Advancing Reproductive Health Through Human Rights and Laws

Advances in the recognition, promotion and protection of reproductive health have been accelerated in the aftermath of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994 and the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing the following year. Many countries already have reassessed and reformed their policies, laws and practices in the light of these conferences, or are in the process of doing so.

Of course, law must protect the sexual and reproductive health of men just as much as of women. However, because women bear the burden of gestation, and their lives and health are more at stake in pregnancy and childbirth than those of men, women are more centrally concerned than men in the legal protection and promotion of reproductive health.

In terms of modern human rights law, which guarantees equity between the sexes, many of the health disadvantages of women can be classified as injustices. Maternal death, for instance, is often only the end point of a series of injustices that women face. Women are attributed low social status and menial social roles, neglected in education, and recognized primarily for their childbearing capacity. This "devaluation" of women often leads to a denial of rights—such as the rights to access to information, adequate nutrition, and health services such as family planning—to which they are entitled by the fact that their governments have signed international agreements.

Despite the fact that international treaties and conventions on human rights exist, and that many of their clauses have a bearing on the protection and promotion of reproductive health, many women still experience poor reproductive health. Societies that accord low status to women, for example, often accept maternal death as part of the natural order of things. In a position paper presented to the ICPD+5 Forum in The Hague, Netherlands, 8–12 February 1999—held to review progress towards the goals of ICPD—the Programme stressed the need to pay more attention "to the task of translating rights in sexuality and reproduction into laws". International human rights are a key element in the achievement of better reproductive health worldwide.

Many laws and regulations have a potential influence on people's reproductive health. For instance, laws on abortion, female genital mutilation, rape and domestic abuse can directly affect reproductive health. Laws on education, employment and property, which influence women's status, have an indirect effect on reproductive health. To date, however, apart from the specific cases of abortion laws and female genital mutilation practices, there has been little or no assessment of how laws and policies affect reproductive health.

This issue of Progress looks at the complex topic of human rights, law and reproductive health. It reviews the human rights agreements that relate to women's reproductive health and explores how a human rights perspective can help to correct women's health disadvantages by highlighting them as injustices. It also summarizes and assesses states' duties to respect, protect and fulfil reproductive rights, and looks at the role of social science research in protecting the sexual and reproductive choice of adolescents.

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