On March 5, the “Contemporary Woman” organization held a discussion on “Sexual and reproductive rights” in the framework of the “Society’s Stigma on Sexuality” initiative.  

At this meeting, representatives of the Directorate of Health of Prizren, civil society and students were present. Filloreta Vukshinaj, Project Coordinator at ‘Contemporary Woman’ center, informed the attendees regarding the initiative and its aim.  

Some of the recommendations to be submitted to the Ministry of Health and Municipal Directorate are as follows:  

• Raising awareness on using modern means of contraception through lectures for adolescents and other people, especially those coming from rural areas. Health professionals must not be reluctant to discuss contraception methods with those interested.  
• Promotion on different internet tools – Prizren Regional Hospital and Family Health Centers need to update the information regarding reproductive health on their website. 
• Privacy protection – Prizren Regional Hospital in coordination with the Ministry of Health (MoH) shoud raise awareness among health professionals about privacy and confidentiality regarding contraceptive services, abortion, and maternity care. The MoH should also establish a monitoring committee regarding the professionalism of health officials. 
• Amend the Law on Reproductive Health – Articles 2.5, 7, 8 of Law No. 02 / L-76 of the Law on Reproductive Health replace the word “female” with the word “woman” because the term “female” is the scientific term which refers to the biological and physiological characteristics, namely the sex of a species that is capable of giving birth, and the term “woman” refers specifically to human beings, or to a socially created role. 

A detailed presentation of the Law on Reproductive Health was carried out by lawyer Leotrim Gërmizaj. He also discussed pornography, the dangers and threats that come from cybersex (a virtual sexual relationship where people send messages / images with sexual content to each other throught internet). 

Attendees emphasized that these phenomena are particularly dangerous, because in most cases, the victims of pornographic and cybersex programs happen to be adolescents. 

This initiative is supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) and funded by Austrian Development Agency (ADA).