Advancing sexual and reproductive rights as human rights on the global stage
193
All 193 countries in the world have ratified treaties that protect SRHR
100%
SRHR applies in every country and every context, including crisis, conflict and disaste
65
More than 65 countries have liberalized their abortion laws since 1994
The United Nations (UN)
The United Nations (UN) shapes global human rights standards and sets the stage for governments to make political commitments to implement them. This includes the development and application of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and global commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals. The UN also helps define governments’ obligations on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) like the rights to life, health, non-discrimination, freedom from torture and ill treatment, and access to information.
Advancing SRHR at the UN
The Center plays a key role in driving political commitments and human rights standards at the UN through engagement with treaty monitoring bodies, the Human Rights Council, the UN General Assembly, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the Commission on Population and Development to clarify governments’ responsibilities and increase their accountability for SRHR. We work with partners to ensure those standards are implemented at the national level and hold governments accountable when they fail to do so.
Every case we bring is rooted in the lived experiences of women and girls, in all their diversity, who have been excluded from justice for far too long.
We fight for a world in which every person can exercise the full breadth of their human rights, free from violence or discrimination
Where every person is free to decide whether or when to have children and whether to get married; where access to quality sexual and reproductive health care is guaranteed for all; and where every person is free to make these decisions about their bodies and lives without coercion, discrimination, or violence.
Key Initiatives
The United Nations treaty bodies set global legal standards for reproductive rights as human rights. Our latest report details key areas of progress on issues like access to contraception, abortion, maternal health care, and reproductive health information to give treaty body experts and human rights advocates a clear picture of the standards developed on these important issues. Read more here
The Center for Reproductive Rights welcomes WHO’s new Abortion Care Guidelines. Read our fact sheet highlighting select core themes woven throughout the new guidelines, as well as their recommendations concerning law and policy:
Fully decriminalize abortion.
Repeal laws and regulations that restrict abortion by requiring specific grounds, gestational limits, or mandatory waiting periods.
Ensure availability of abortion on the request of the woman, girl or other pregnant person, without the need for authorization from any other person, body, or institution.
End regulations that limit who can provide and manage abortion care which are inconsistent with WHO guidance.
Protect abortion access from barriers created by providers’ denial of care (conscientious refusal.)
The Global Gag Rule is a U.S. government policy that prohibits foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. global health funding from providing information, referrals, or services for abortion. It also forbids the organizations from advocating for abortion access in their countries. Because of its silencing effect on providers, the policy is referred to as a “gag” rule.
Read more frequently asked questions about the regressive U.S. policy undermining reproductive rights and health worldwide here.
Explore highlights of the Center’s global advocacy work.
Read about our global advocacy work at the United Nations.
Primary Issue:
At the UN, Center for Reproductive Rights Leaders Push for Progress
