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 UN Committee Calls on Russia to Improve Teen Access to Reproductive HealthUN Millennium Declatation +5Beijing +10Cairo +10United Nations Special Session on ChildrenUN Addresses Reproductive Rights and HIV/AIDS |
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International News | May 2008
International Protection for Disabled Women's Rights Women with disabilities face particular disadvantages in the areas of health, family rights, and education and they are often subjected to violence and abuse. On May 3rd, protections against these harms were strengthened when the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force. The Convention provides that ratifying States must enact laws and develop policies and programs to improve disability rights, and abolish legislation, customs and practices that discriminate against persons with disabilities. The Convention contains several provisions related to the specific protection of women with disabilities. And it strengthens the rights of all women by being the first international treaty that explicitly recognizes the right to reproductive and sexual health as a human right. The treaty holds that persons with disabilities should enjoy this right under equal conditions and without discrimination. With the Convention in force, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will begin to receive periodic reports from states parties and monitor progress made on the Convention's implementation. Click here to read the full text of the treaty > >
International News | March 2008
Bringing Rights To Bear Anew Bringing Rights to Bear, a signature publication of the Center, has been updated and redesigned. Initially published in 2002, Bringing Rights to Bear takes a long, hard look at the thousands of comments, statements, and recommendations produced by UN treaty monitoring bodies, and analyzes their potential for advancing reproductive rights. Our 2008 update, produced as a series of independent briefing papers, reflects the growing recognition among these UN bodies that reproductive rights are firmly grounded in international human rights treaties. The more flexible layout allows audiences with more tailored thematic interests to receive only the information they require. Our first four updated briefing papers focus on the subjects of sex education, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and contraception and family planning. Check back for briefing papers on the issues of maternal mortality, female genital mutilation, abortion, and marriage and private life, scheduled for release later this year.
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At the United Nations |
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UN REPORT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN HIGHLIGHTS CENTER'S CASES
On July 6, 2006, the UN Secretary General released an in-depth study on all forms of violence against women. The study calls for local, national and international efforts to eradicate violence and identifies ways to eliminate the gap between States’ obligations under international norms, standards and policies and their inadequate and inconsistent implementation at the national level.
The report specifically points to unsafe abortion and forced sterilization as women’s rights abuses. The Center was a member of a task force that provided input on the study. Our submission described how accountability mechanisms can be used to address violence against women, focusing on cases involving violations of sexual and reproductive rights.
The UN report highlighted two of the Center’s cases—María Mamérita Mestanza Chávez v. Peru and KL v. Peru—as examples of important international jurisprudence on violence against women. The Center is encouraged by the UN’s focus on these issues of critical importance to women.
Read the report in:
UN human rights machinery crucial for protecting women's reproductive rights
This month, as the UN Human Rights Council meets for its fourth session, it is conducting a review of the "Special Procedures," a system of independent experts who monitor and publicly report on specific human rights situations and themes worldwide. Alarmingly, several states are proposing measures that would weaken the role of these experts.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is concerned by proposed changes that would compromise the ability of Special Procedures to act on behalf of victims of human rights violations. As objective parties who can quickly respond to allegations of human rights violations, these experts have played a critical role in promoting and protecting women's human rights, including their reproductive rights. For example, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women has brought attention to coercive sterilization as a reproductive rights violation, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health has made a dedicated effort to show governments that reproductive and sexual rights are fundamental elements of the right to health. The Center routinely engages with such independent experts in its legal advocacy, and hopes that their mandates will be further strengthened, not weakened, so that they can continue to monitor and advance women's reproductive rights around the world.
Kenya Must Strengthen and Protect Girls' Reproductive Health and Rights, UN Body Says
In its review of Kenya's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued recommendations on several of the key issues highlighted in a December 2006 shadow letter submitted by the Center and the Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya.
In its Concluding Observations, the Committee called on the Kenyan government for the following:
UNITED NATIONS ADOPTS NEW TREATY TO PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
On August 25, 2006, after five years of negotiations, an Ad Hoc Committee of the United Nations adopted a new treaty to protect the rights of people with disabilities. In addition to addressing access to education, transportation, and justice, the UN Draft Convention on Disabled Persons specifically prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in the areas of sexual and reproductive health. The approval of this treaty marks the first time sexual and reproductive health has been included in an international convention. The Center for Reproductive Rights applauds the UN’s recognition of the rights of disabled women to reproductive freedom. The Draft Convention will be sent to the 61st session of the General Assembly for formal adoption, ratification and signing.
UN ADDRESSES REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND HIV/AIDS
From May 31st–June 2nd 2006, the UN General Assembly convened a special session to assess global progress in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic and issued a Declaration of Political Commitment. It has been five years since the General Assembly, in its first session on HIV/AIDS, adopted a consensus document to establish a framework for reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2010. Many of the goals outlined in that agreement have not been met while the epidemic continues to grow.
2005 UN MILLENNIUM DECLARATION + 5 SUMMIT
More than 170 heads of government convened in New York from the 14th-16th of September 2005 to evaluate and enact key decisions concerning areas of development, human rights and security. While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not explicitly address reproductive health and rights, they encompass a wide variety of principles agreed upon at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo and its five-year review.
Ten years ago, delegates from 189 countries gathered in Beijing at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women to discuss the status of women worldwide and adopt a program for action. At Beijing, governments reaffirmed their recognition of reproductive rights as human rights and made commitments to secure these essential guarantees for women all over the world. Ten years later, at the 49th Session of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, governments are meeting to review their successes and failures in achieving the goals of Beijing. The Beijing+10 review provides an opportunity for NGO representatives from around the world, who will be monitoring and contributing to the governmental discussions, to share their experiences in pushing for implementation of Beijing at home.
In 2004, United Nations member states held a Special Session of the General Assembly to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. The ICPD outcome document—the Cairo Programme of Action—marked the first time that the international community explicitly recognized that reproductive rights are human rights, called for the recognition of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, and rejected the use of sterilization and population targets in family planning initiatives. The Programme also stressed the importance of empowering women to take charge of their reproductive lives, and laid out a twenty-year plan for furthering reproductive and sexual rights worldwide.
THE CENTER'S WORK AT THE UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations system plays a critical role in ensuring recognition and enforceability of reproductive rights as human rights. A key objective of the Center for Reproductive Rights' work is to ensure that the United Nations system promotes and protects reproductive rights. We also seek to ensure that international-level discussions of women's reproductive rights occur within the human rights framework. Finally, we aim to develop the international legal foundations for reproductive rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights has been deeply involved in recent United Nations conferences dealing with reproductive rights, including:
Finally, the Center for Reproductive Rights was involved, as a supporter of the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, in the negotiations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). As a result of the work of the Women's Caucus and its NGO supporters, for the first time under international law, the Rome Treaty states that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence are each to be considered a crime against humanity.
An Analysis of the Work of U.N. Treaty Monitoring Bodies on Reproductive and Sexual Rights
This report by the Center offers an invaluable resource to women's rights advocates by documenting the work of UN treaty monitoring bodies--which monitor governmental compliance with six key international human rights treaties--as they break new ground in translating human rights standards into government responsibility on a broad spectrum of reproductive rights issues. | ||||||
