The Center for Reproductive Rights joins the world community in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10th, and, in addition, calls for an increased awareness of women's reproductive rights as human rights.
"More recent documents elaborate on the solid foundation of the Universal Declaration," said Katherine Hall Martinez, a staff attorney in the Center for Reproductive Rights' International Program, "and ensure that its fundamental guarantees are applied to women's lives, including their reproductive lives." These guarantees must be read side-by-side with the Universal Declaration, she explained.
Other Documents Essential To Women
The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 first articulated the relationship between universally accepted human rights and the right of every woman to reproductive health and self-determination.
The Cairo document declares: "These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health."
Time to Also Recognize Women
The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 further cemented this concept: "The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence..."
"The Universal Declaration opened the door," explained Martinez. "The world's women have stepped through it, utilizing its groundbreaking recognition of human rights to add weight to their continuing struggle for total recognition of full reproductive rights for all women worldwide."
Joining with the Center for Women's Global Leadership, the Center is co-sponsoring a Global Tribunal to Celebrate and Demand Women's Human Rights today, December 9, 1998 at the Church Center Chapel, 777 UN Plaza, at 3 p.m.
