The “ Draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on support for policies and actions regarding reproductive and sexual hygiene and connected rights in the developing countries” was published in the Official Gazette of the European Community (OGEC C 151 E/260) of 25/6/2002. The draft EC law which in the intentions of the European legislator should enter into force in 2003 for an initial period of four years is based on a proposal formulated by the Commission in March 2002, which starts out from the affirmation that “the right to health is a fundamental human right recognized by article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but currently denied to over a fifth of the world population”. The draft law places the emphasis on a series of concerns: the need to “guarantee a normal birth in safe conditions to every woman”; the condemnation of all “the violations of human rights committed to curb demographic growth, whether it be forced abortion, compulsory sterilisation, infanticide, or the rejection, abandonment or maltreatment of unwanted children”; and the urgent need to prohibit “both the incentives in favour of sterlization or abortion with a view to family planning and the improper experimentation of birth control methods in the developing countries”. According to article 2, the objectives of the Regulation are three: “Guaranteeing the right of women, men and adolescents to access to good reproductive hygiene; guaranteeing to women, men and adolescents access to all the necessary services and products to ensure sound reproductive and sexual hygiene; reducing the mortality rates among mothers, especially in the countries and among the peoples where these rates are highest”. The beneficiaries of this Regulation, according to its promoters, will be the poorest and less developed countries and the most disadvantaged sections of the populations in the developing countries. The Regulation will be implemented by the allocation of non-refundable financial aid, the provision of technical assistance and specific counselling services subject to EC bids for tender, which will also be open to non governmental organizations, regional organizations, local authorities and research institutes. The draft regulation and the corresponding communication of the Commission will now be examined and if necessary emended by the European Parliament, with the objective of adopting the final version by the end of the year.
