Introduction

The Center for Reproductive Rights recently led the creation of a special issue of Jindal Global Law Review that aims to help develop strategies to reform sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) laws and policies in Asia.

The special issue, “Advancing reproductive autonomy and justice in Asia,” explores the SRHR situation and challenges of seven Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, South Korea, and Sri Lanka.

For the issue, the Center’s Asia team collaborated with the Law Review—a peer-reviewed legal journal with a special focus on India, South Asia, and the Global South—and Prof. Sarasu Thomas of Manipal Law School in Bengaluru, India, soliciting papers from lawyers, academics, civil society representatives, and other experts.

Among the SRHR topics covered in the issue’s eight papers and review article are:

• Birth control, pronatalism, and reproductive rights in the context of China’s population policy.
• Navigating safe abortion, post-decriminalization, in South Korea.
• Protecting adolescents’ rights in the context of child marriage in India.
• Contraceptive advertising as a right to information in Sri Lanka.
• A medico-legal history of abortion in South Asia.

See below for the complete list of articles.

Guest editors of “Advancing reproductive autonomy and justice in Asia” included Prof. Sarasu Thomas and the Center’s Prabina Bajracharya, Regional Director for Asia; Brototi Dutta, Senior Advocacy Adviser for Asia; Kruthika Ravindrareddy, Regional Adviser for Asia; and former legal consultant Sara Malkani. Alejandra Cardenas, the Center’s Senior Director of Legal Strategies, Innovation and Research, supported the conceptualization of the project and led the institutional review of the papers.

Symposium

Panels at symposium in kathmandu helped refine issue’s focus

The Center supported the authors throughout the writing process, starting by soliciting research proposals in early 2023. Authors of selected proposals attended several online workshops as well as a symposium later that year in Kathmandu, Nepal, where participants presented their papers and provided each other with insights and feedback.

Symposium attendees included lawyers, academics, civil society representatives, members of the legal community, and other experts, who presented their research on seven different panels. Questions and comments from other participants helped them to refine their research into the papers now featured in the special issue.

“The symposium provided a much-needed platform for activists across the region to come together and brainstorm legal and policy solutions for SRHR issues in Asia,” said Bajracharya. “The Center wanted to take this forward through guest editing the special issue in Jindal Global Law Review [which] has become an important site to platform and advocate for bringing legal and policy reform across Asia which is firmly rooted in reproductive justice.” Read a report on the symposium here.

Articles

Access the articles

• “Advancing reproductive autonomy and justice in Asia” (introduction), Bajracharya, P., Dutta, B., Ravindareddy, K. et al.
• “From birth control to pronatalism: Population policy and women’s reproductive rights in China since the 1980s,” Cai, Y., Liu, B.
• “No legal barriers, no safe options: Navigating safe abortion in post-decriminalisation South Korea,” Lee, Y., Lee, E.
• “Challenging criminalisation of young people’s bodily autonomy: Conversations on non-punitive approaches to gender-based violence,” Mahajan, A., Fried, S.T.
• “Protection of reproductive and sexual rights of adolescents in India in the context of child marriage,” Thomas, S.E., Shinde, S.N.
• “Transforming SRHR: Analysing gaps in law and policy on contraception and abortion for young transgender men and masculine persons in India,” Jayaprakasan, V., Khare, A. & Rana, V.
• “Contraceptive advertising as a right to information: Reproductive rights in Sri Lanka,” Thoradeniya, D.
• “Rights in the response: Exploring human rights implementation strategies to ensure accountability for the sexual and reproductive health and rights of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” Zaman, S.T., Akhter, A., Sadeque, J. et al.
• “Examining access to abortion in India and Nepal from a reproductive justice lens,” Ravindrareddy, K., Bajracharya, P. & Dutta, B.
• “Abortion in South Asia, 1860–1947: A medico-legal history (2021) 55(2) Modern Asian Studies pp. 371–428” (review), Shree, S. Mitra Sharafi.

There is “an increasing need to center intersectional justice-oriented approaches to move towards the true realisation of sexual and reproductive rights and justice,” wrote the editors in the issue’s introduction. “The ability to make and exercise decisions about one’s body, sexuality, and reproduction is at the core of gender, economic, and social justice.”

Regional project

Learning from Neighbors in Asia

This special issue of Jindal Global Law Review is part of the Center’s “Reproductive and Sexual Autonomy: Learning from Neighbors in Asia” project. Launched in 2023, the project aims to create platforms where reproductive rights experts and advocates throughout Asia can share their research and develop common strategies for law and policy reform.

The Center acknowledges the experts who peer-reviewed one or more manuscripts in this special issue and provided invaluable editorial input:

• Alejandra Cardenas, Center for Reproductive Rights 
• Andres Constantin, Center for Reproductive Rights 
• Sheena Hadi, Aahung 
• Professor Dipika Jain, Jindal Global Law School
• Professor Saumya Maheshwari, SOAS University of London
• One Flores Montero, Center for Reproductive Rights  
• Professor Anand Narrain, National Law School of India University
• Swagata Raha, Enfold
• Professor Mrinal Satish, National Law School of India University

Additional support was provided by Asia Program Manager Mahendra Panta and Senior Program Coordinator for Asia Sumitra Tharu.