This report highlights why bodily autonomy is a universal right that must be upheld. The report reveals how serious many of the shortfalls in bodily autonomy are –many of which have worsened under the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, as record numbers of women and girls are at riskof gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage. The report also outlines solutions that are already at hand, while making the point that success requires much more than a disconnected series of projects or services, as important as these may be.

As pointed ut by Dr. Natalia Kanem (United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency) "real, sustained progress largely depends on uprooting gender inequalityand all forms of discrimination, and transforming the social and economic structures that maintain them. In this, men must become allies. [...] All of us must take action to challenge discrimination wherever and whenever we encounter it. Complacency equals complicity. Our communities and countries can flourish only when every individual has the power to make decisions about their bodies and to chart their own futures."