Sexual health 'a priority for Africa'

By Ania Lichtarowicz
BBC health correspondent, Johannesburg

African governments must recognise sexual rights as urgent priorities to allow people to exercise them in their everyday lives, according to delegates at the First African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights.

Baraldi: "Just basic human rights"

The calls come at the end of the three-day event which saw discussions on many sexual health issues, including erectile dysfunction, child abuse and HIV, and their impact on the quality of life.

More than 300 delegates have addressed topics that are in most cultures taboo to discuss.

Achieving orgasms, sexual terrorism - the use of sex to control people and safe sex campaigns for gay men to name but a few.

Now the discussions are over and action needs to be taken by policy makers and independent agencies, otherwise all the talking has been for nothing.

The conference is calling now for governments to make sexual health a priority.

Link to key problems

The conference president, Dr Ezio Baraldi, says he wants to see governments adopt the World Health Organization's Declaration of Sexual Rights to give people basic powers.

"Essentially they are just basic human rights. They are the right of an individual to have adequate sexual education. They are the right of an individual to choose when and how they wish to exercise their sex life. People have the right to enjoy their sex life," he said.

A lack of basic sexual rights leads to many of the problems faced in Africa today like HIV, violence and child abuse, which is why sexual health is now being looked at in this way.

The dates are already set for the next sexual health conference in Africa which will take place in 2006.

If there has been a change in sexual attitudes and behaviour by then this conference will be considered a success.