Center Events at Women Deliver 2023

Join the Center for Reproductive Rights for these events at the 2023 Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda.

Plenary 3: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Tuesday, July 18, 13:30 – 15:00 CAT, Plenary Hall, Kigali Convention Centre

The Center’s President and CEO Nancy Northup will join a panel of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) champions to discuss global progress on abortion rights as well as the urgent challenges that lie ahead.

Highlights include: 

» Discussion of the 30 years of progress towards the recognition of abortion as a fundamental human right worldwide. 

» Call for further action to address urgent challenges and to secure the protections that have been achieved. 

» An insider’s view from Northup of the Center’s fight to defend U.S. abortion rights in the Dobbs case, and the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s radical decision one year ago overruling Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.

Additional panelists include: 

» Dr. Carla Vizzotti, Minister of Health in Argentina 

» Dr. Angela Akol, Director of the Ipas Africa Alliance 

» Dr. Ana Cristina González Vélez, a Founder of Latin America’s Causa Justa movement 

» Nepali Activist

About Nancy Northup: During Northup’s tenure as President and CEO, the Center for Reproductive Rights, in partnership with local organizations, has worked to expand and defend sexual and reproductive health and rights in more than 70 countries across five continents. Northup was previously the founding director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. She has served as a prosecutor and Deputy Chief of Appeals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and held adjunct appointments at NYU Law School and Columbia Law School.

Concurrent Session: Abortion Progress Around the World

Wednesday, July 19, 9:30 – 11:00 CAT, MH1.1, Kigali Convention Centre

Hear about the significant progress made by feminist organizations and the vast coalitions they have built to destigmatize abortion and to galvanize support for gender equality across the globe. The Center’s Catalina Martínez Coral, senior regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean and a prominent member of the Causa Justa movement, will facilitate the discussion. 

Martínez Coral will lead a discussion with reproductive rights advocates including: 

» Dr. Ana Cristina González Vélez, a Founder of Latin America’s Causa Justa movement (Colombia) 

» Rebeca Ramos, Executive Director of GIRE (México) 

» Sabin Shrestha, Executive Director of Forum for Women, Law and Development (Nepal) 

» Amanda Banura, Youth Advisory Member of SHE SOARS (Uganda) 

About Catalina Martínez Coral: Currently the Senior Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Martinez Coral has served both as a plaintiff and a litigant in key Latin American abortion rights cases. Her expertise includes the decriminalization of abortion in Latin America’s Marea Verde or “Green Wave” movement; reproductive rights litigation for girls and adolescents before the United Nations Human Rights Committee; agro-toxins and their links to reproductive rights and health; and comprehensive sex education for girls and adolescents. 

SRHR Networking Side Event: The Forward Fight—The Center’s Global Work for Reproductive Rights

Tuesday, July 18, 19:30 – 21:00 CAT, Kigali Mariott Hotel, Muhazi & Virunga Room

This networking side event—sponsored by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Devex, the media platform for the global development community—will bring sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) leaders and key stakeholders together to celebrate critical SRHR advancements and advocate for abortion rights across the globe.

Highlights include:

• Recognition of the 20th anniversary of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa—known as the Maputo Protocol—which guarantees the right to abortion under certain situations.
• The trend towards liberalization of abortion laws and policies in more than 60 countries over the last three decades.
• An introduction to the Center and its work to advance legal protections for reproductive rights across the globe, by our President and CEO Nancy Northup.
• The launch, by Northup, of the newest version of the Center’s World’s Abortion Laws Map, which tracks progress and setbacks on abortion rights in countries across the world and shows each government’s protections for reproductive freedoms.
• Opportunities for attendees to strategize on the fight forward to secure stronger SRHR protections for women and girls.

Devex Associate Editor Rumbi Chakamba, based in Botswana, will facilitate the discussion with speakers to also include: 

• Pascale Allotey, SRH/HRP Director at the World Health Organization
• The Honorable Marci Ien, a Member of Canadian Parliament and Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth
• Representative of the Government of Rwanda

By invitation only:

Strategic Litigation as a Tool for Safeguarding Women and Girls’ SRHR in Africa

Tuesday, July 18, 11:30 – 13:30 CAT, Lemigo Hotel

At this networking side event being convened by the Center’s Africa team, panelists will highlight strengths and opportunities of using litigation to promote legal and policy changes to protect and uphold the SRHR rights of women, girls and other vulnerable groups in Africa.

Topics include:

• The importance of strategic litigation in providing guidance to States on their SRHR obligations under national, regional and international laws.
• Challenges facing strategic litigation and advocacy strategies and interventions to effectively address them.

Aaron Mbembe, Associate Director, Policy and Influencing, Health Development Initiative (HDI), Rwanda, will moderate the panel, which will feature:

• Justice Effie Owuor, Judge of Appeal (Retired), LLB Honours
• Prudence Mutiso, the Center’s Senior Legal Adviser for Africa
• Tom Mulisa, executive director, Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD)
• Getrude Dyabene, Senior Officer, Gender, Women & Children, Legal Human Rights Center (LHRC)
• Seth Nimwesiga, Programme Associate, Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD)

Panel organizers: Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR-Africa), Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD), Health Development Initiative (HDI), Legal Human Rights Center (LHRC), Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD)

Please note: This event is by invitation only.

Pre-conference Event: Bodily Autonomy (UNFPA)

Monday, July 17, 8:30 – 12:30 CAT, Serena Hotel Auditorium

The Center’s Catalina Martínez Coral will speak about progress and regression on abortion in the Latin American region.

Concurrent Session: Demanding Reproductive Justice and Rights—Responses to the Climate Crisis

Tuesday, July 18, 9:30 – 11:00 CAT, Location TBD

The Center’s Alejandra Coll, Advocacy Adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean, will speak about the Center’s work on toxins and their impact on reproductive health and rights.

Concurrent Session: Accountability Moment—Generation Equality Bodily Autonomy and SRHR Coalition

Wednesday, July 19, 13:30 – 15:00 CAT, AD 12.2

The Center’s Catalina Martínez Coral will speak about the Causa Justa movement in Colombia at this session organized by the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition on Bodily Autonomy and SRHR.

The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization that uses the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world. The Center’s game-changing litigation, legal policy and advocacy work—combined with its unparalleled expertise in the use of constitutional, international and comparative human rights law—have transformed how reproductive rights are understood by courts, governments and human rights bodies. 

The Center’s current strategic plan envisions that by 2030, half the world’s population will be living under stronger legal protections for sexual and reproductive rights. Explore the Center’s Strategic Plan, Theory of Change and Partnership Principles.