6 INTEGRATING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INTO THE WORK OF NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS OF THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5: Improve maternal health Target 5a: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio Indicators: 5.1 Maternal mortality ratio 5.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel Target 5b: Achieve universal access to reproductive health Indicators: 5.3 Contraceptive prevalence rate 5.4 Adolescent birth rate 5.5. Antenatal care coverage 5.6 Unmet need for family planning Links and differences: reproductive rights and violence against women Violence against women is closely related to but distinct from the concept of reproductive rights. Whereas violence against women refers to violence directed against a woman because she is a woman, or which affects women disproportionately,20 reproductive rights refers to a whole package of rights related to the capacity and right of women and men alike to make free and responsible decisions concerning reproduction, and the right to the sexual and reproductive health. The relationship between violence against women and reproductive rights is complex. Violence against women, particularly domestic violence, impacts women’s autonomy to exercise voluntary reproductive choice free from violence and coercion. It will also infringe women’s right to health, and in serious cases impair the right to life and bodily integrity. In certain cases, the breach of reproductive rights and of the prohibition on violence against women will coincide: for example, in relation to forced marriage; sexual violence; forced sterilisation and forced abortion. In addition, where a woman becomes pregnant as the result of rape, the protection of her reproductive rights may entail a right to access safe and legal abortion. While recognizing links and overlaps, it is important not to collapse reproductive rights into the general category of violence against women. This can distract from a clear analysis of what is being done (and what remains to be done) to promote and protect reproductive rights. UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No. 19: Violence Against Women, UN Doc. A/47/38 (29 January 1992), at para. 6 20