Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health Education 2016 Infections (STIs) due to the lack of awareness and availability of RH utilities every year. It is reported that per annum, nearly 80 million women go through accidental or unwanted pregnancies, which results in approximately 45 million abortions and the death of 68,000 women due to complications faced in these abortion procedures. Over half a million women die from various other complications related to pregnancy, childbirth and problems in the postpartum period.3 In 2012, Maldives published the International Conference on Population and Development(ICPD) Beyond 2014: Maldives Operational Review 2012 report containing findings of studies conducted in 1999, 2004 and 2009, following‐up to the comprehensive twenty‐year Program of Action (PoA) adopted in the Cairo, in 1994. This report presents the findings of a thorough examination of the progresses gained by the Maldives from 1994 to 2012 in achieving the goals of the PoA in terms of population and development, reproductive health and rights, gender equity, equality and empowerment of women and education. Results of the report show that, although information regarding SRH is available to everyone, access to RH services are still made available to the married population only. Thus the report stated that, the “right to accessible, affordable and confidential RH services are not always ensured” (p.39) to the rest of the population. Further, the report states that men are more dominant, and often tend to control the decisions with respect to the RH of women, and more often than not, such decisions are based on the religious and cultural beliefs.4 3 (Fathalla, M. F., Sinding, S. W., Rosenfield, A. & Fathalla, M. M. F (2006). Sexual and reproductive health for all: a call for action. World Health Organization Journal paper 6, 1‐6. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth /publications/general/lancet_6.pdf 4 Riza, A. (2014). ICPD Beyond 2014.Maldives Operational Review, 2012 Progress, Challenges and Way forward. Published by Department of National Planning. 2 INTRODUCTION