30. Voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VIP) 30. 1. States must ensure that the victims of sexual violence have access to medical abortions, as set out in the Maputo Protocol and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. States must adopt the appropriate laws, regulations and programs to ensure the de jure and de facto exercise of the right to obtain a medical abortion in cases of sexual violence. States must ensure that women who have had abortions are not criminally prosecuted. Women who wish to obtain a medical abortion or emergency medical care after having undergone a clandestine abortion must not be questioned or prosecuted. 30. 2. States must adopt the necessary measures to enable adult women victims of sexual violence to make a decision to have an abortion without the need for permission from any third party, especially their spouse or partner. 30. 3. States must create favourable conditions to enable and facilitate access to medical abortion for minors who are victims of sexual violence. These conditions must be guaranteed without the need for prior approval from parents or guardians, where there are valid reasons to believe that these minors could suffer reprisals, violence, threats, coercion, abuse or abandonment. 30. 4. Health professionals must not fear that they will suffer sanctions for having provided abortion services in cases of sexual violence. States must eliminate unnecessary or irrelevant restrictions on the profile of service providers authorized to perform medical abortions and should not require multiple signatures or approvals from health professionals for the cases set forth in the Maputo Protocol. Providers of intermediate care, such as midwives and other healthcare professionals, must be trained to perform risk-free abortions. Health care providers must not be obliged to report cases of clandestine abortions that they witness. States must ensure that these healthcare services and healthcare providers do not refuse access to information and services on medical abortion because of opposition from a third party or conscientious objection. Explanatory Notes: Maputo Protocol, Article 14 (2) (c); ACHPR, General Comment No. 2 of Article 14.1 (a), (b), (c) and (f) and Article 14.2 (a) and (c) of the Protocol to the African Charter (2014); Declaration of the Special Rapporteur of the ACHPR on the rights of women during the celebration of the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion (September 2016). See also the Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Framework of Actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development after 2014, E/CN.9/2014/4, par. 81 (2014); Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 22 on the Right to sexual and reproductive health, E/C.12/GC/22 (2016); Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 20 on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, CRC/C/GC/20, par. 60 (2016); Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, Article 24, CRC/C/GC/15 (2013); Provisional Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, A/66/254 (3 August 2011); Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Juan E. Méndez, A/HRC/22/53, par. 46-50 (2013); Committee Against Torture, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 19 of the Convention: Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture, par. 16, CAT/C/NIC/CO/1 (2009), where the Committee acknowledges that torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment can include a refusal or failure to provide access to abortion in the event of rape. See also the continental Campaign for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Africa of the ACHPR Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women. 31. Post-abortion care States must ensure that women victims of sexual violence who seek post-abortion care are not accused or detained on suspicion of clandestine abortion, and that those who have received post-abortion care are not prosecuted. Explanatory Notes: Maputo Protocol, Article 14 (2) (c); ACHPR, General comment No. 2 of Article 14.1 (a), (b), (c) and (f), and Article 14.2 (a) and (c) of the Maputo Protocol. GUIDELINES ON COMBATING SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN AFRICA 27