Understandings of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in the UN General Assembly

Accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare services is a crucial and basic need for women and girls worldwide, yet practical improvement of services and protections for access has been asymmetrical and slow. International level fora serve as a platform to define and prioritize issues, serving as agenda setting agents with the capability of shaping global standards and understandings. This study applies explanatory quantitative methods to define and understand how state sponsorship factors affect understandings of sexual and reproductive healthcare in the UN General Assembly. Through understanding how “frames” of sexual and reproductive (SRHC) are employed in UNGA resolutions within broader discussions of women and gender, this thesis examines the nexus between language framing within international policy and the potential explanatory capacity of state sponsorship characteristics. The findings of this study indicate statistically significant associations between the occurrence of...Show moreAccessing sexual and reproductive healthcare services is a crucial and basic need for women and girls worldwide, yet practical improvement of services and protections for access has been asymmetrical and slow. International level fora serve as a platform to define and prioritize issues, serving as agenda setting agents with the capability of shaping global standards and understandings. This study applies explanatory quantitative methods to define and understand how state sponsorship factors affect understandings of sexual and reproductive healthcare in the UN General Assembly. Through understanding how “frames” of sexual and reproductive (SRHC) are employed in UNGA resolutions within broader discussions of women and gender, this thesis examines the nexus between language framing within international policy and the potential explanatory capacity of state sponsorship characteristics. The findings of this study indicate statistically significant associations between the occurrence of theoretically derived “health”, “security” and “rights” frames in contexts discussing SRHC, and sponsorship characteristics. These relationships point to an unexplored dimension of research into international agenda-setting bodies and the establishment of frames through which state actors understand and discuss key issues of sexual and reproductive healthcare.Show less

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Understandings of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in the UN General Assembly