This June, the Center for Reproductive Rights’ Global Advocacy team returned to the Palais des Nations in Geneva for the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Over three and half weeks, the team worked alongside partners and State delegations to strengthen resolutions, influence negotiations, contribute feminist expertise, and defend hard-won gains on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

For 20 years, the Human Rights Council has set norms, challenged human rights violations, and sought to deliver accountability for victims. Three times a year, States, UN experts, and civil society from around the world convene to tackle thematic human rights issues and country-specific crises. June has traditionally been the Council’s ‘gender’ session, when gender-related resolutions take center stage–which makes for a packed few weeks for the Center team.

This year’s June session took place against a particularly difficult backdrop. The multilateral system is under increasing strain, and deep funding cuts have left feminist and human rights organizations with fewer resources at the very moment coordinated backlash against gender equality and reproductive rights is intensifying. For civil society organizations like the Center, the challenge is not only to advance progress, but to hold the line against regression.

Nevertheless, the session was marked by breakthrough moments that put the spotlight on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Read on for a recap.

Progressing global standards

Progressing global human rights standards

Much of the Center’s work on resolutions happens long before governments enter the negotiating room. Months before the session opened, the Center worked with States and civil society partners to identify opportunities to strengthen protections. Throughout the session, Center advocacy continued through meetings with delegations, participation in negotiations, rapid analysis of new draft texts, coalition coordination, and public advocacy for resolutions to retain strong language on reproductive autonomy, gender equality and accountability.

The Center team helped shape three key gender resolutions:

• On women and girls in humanitarian settings, becoming the first HRC resolution to explicitly recognize reproductive violence and acknowledging that such violence may constitute genocidal acts when committed with specific intent.
• On discrimination against women and girls, which focused this year on care and support systems. The adopted resolution recognizes restrictions on reproductive autonomy and discriminatory stereotypes about women’s care roles, emphasizing that women and girls must have equal opportunities, rights, and support.
• On child, early, and forced marriage, which recognized for the first time the importance of comprehensive sexuality education, as well as the serious threat that child, early, and forced marriages pose to women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

A joint civil society overview of the session and its resolutions is available here.

Convening conversations

Convening conversations

Side events are a crucial part of the HRC session, giving advocates and human rights defenders the opportunity to develop dialogues with representatives and highlight key issues. The Center co-sponsored two events this session:

• “Celebrating a Legacy for Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights”: The Center co-sponsored and moderated an event with partners IPPF and Women Deliver celebrating Dr. Mofokeng, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, whose term ends in July. The event highlighted Dr. Mofokeng’s work advancing human rights standards on SRHR and featured opening remarks by the Permanent Representatives of Finland and Guyana.
• “The Right to Health as an Enabler of Dignity”: This event celebrated the launch of the Special Rapporteur’s report, entitled “Health as an enabler of dignity,” which provides concrete legal standards around care and emphasizes an intersectional, decolonial approach to health. A Center representative spoke as a panelist alongside feminist activists, academics, civil society experts and social movement leaders.

Speaking out

Speaking out at the Council

The Center delivered statements to the Council during four of its debates, placing feminist legal analysis on the official record and responding directly to UN experts and governments:

• Celebrating feminist leadership: Joined by a coalition of feminist and human rights organizations, the Center delivered a statement during a debate with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. It celebrated the incredible legacy of Dr. Mofokeng, from identifying intersectional barriers to health; to providing concrete recommendations to address them; to grounding the rigorous academic quality of her work in the lived experiences of the most impacted.
• Challenging regressive narratives: The Center delivered a statement responding to the recent report on motherhood by the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls. In coordination with other feminist and human rights organizations, the Center challenged the report’s problematic framing, which reduced women to their reproductive role; and argued that supporting mothers requires policies that respect bodily autonomy, recognize and redistribute care work, and dismantle discriminatory narratives.
• Defending feminist movements: At a panel discussion held by the HRC president to mark the Council’s 20th anniversary, the Center spoke about the feminist and women’s rights movements that have driven the Council’s progress and which are now under existential threat. The statement urged states to invest accordingly–by funding local feminist organizations, protecting civic space, and supporting the movements that turn commitments in Geneva into change on the ground.
• Advancing accountability: The Center’s Africa regional team delivered a statement on the adoption of Rwanda’s Universal Periodic Review, welcoming Rwanda’s recent legal reforms expanding access to sexual and reproductive health and its acceptance of recommendations to strengthen maternal and reproductive health and comprehensive sexuality education. It also highlighted the work still to be done, urging Rwanda to fully decriminalize abortion and remove all unnecessary restrictions.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead

The Council’s 62nd session demonstrated both the importance of progress on gender equality and reproductive rights. As backlash against these rights continues and resources for civil society become increasingly constrained, sustained advocacy at the Human Rights Council remains essential.

This session, the Center welcomed the appointment of the next Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mariangela Simao. Along with civil society CSO partners, the Center advocated for the appointment to be based on a set of strong criteria, and are pleased the appointed mandate holder meets these rigorous standards.

The Center will continue working alongside the Special Rapporteur, partners, and supportive States to ensure that international human rights standards not only advance on paper but translate into meaningful change for women, girls and all people seeking to exercise their reproductive rights.