.
Organisations’ activities depend on
their funding, which has principally
derived from foreign direct or indi-
The Five Facts
1. Macedonian society still holds
prejudices about the role, work
and funding of the civil society
organisations;
2. Each year the Republic of Macedonia allocates funds from its Budget
to finance the non-governmental organisations; in 2012 this
equalled 15,000,000 denars;
3. Many of the legal entities in
the Republic of Macedonia are
not aware that by funding the
non-governmental sector they
qualify for huge tax exemptions;
8
rect donations over the past years.
The state itself, including most of the
business entities operating in it, have
not yet developed the sense that civil
organisations are part of the society,
and that they should support their
operation more specifically.
The funds allocated from the Budget
of the Republic of Macedonia for the
enhancement of sexual and reproductive health, compared to the funds
received by the Republic of Macedonia from foreign donations, rank
very low. To illustrate this, in 2012, 10
million denars were allocated to the
Active Health Protection Programme
for Mothers and Children; about 6 million denars were planned for the HIV/
AIDS Preventive Protection Programme;
however, the donation by the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria for the period between 2012
and 2016 has amounted to 6,421,275
euros.
4. During the 11 years of its existence, the share of the funds deriving from the Budget of the
Republic of Macedonia has never
exceeded 3% in the total annual
budget of HERA;
5. The City of Skopje is the most consistent supporter of projects implemented by HERA, though these
are small-scale ones.
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Fifteen Minutes of Your Time – Fifteen
Minutes to Eliminate the Stigma.
The main reason why the
world of today is still unable to cope
with the AIDS pandemic is that most
of the people infected with HIV are
not aware of their HIV status.HIV testing is widely available to everybody in
Macedonia today; HIV testing is free,
voluntary and confidential; it takes up
to 15 minutes to receive the results.
And still, the number of people in
Macedonia who voluntary have
undergone HIV testing remains
insignificant.
Is the underlying reason for this the
personal perception by the people of
our country of their own HIV risk? For
example, why would sex without a
condom with a person of a different
race, a different nationality or from
another continent involve greater risk
than having sex without a condom
with our boyfriend, husband, the student we met just yesterday, our childhood friend, or a shy guy we consider
to be the man of our dreams? It simply makes no difference at all who we
engage in a sexual intercourse with,
whether our partner is of the same or
the opposite sex, how many partners
we have, or which planet they come
from. Any sex without a condom
poses a risk of HIV. It is not uncommon for the people living with HIV
in our country to acknowledge that
they, too, had believed that HIV could
not happen to them, that it roamed
somewhere out there… in other
countries… among other people…
Who should get tested for HIV? The answer is pretty much simple: each and
every one of us…This includes my gay
friend who regularly uses condoms;
and the shop assistant in the nearby
supermarket who is a mother of three
and does not use condoms with her
husband… and myself, when I decide not to use condoms because I’ve
started planning for motherhood; and
my friend who is a health worker and
seldom uses condoms… a boy who
decides to have sex without a condom with his girlfriend after being in
relationship for six months…These
are the words of a man whom I consider to be the hero of my time:“I’ve
come to get tested for HIV.I can’t persuade my partners into getting an HIV
test or using condoms. I know if HIV is
diagnosed early enough, you can live
with it long, and I’m resolved to live one
hundred years…”This man was more
than 70 years old.
Elizabeta Božinoska,
HIV Programme Coordinator
[email protected]
The Five Facts
1. For the HIV test results to be considered valid, a time period of 3 to
6 months should elapse after the
last exposure to HIV risk;
2. The following is a list of settings
in Macedonia where you can get
tested for HIV. They provide free
and voluntary HIV testing; they do
not require referrals, healthcare ID
cards, or health insurance vouchers; they guarantee your confidentiality: HERA’s mobile clinics
operating in 10 towns in Macedonia; HERA’s I Want To Know youth
centres; the Counselling Service of
the Infectious Disease Clinic; the
counselling services in 10 public
health centres across the country;
the Public Health Institute; and the
Bit Pazar Polyclinic;
3. Scarcely 0.15% of the citizens in
Macedonia have undergone HIV
testing in 2010 using the widespread network of voluntary HIV
counselling and testing services;
4. Timely testing for HIV makes it
possible to live a healthy, long and
quality life with HIV, with an equal
life expectancy as living without
HIV;
5. 100% of the people who tested
positive for HIV in HERA’s mobile
clinics were detected in time, at an
early stage of HIV infection.
9
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Stronger Together, or, on
the Birth of a Community
Andrej Senih, Coordinator of the
Stronger Together– Working Group
for Support and Self-Help of People
Living with HIV in Macedonia
[email protected]
The Five Facts
1. A 2009 HERA research showed
that 50% of people living with HIV
in Macedonia have faced some
sort of discrimination on grounds
of their health status;
2. Even though the Law on Protection of Patients’ Rights and
the Law on Protection against
Discrimination have been introduced, people living with AIDS
are still being denied service by
dentists and surgeons, and even
by their general practitioners;
10
A friend of mine, a surviving
witness of the early days of AIDS in
San Francisco, has recently recounted
the situation in the 1980s for me. In
those days newspapers would refuse
to even publish an obituary about
the ones who had died from AIDS; so,
such obituaries overwhelmed the local gay community magazine. When
people went grocery shopping, buying in bulk for cheaper prices, in their
minds they had to calculate – will
they live to spend it all? Finally, one
shiny day, not a single obituary was
printed in the local magazine: the socalled ‘triple cocktail’ of antiretroviral
therapy proved efficient. By all means,
this has not come about without the
actions taken by those concerned,
without the uncompromising fight by
the people living with HIV.
In Macedonia, however, for many
years people living with HIV have
been almost completely invisible to
the wider community. In silence and
in hiding, fearful and shameful, they
have lived the cruellest reality of AIDS
for many years more after the ‘triple
3. Both women and men living with
HIV today can count on becoming
parents of healthy children, if they
have access to antiretroviral therapy and an adequate healthcare;
4. As a public health measure, HIV
therapy can reduce the risk of
sexual transmission of the virus
by 96%.A person living with HIV
who takes their therapy regularly, demonstrates a successful viral
suppression for at least 6 months
back, and has no other sexually
transmitted infections, is considered unable to transmit the virus
by way of sexual contact;
cocktail’ had made a revolution worldwide and in the region. Hiding from
their doctors, from their colleagues
and neighbours, from their closest
friends and spouses, finally, hiding
even from themselves – unable to
raise their voice for their right to life
– they vanished off the face of the
earth, most often desolate and rejected. Indeed, they were but few in numbers, whereas the potential stigma
was so big and the remaining hope
so little, that people stayed strangers
even to one another.
It did seem, as with many other issues, this tiny, isolated country needed more time. First, the time brought
forth unselfish activists, thanks to
whom, at last, the time brought forth
the therapy. It brought about life. Out
of the many remaining challenges the
community was born, a small one still,
but an authentic one. Today they fight
for a fairer healthcare, for dignity, for
courage, for happiness – for a better
life in the community, for a better life
of the community. Their lives today
make a difference.
5. A population study carried out
in Denmark and published in
2011 reached the conclusion
that HIV infection, when treated
optimally, does not increase the
risk of death significantly.
A SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Sexuality of Persons with Disabilities
Must Not Become a Forbidden
Touches Regime
There is but one thing you must know
as a general fact when it comes to the
sexuality of persons with disabilities
–persons with disabilities are sexual
beings and they do engage in sexual
intercourse!
Apart from this fact, everything else
relating to the sexuality of persons
with disabilities is variable and cannot
be subjected to a single pattern.
The term ‘persons with disabilities’
covers a wide range of people, depending on the type of their disability: learning disability, physical disability, visual impairment, hearing
impairment…As the next person
without disabilities, these people, too,
have various interests, different standpoints, diverse learning and behavioural models, which is exactly why
they cannot accept the prejudices
that:
•
•
•
persons with disabilities won’t
make good parents, because they
don’t know how or are unable to
take care for their children;
persons with disabilities must not
have sexuality education because
this will encourage them into having sexual intercourse; or
persons with disabilities exhibit
an increased sex drive and should
be prohibited from engaging in
sexual intercourse, as this would
increase the number of unplanned
pregnancies.
There are no guarantees for good parenting; there is no ‘recipe’ for ecstatic
sexual pleasure, or for a ‘perfect relationship’ in which partners will never
come into conflict. Why should we,
then, expect this ‘perfection’ to apply
to the sexuality, family planning and
parenting of persons with disabilities? Will it not be better, instead of
‘judging’ and discussing the ‘forbidden touches regime’, to educate both
ourselves and the persons with disabilities about how to enjoy our sexuality, how to protect ourselves and our
partners against sexually transmitted
infections and HIV, and how to experiment in sex acts so as to experience
the ecstatic sexual pleasure? An adequate sexuality education will help
say NO to the forbidden touches, select an adequate protection method
against unplanned pregnancy, and
choose the right sexual partner.
The Five Facts
1. Men with Down syndrome have
sex drive and engage in sexual intercourse, but are in general
sterile, as their sperm is lacking
in spermatozoids. Women with
Down syndrome are fertile;
2. For some persons with disabilities
masturbation can be the only way
of experiencing sexual pleasure;
3. The aggressiveness and frustration in some persons with disabilities can be resulting from the
several years of suppression of
their sex drive and sexual energy;
Vesna Turmakovska,
Access to Services
Assistant Coordinator
[email protected]
4. Article 18 of the Family Law of the
Republic of Macedonia stipulates
that: “persons retarded in their
mental (psychological) development cannot enter into marriage,
in case they fall into the group of
persons with severe and most severe mental retardation (IQ