Tenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Each year, women around the world experience 75 million unwanted pregnancies, and approximately 50 million abortions. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse and rape, and cultural norms may impose early marriage and childbearing. Armed conflict and displacement have a profoundly negative impact on the reproductive health of women and adolescents. Poverty, loss of livelihood, disruption of services, breakdown of social support systems, and acts of violence combine to destroy health. There is a pressing need for comprehensive reproductive health care to be made available to refugees, displaced persons, and populations affected by conflict, for reasons of equity, justice and human rights. Violence against civilian population, and acts of gender-based and sexual violence against women and girls, including mass rape, are increasingly common features of war and conflict. The reproductive health of women, men and adolescents is frequently neglected among refugees and internally displaced persons. Violence against women, children, adolescents and vulnerable groups is now being recognized and treated as a preventable public health problem. There is also a growing perception that political violence, including armed conflict, should be treated as a public health problem, and that health practitioners should treat war as a particular kind of “societal disease.” This research will yield awareness of the impact of war on physical, social and mental health, investigate preventive measures, make efforts to reduce the level of conflict within and between communities, and may help to reduce the overall level of violence, including gender based and sexual violence.