Woman Forced to Carry Fatally Impaired Fetus to Term Wins Case New York, NY-Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) decided its first abortion case, KL v. Peru. The decision establishes that denying access to legal abortion violates women’s most basic human rights. This is the first time an international human rights body has […]
European Court of Human Rights Rules Poland’s Denial of Legal Reproductive Care Violates Human Rights (Updated 4.01.21) The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Poland’s failure to ensure the applicant’s timely access to prenatal diagnostic examinations and information, which would have enabled her to decide whether or not to seek a legal abortion, violated her rights under the European Convention […]
In July 2004, in a case that could have undermined abortion rights across Europe, today the European Court of Human Rights refused to treat a fetus as a person under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court upheld a 1999 decision by France’s highest court in the case […]
Commissioner for Human Rights Calls on Slovak Government to Accept Responsibility for Failing to Protect Women from Illegal Sterilizations and to Enact Laws to End Practice On October 29, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe concluded that “it can reasonably be assumed” that Romani women in Slovakia were sterilized without their […]
At the conclusion of a criminal investigation tainted by strong-arm tactics, the Slovak Deputy Prime Minister of Human Rights and Minorities Pál Csáky rejected the findings of a human rights report that documented 110 cases of Romani women who were forcibly and coercively sterilized in public hospitals in eastern Slovakia. “The continued harassment and intimidation […]
New Report Documents the Gag Rule’s Devastating Effects on Unsafe Abortion in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Peru At a breakfast briefing on October 22, women’s health experts from Kenya and Peru will discuss the devastating effects of the Bush Administration’s gag rule on women and reproductive health advocates in their countries. At the event, the […]
Policy Changes Come After Coerced Sterilization Case that Ended in Death Yesterday, the government of Peru signed an agreement before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that should bring about sweeping changes in Peru’s reproductive health policies, and improve women’s access to family planning and reproductive healthcare. In a landmark settlement involving the case […]
Executive Summary Every year, twenty million—mostly poor—women around the world are driven to unsafe abortion. More than 95% of these abortions occur in low-income countries. And every year, complications from these procedures claim the lives of some 70,000 women. Untold millions more suffer serious injuries and permanent disabilities. Set against this international health crisis is […]
Statement of Nancy Northup, President, Center for Reproductive Rights “Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $15 billion HIV/AIDS plan aimed at combating the AIDS pandemic internationally over the next five years. We applaud the House’s decision because U.S. financial commitment to providing access to effective prevention, treatment, and care for people living with […]
UN Human Rights Committee Establishes Right to Abortion as a Human Right (Updated 3.18.21) The Center for Reproductive Rights persuaded the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) to recognize that women have a human right to access safe and legal abortion. In a ruling that has been cited extensively as precedent in other national-level court decisions on abortion access, the UNHRC established that denying access to legal abortion violates the International Covenant on […]