Sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence in Samoa: A review of policy and legislation

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations set an ambitious agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address poverty, injustice, and environmental destruction. Through the SDGs, nations committed to gender equality and health and notably established universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as a global target. Additionally, and relatedly, the SDGs include a specific target to ‘eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation’ (UN General Assembly, 2015). While laws and policies alone cannot achieve these targets, scholars and practitioners agree that an enabling legal a..