Roses Revolution is an international movement against obstetric violence, originally founded in Spain in 2011. It observes November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, additionally as "Roses Revolution Day". Women place roses in front of the delivery rooms or hospitals where they suffered varying forms of physical or psychological violence as a sign of protest.
The WHO maintains that "Every woman has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to dignified, respectful health care", but "many women experience disrespectful and abusive treatment during childbirth in facilities worldwide. Such treatment not only violates the rights of women to respectful care, but can also threaten their rights to life, health, bodily integrity, and freedom from discrimination." WHO therefore "calls for greater action, dialogue, research and advocacy on this important public health and human rights issue." [1] Roses Revolution is one of several initiatives worldwide against this form of violence.
Roses Revolution designates the protest against abuse during childbirth as an additional aspect in connection with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, introduced in 1981 and an official UN awareness day since 2000. On Roses Revolution Day, women place roses outside hospitals and delivery rooms to protest against the physical or psychological violence they have experienced during childbirth, often including messages to pertinent physicians and midwives. [2]
Roses Revolution comments on the depositions of roses on social media like Facebook and Instagram. The aim is to raise awareness of traumatic experiences caused by the misconduct of medical staff during childbirth. [3] Support also includes other measures. For example, in 2021 Roses Revolution Luxembourg published a video on women who had suffered violence in both French and Luxembourgish. [4] Roses Revolution Hungary (Rózsák Forradalma) takes part in the regional activities of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. [5]
Spanish birth activist Mara "Jesusa" Ricoy founded Roses Revolution as "La Revolución de las rosas" in 2011. At the third "Human Rights in Childbirth" conference in Blankenberge, Belgium on 4 November 2013, the movement was presented to international participants. Within three weeks, this led to action in Italy, France, Great Britain, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Brazil und Colombia. Finally, Roses Revolution became active in 30 countries. [6] [7]
Roses Revolution is supported by the German National Committee of UN Women. [8] A 2019 United Nations report by Dubravka Šimonović, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, titled "A human rights-based approach to mistreatment and violence against women in reproductive health services with a focus on childbirth and obstetric violence" lists Roses Revolution as one of several initiatives on national and international level. [9] The Austrian Ministry of health and social affairs lists Roses Revolution as a point of call for affected women in their report on women's health of 2022. [10] A European Union study on Obstetric and gynaecological violence in the EU requested by the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality mentions Roses Revolution multiple times as being active in the EU countries Spain, Germany, Luxemburg, Lithuania, France, Czechia, Italy, Austria and Slovakia - among other aspects being "the mother of all campaigns" against obstetric violence in Germany. [11]
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies and protocols, increasing access to birth control, and leading campaigns against child marriage, gender-based violence, obstetric fistula, and female genital mutilation.
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others, they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys.
Obstetric fistula is a medical condition in which a hole develops in the birth canal as a result of childbirth. This can be between the vagina and rectum, ureter, or bladder. It can result in incontinence of urine or feces. Complications may include depression, infertility, and social isolation.
Women's health differs from that of men's health in many unique ways. Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". Often treated as simply women's reproductive health, many groups argue for a broader definition pertaining to the overall health of women, better expressed as "The health of women". These differences are further exacerbated in developing countries where women, whose health includes both their risks and experiences, are further disadvantaged.
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:
Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations, and needs equally, also regardless of gender. To avoid complication, other genders will not be treated in this Gender equality article.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The premise of the day is to raise awareness around the world that women are subjected to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
The International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, usually just FIGO ("fee'go") as the acronym of its French name Fédération Internationale de Gynécologie et d'Obstétrique, is a worldwide non-governmental organisation representing obstetricians and gynaecologists in over one hundred territories. It was founded on 26 July 1954 in Geneva, Switzerland, to "promote the well-being of women and to raise the standard of practice in obstetrics and gynaecology". Membership is currently composed of 132 professional societies of obstetricians and gynaecologists worldwide.
Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), is violent acts primarily committed by men or boys against women or girls. Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime, committed against persons specifically because they are of the female gender, and can take many forms.
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is a United Nations-sponsored annual awareness day that takes place on February 6 as part of the UN's efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation. It was first introduced in 2003.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to obstetrics:
On 4 March 1994 the Human Rights Council passed Resolution 1994/45 on the question of integrating the rights of women into the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations and the elimination of violence against women. This Resolution established the mandate of the "Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women its causes and consequences". The initial appointment was for a three-year period. As of November 2021 the special rapporteur was Reem Alsalem. who is controversial for her anti-trans views and who according to legal scholar Jens Theilen is "using women’s rights as a tool to undermine trans rights."
According to UNICEF, child marriage is the "formal marriage or informal union before age 18", and it affects more girls than boys. In Afghanistan, up to 57% of girls are married before they are 19. The most common ages for girls to get married are 15 and 16. Factors such as gender dynamics, family structure, cultural, political, and economic perceptions/ideologies all play a role in determining if a girl is married at a young age.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights or SRHR is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is the recognition of every person’s right to make fully informed and self-determined decisions about their sexual participation, such as contraception use, sexual partners, and access to sexual health information and services, without discrimination, violence, and/or coercion. SRHR encompasses a combination of four distinct yet interconnected fields, which may exhibit varying degrees of distinction depending on the specific context. These four fields include sexual health, sexual rights, reproductive health and reproductive rights. In the broad concept of SRHR, these four fields are treated as separate, but are inherently intertwined.
The Global 16 Days Campaign is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day.
Abuse during childbirth is generally defined as interactions or conditions deemed humiliating or undignified by local consensus and interactions or conditions experienced as or intended to be humiliating or undignifying. Bowser and Hill's 2010 landscape analysis defined seven categories of abusive or disrespectful care, including physical abuse, non-consented clinical care, non-confidential care, non-dignified care, discrimination, abandonment, and detention in health facilities.
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou is a Greek-French gynaecologist and politician who served as Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships in the governments of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal from 2022 to 2024. A member of La République En Marche! (LREM), she previously was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022.
Sayeba Akhter is a Bangladeshi physician who has dedicated her career to eliminating obstetric fistula. She is an executive member of the International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons and has previously served as the president of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society of Bangladesh. She leads two charities, in Dhaka and Gaibandha, which focus on the education of underprivileged girls.
Dubravka Šimonović is a Croatian jurist and specialist in human rights. She was appointed on 1 August 2015 as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, and is visiting professor in practice in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics.
Duru Shah is a Mumbai-based gynaecologist academic and women activist. She is the Founder President of the PCOS Society, India and a promoter of adolescent girls and women's health and infertility in India. Shah is also the promoter of Metropolis Healthcare Ltd. She is also a Consultant ObGyn.: Breach Candy Hospital, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai.
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