Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Este es un ensayo que se enmarca dentro de la reflexión por el centenario de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, promulgada en 1917. El punto de partida, por lo tanto, es el texto constitucional en sí. Desde aquí, son dos las preguntas principales que guían este ensayo. La primera es: ¿qué dice o qué no dice la Constitución sobre " los derechos sexuales y reproductivos "? La segunda, que se derivará de la anterior, es: ¿qué discusiones constitucionales más amplias están implicadas en el debate por estos derechos? En otras palabras: ¿por qué el debate por los derechos sexuales y reproductivos puede ser interesante y relevante para quienes no se especializan en ellos pero tienen, de cualquier forma, un interés en la Constitución y los derechos humanos?

¿Cómo pudo ocurrir que la institucionalización de los derechos de las mujeres posibilitara  la violación de los derechos reproductivos de las mujeres indígenas?  Esta tesis empieza con el establecimiento del PNSRPF 1996-2000 (Plan de planificación familiar) que fue parte de una campaña por los derechos de la mujer en el Perú fujimorista y causa de las esterilizaciones forzadas de más de  diez mil mujeres campesinas.  En esta tesis examino la memoria histórica del movimiento feminista peruano con el objetivo de comprender los factores que permitieron la vulnerabilidad de las campesinas dentro del marco de una campaña por los derechos de la mujer.  El movimiento feminista peruano puede mostrar tres dimensiones de los derechos humanos: los reproductivos y sexuales; los humanos y ciudadanos, y los derechos políticos.  Sin embargo, ninguno de estos  pudo responder a la condición interseccional de la identidad de las campesinas y a su exclusión inclusiva como ciudadanas.  Aun cuando se pensaba que  los derechos protegían a “todas las mujeres” o a “todos los peruanos” estos paradigmas aislaron los proyectos de derechos específicos que permitieron la invisibilidad de las campesinas.

El artículo “El caso peruano de esterilización forzada. Notas para una cartografía de la resistencia,” propuesto para el dossier “Género, Violencia y Política en la Historia Reciente Latinoamericana” de la presente edición, es una breve introducción al caso (1996-2000) desde el panorama (no exhaustivo) de la resistencia conformada por mujeres indígenas, organizaciones feministas, organizaciones en pro de los derechos humanos, sociedad civil organizada, investigadores, periodistas y artistas. Sobre todo, se requiere consignar aquellas intervenciones en el espacio y esfera públicos que han dibujado la lucha por alcanzar la justicia (penal y/o social) frente a los miles de casos de esterilización forzada en el Perú, ayudando al reconocimiento legítimo de los derechos sexuales y los derechos reproductivos sobre todo de las mujeres. Es decir: una cartografía del terreno en el que se desplaza el movimiento de resistencia social.

Przerywanie ciąży, wiążące się z uśmierceniem płodu, jest bez wątpienia jednym z najbardziej kontrowersyjnych zabiegów medycznych. Procedura ta od lat wzbudza żywe spory i dyskusje o charakterze etycznym, religijnym, politycznym i prawnym . W dyskusjach tych ścierają się różne światopoglądy i stanowiska – od skrajnie tradycjonalistycznych, uznających aborcję za zło moralne równorzędne złu zabicia urodzonego człowieka, po skrajnie liberalne, według których decyzja o terminacji ciąży powinna należeć wyłącznie do kobiety ciężarnej. Celem niniejszego opracowanie nie jest referowanie tych historycznie i przedmiotowo złożonych sporów ani też opowiadanie się po którejkolwiek ze stron. W ko-lejnych rozdziałach omówiona zostanie historia polskich regulacji przerywania ciąży z uwzględnieniem okoliczności polityczno-społecznych ich powstania i ewolucji. Następnie, przedstawione zostaną aktualnie obowiązujące regulacje prawne dotyczące aborcji z praktyką ich stosowania oraz ich ocena w świetle międzynarodowych standardów ochrony praw człowieka.

Spis treści:
1. Wprowadzenie
2. Historia regulacji przerywania ciąży w Polsce
2.1. Od odzyskania niepodległości do upadku komunizmu
2.2. Burzliwy przełom lat 80-tych i 90-tych
2.3. Ustawa o planowaniu rodziny z 1993 r. i jej nowelizacja z 1996 r.
2.4. Orzeczenie Trybunału Konstytucyjnego z 1997 r.
2.5. Bieżące spory o regulację aborcji
3. Warunki dopuszczalności przerywania ciąży w aktualnym stanie prawnym
3.1. Wstęp. Definicja ciąży
3.2. Przesłanki dopuszczalności przerwania ciąży
3.2.1. Zagrożenie dla zdrowia lub życia kobiety
3.2.2. Upośledzenie lub choroba płodu
3.2.3. Pochodzenie ciąży z czynu zabronionego
3.3. Pozostałe warunki legalnego przerwania ciąży
3.3.1. Granice czasowe przerwania ciąży
3.3.2. Zgoda na przerwanie ciąży
3.3.3. Kwalifikacje lekarza dokonującego przerwania ciąży
3.3.4. Miejsce dokonania przerwania ciąży
3.4.5. Finansowanie przerywania ciąży
4.  Przerwanie ciąży – czyn niekarany, kontratyp czy realizacja prawa podmiotowego
5.  Polska regulacja przerwania ciąży i praktyka jej stosowania w świetle międzynarodowych standardów ochrony praw człowieka 
5.1. Dostęp do aborcji w Polsce w świetle standardów ochrony praw człowieka ONZ
5.2. Dostęp do aborcji w Polsce w świetle standardów ochrony praw człowieka Rady Europy
6. Uwaga końcowa

Attention Press and Media: As a known legal and bioethics expert in women's health I have witnessed the reality that many women's health issues are lost in getting national coverage. It is clear that language concepts are essential in the education of the public on complex medical issues. At a recent meeting held at the Jungian Institute in Los Angeles a group of female therapists (all well-educated and not isolated persons), I found that only one woman had heard of morcellation. The rest of the group were horrified and found it difficult to believe me as I discussed the event of morcellation. This incident showed me the failure of our nation to learn about man made medical disasters that have cause pain, suffering, dysfunction and yes, even death of women. In order for one to discuss these issues basic terms are needed to begin with. I recalled my years of philosophy and that language is essential in the transference of information. One cannot report on these topics without having a language that the public can understand. Thus I will be providing new terms so that the press and reporters can use the terms and focus on these stories, for the loss of life is ongoing. Sometimes a term is needed to understand an event in our history. When the term " holocaust " came into use, the world was then capable of grasping the horror. There has been little effort to recognize that these stories all need to be told so that action can take place to change " mayhem and killing practices " .

I am asking you to publish this across the nation. ~ Dr. Vikki Hufnagel, MD

En Argentina, los activismos trans han logrado cierto reconocimiento social de que las mujeres cis no son el único sujeto del aborto ni de las luchas por el aborto. Sin embargo, las intervenciones críticas realizadas por activistas trans han ido más allá de la mera aserción de que algunas personas trans y no binarias pueden abortar. También han subrayado las contribuciones que podría realizar el movimiento transen torno a cuestiones de autonomía corporal y (no) reproductiva, y han señalado modos concretos en que las experiencias activistas trans en Argentina –sobre todo, el logro de una ley de identidad de género despatologizante y descriminalizante– podría movilizarse para avanzar las discusiones en torno a la legalización del aborto. //

En esta ponencia, nos proponemos explorar los activismos trans y travestis en torno al aborto en Argentina y las negociaciones con los activismos feministas y de mujeres en torno al mismo tema. Nos preguntamos, ¿qué demandas y propuestas han realizado activistas trans y travestis hacia el activismo mayoritario en torno al aborto? ¿De qué maneras han justificado distintos sujetos de los movimientos travesti-trans su participación dentro de esta lucha? ¿Y en qué maneras han contribuido las intervenciones trans a moldear el paisaje actual del activismo en torno al aborto? Nos interesa particularmente identificar los diferentes modos en que lxs activistas trans han buscado enmarcar el derecho al aborto dentro de agendas más amplias –en torno a derechos sexuales, de género y de salud– como un modo de proponer bases comunes para alianzas entre movimientos trans, feministas, lésbico-gay-bisexuales, y/o de mujeres. Exploraremos estas preguntas a través del análisis de intervenciones públicas en torno al aborto realizadas por activistas y organizaciones de personas transmasculinas, transfemeninas, travestis y no-binaries durante la última década y media (discursos, textos publicados, intervenciones radiales, piezas artísticas, volantes, etc.).

Médecins du Monde (MdM), France, undertook a pilot project in Lahore in partnership with the Population Welfare Department (PWD) of Punjab to improve the quality of the family planning (FP) services for vulnerable communities and empower them to raise their voice and access their SRH rights (SRHR).
This report presents end-line evaluation findings of the pilot project titled “To contribute to the Achievement of FP2020 Contraceptive Prevalence Rate Objectives of Pakistan, in Punjab Province.”, referred to as FP2020-CPROP (CPR Objective in Punjab) which took place from November 2017 to March 2020 in Lahore district in partnership with the PWD at its six low-performing centers -- one Family Health Clinic (FHC) and five Family Welfare Centers (FWC) -- that serve over 55,000 low-income households of Shalamar Town in North Lahore. The evaluation covers FP2020-CPR-OP three components:
• Demand generation through an innovative male-led community mobilization approach
• Capacity building and technical assistance to PWD field staff and counselors at FWCs, and
• Common advocacy for SRHR in Punjab province.
And, based on the lessons learned, makes recommendations for scaling up the project.

In Argentina, campaigns for the recognition of sexual and reproductive rights have sparked opposition through litigation in which the dynamics of legal action have come from self-proclaimed “pro-life” NGOs, particularly since 1998, when the conservative NGO Portal de Belén successfully achieved the banning of emergency contraception through the courts. The activities of these groups, acting as a “civil arm” of religion, are focused primarily on obstructing access to legally permissible abortions and bringing about the withdrawal of a number of recognized public policies on sexual and reproductive health, particularly the 2002 National Programme for Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation. This paper analyzes the litigation strategies of these conservative NGOs and how their use of the courts in Argentina has changed over the years. It gives examples of efforts in local courts to block individual young women from accessing legal abortion following rape, despite a ruling by the National Supreme Court of Justice in 2012 that no judicial permission is required. In spite of major advances, the renewed influence of the Catholic hierarchy in the Argentine political scene with the accession of the new Pope poses challenges to the work by feminists and women’s movements to extend and consolidate sexual and reproductive rights.

A Bill before the New South Wales Parliament attempted to re-frame harm to late-term fetuses as grievous bodily harm to the fetus itself rather than (under the existing law) grievous bodily harm to the mother. To achieve this, the Bill extended legal personhood to the fetus for a limited number of offences. The Bill was brought on behalf of Brodie Donegan, who lost her daughter Zoe at 32 weeks' gestation when Donegan was hit by a drug-affected driver. This article asks what the perspective of a grieving mother can bring to the debate, in terms of helping the criminal law accurately come to grips with the complexity of pregnancy and the specific harm of fetal loss. It assesses the likely impacts of a change to fetal personhood and suggests an alternative legislative approach which is less likely to result in an erosion of bodily autonomy for pregnant women.

Os estudos feministas sobre o direito têm vindo a demonstrar que aquele é guiado por um paradigma eminentemente patriarcal, razão pela qual a lei, baseada numa hierarquia de género, tende a negligenciar diversos tipos de violência exercidos sobre as mulheres. Como exemplos paradigmáticos  são apontados os regimes jurídicos que proclamam uma igualdade formal entre homens e mulheres, mas persistem em penalizar a interrupção voluntária da gravidez. Nesse sentido, as teorias feministas alertam que o direito não é necessariamente sinónimo de justiça, pelo que as práticas e representações sobre uma verdadeira justiça sexual podem não ser coincidentes com a lei nos livros. Neste artigo, recorrendo ao caso português, avaliamos as representações em torno da lei do aborto por parte dos/as diversos/as agentes envolvidos/as, como as mulheres, operadores/as judiciários/as, parteiras, profissionais de saúde, activistas e representantes de partidos políticos.

This research examines the provision of comprehensive reproductive healthcare to women with HIV in South Africa, with a focus on the highly contested issue of abortion. It explores how the emergence and escalation of the HIV epidemic, and the later implementation of the national antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme, influenced the public provision of reproductive healthcare for women with HIV. It also examines the effects of government's failure to implement health protocols and policies to provide adequate reproductive healthcare for women with HIV. This has resulted in the punitive treatment of patients by healthcare workers and in further coercive practices such as forced abortion and sterilisation. Despite the copious data generated about the medical and sociological effects of the HIV pandemic, little research has been conducted on abortion and HIV. This chapter builds on the work of public health scholars, medical historians and bioethicists to document and analyse persistent challenges in the provision of reproductive health services to HIV-positive women in South Africa.

In the chapter, Zabrzewska analyzes Polish politicians’ responses to the 2020 protests against the abortion ban through the lens of feminist philosophy. Using selected sources (e.g. the transcript of the Committee on Administration and the Interior) provided in the Gender, Voice, and Violence in Poland: Women’s Protests during the Pandemic sourcebook (Zabrzewska and Dubrow 2021), the author provides insights into how contemporary right-wing rhetoric relies on the body politic metaphor and on the gender bias inherent to mainstream notions of embodiment. She exposes how the facilitators of the anti-abortion law conceptualize the protesters and their demands as a disease or even a virus that threatens the state, as defined by the Catholic right wing. At the same time, the article shows how pro-abortion protests – as an example of what Judith Butler (2015) called “plural embodied action” – place the actual human body at the forefront of politics, heralding a possibility of arriving at a more livable future.

Wszystkie zachodnie społeczeństwa liberalno-demokratyczne uznają sferę prokreacji za domenę ludzkiej wolności, na której straży stoją prawa legalne (i moralne) zwane prawa-mi reprodukcyjnymi. W Polsce pojęcie praw reprodukcyjnych wciąż często jest jednak traktowane jako kategoria podejrzana, o wątpliwym znaczeniu normatywnym. Doskonałym potwierdzeniem tej tezy jest opinia Zespołu Ekspertów Konferencji Episkopatu Pol-ski ds. Bioetycznych z dnia 20 lutego 2014 r. dotycząca Stanowiska Komitetu Bioetyki przy Prezydium PAN nr 4/2013 z dnia 12 listopada 2013 r. w sprawie tzw. klauzuli su-mienia . Zespół Ekspertów zarzuca Komitetowi Bioetyki (między innymi), że ten „posługuje się arbitralnie stworzonymi tzw. prawami reprodukcyjnymi lub pojęciem zdrowia reprodukcyjnego jako synonimu przysługujących jednostce praw z zakresu ochrony zdrowia, dostępu do środków antykoncepcyjnych i terminacji ciąży”. Zdaniem Zespołu Ekspertów pojęcie zdrowia reprodukcyjnego to pojęcie „coraz częściej używane w pozbawionych mocy prawnej dokumentach organizacji międzynarodowych oraz pojawiające się we frazeologii specyficznych środowisk naukowych”. I nie można z niego wywodzić „pozornie ważnych”, „tzw. praw reprodukcyjnych”.
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przy-pomnienie drogi, jaką przeszła ludzka wolność w sferze prokreacji, oraz historii rozwoju prawa reprodukcyjnych jako praw człowieka chronionych przez porządek międzynarodowy i ustawodawstwa krajowego.

This paper discusses some of the major themes contained in the position paper La maternità surrogata: profili etici (Surrogate Pregnancy: Ethical Profiles) drafted by the Ethics Committee of the Fondazione Veronesi. In particular, the text highlights the ethical and legal path that ties the freedom of reproductive choices both to the individual right of self-determination and to the related right of benefitting from scientific progress. Building on the view articulated in the position paper, the text argues in favor of recognizing the right to access to surrogate gestation within the Italian context.
Il testo analizza il Parere La maternità surrogata: profili etici, redatto dal Comitato Etico della Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, mettendo in risalto il percorso etico e giuridico che lega la libertà delle scelte riproduttive al diritto all'autodeterminazione della persona e al correlato diritto al godimento dei benefici del progresso scientifico, auspicando che la gestazione per altre/i possa diventare accessibile anche in Italia.

This paper draws the connection between the changes in the American perspectives on abortion in the second half of the twentieth century and shifts in the cultural, social and legal status of the society. The major change occurred in 1973, when it was ruled by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade that it was unconstitutional to restrict abortion by law for it violated a woman’s right to privacy. The law, however, left many special cases unaddressed, such as when a fetus becomes a person or when the government has the right to step in and claim protection over "human" life. The ambiguity of the laws left the debate over the legality of abortion open, and movements continued into the twenty-first century in attempt to both undo the ruling and to secure the reproductive rights of women. As perspectives are shaped by reproductive rights issues of the past, the issue continues into the twenty-first century with more unanswered questions.

This article aims to improve the understandings of safety and risk in childbirth in Morocco from a critical medical anthropological perspective. It is based upon nine weeks' of fieldwork undertaken in the town of Ifli, an oasis in Eastern Morocco, on the border with Algeria. Ethnographic material stemmed mainly from participant observation and semi-structured interviews conducted between April and July 2009. This research sheds light on the interplay between the socio-cultural context and the broader political economy of health in shaping the knowledge and practices of childbirth. The core issues emerging from the fieldwork are the local concepts of risk in the birthing process through mothers’ and birth attendants’ experiences within medical pluralistic frames of reference. This article shall argue that ethnographic insights can play a crucial role not only in understanding socio-cultural dimensions of childbirth, but also in implementing novel approaches to reproductive health care in this area, such as the exchange of experiences between trained and local, non-trained midwives.

This paper analyzes social movements and the way they had influence in the world’s view on women’s sexual and reproductive rights within a sociological framework. It also discusses how the media contributes in​ the building of transnational solidarity, making people feel part of an imagined community of distant strangers. To this end, I examine what social movements are, why they are sociologically important, and the role of communication technologies referring to The Handmaid ́s Tale-inspired protest.

جنسیت یکی از مهم‌ترین ابعاد زندگی انسان است که شامل هویت‌ها و نقش‌های جنسی، گرایش‌های جنسی، شهوت، لذت، صمیمیت و تولیدمثل می‌شود. جنسیت درحالی‌که می‌تواند افکار، رؤیاپردازی‌ها، امیال، باورها، دیدگاه‌ها، ارزش‌ها، رفتارها، رویه‌ها، نقش‌ها و روابط افراد را در دربرگیرد همه آن‌ها همواره تجربه یا ابراز نمی‌شوند. جنسیت تحت تأثیر تعاملات زیستی، روانی، اجتماعی، اقتصادی، فرهنگی، اخلاقی، حقوقی، تاریخی، مذهبی و عوامل معنوی قرار دارد. تا امروز، گزارش‌ها و پوشش‌های رسانه‌ای اندکی درباره اجتماع دگرباشان ایرانی تهیه شده است که بیشتر این گزارش‌ها مجموعه‌های مستند از کسانی است که ایران را ترک کرده‌اند و در سرزمین دیگری زندگی می‌کنند. درباره دگرباشان جامعه معاصر ایران و اینکه به این اجتماع از زاویه دید خودشان چگونه نگاه می‌شود، مطالعات پژوهشی محدودی صورت گرفته است. تقریباً هیچ اطلاعاتی از تجارب و تجربیات افراد دگرباش وجود ندارد. این پژوهش بر آن است تا این شکاف علمی را درباره موضوعی تا این حد مهم پر کند و اولین پژوهشی است که درباره «دگرباشان در ایران» صورت گرفته است و به متون موجود درباره دگرباشان با تمرکز بر جغرافیای محل سکونت این گروه بُعدی ویژه و متمایز می‌بخشد.

مطالعه مردم‌ شناسانه دگرباشان، حوزه نادیده جنسیت در ایران را با نگاه به جنبه‌های متعدد و پیچیده هویت جنسی و ظرافت‌های آن در اجتماع دگرباشان و در بستر شناخت روزافزون از گرایش‌های جنسی بررسی می‌کند. در رایج درباره دگرباشان و جنسیت در ایران را به چالش می‌کشد و افسانه‌ها و روایت‌هایی را که معمولاً و بیشتر سبب شناخت نادرست از جنسیت و تدوین سیاست‌ها و رویه‌های اشتباه شده‌اند، نقد می‌کند تا زمینه‌ساز رویکردی جامع‌تر شود. این مطالعه بسیار پیچیده است، چراکه فراتر از نگاهی کلی و ساده به گرایش جنسی و افکار مربوط به جنسیت، به حوزه زندگی خصوصی و عمومی افراد ورود کرده است.

برای اولین بار، این تحقیق بر مصاحبه‌های عمیق با حدود سیصد نفر از دگرباشان که ۶۰ درصد آنان مرد و 40 درصد زن بودند در سه کلان‌شهر تهران، مشهد و اصفهان متمرکز شد. در این پژوهش، چالش‌های برخاسته از تغییرات عصر حاضر در روابط جنسیتی و چگونگی این تعاملات در ایران بررسی و در عین حال، چهارچوب‌های نظری و روشمندی به خوانندگان، دگرباشان، دانشگاه‌ها و مراکز پژوهشی، فعالان عرصه عمومی و اجتماعی و دانشجویان ارائه شد تا دگرباشان بر اساس آن‌ها مطالعه و بررسی شوند.

اهداف اصلی این پروژه تحقیقاتی درک احساسات و باورها در مورد دگرباشان از طریق تحلیل انتقادی از نگاه خود این افراد و بررسی چالش‌هایی است که آن‌ها بر اثرِ زندگی در جامعه‌ای مذهبی، طبقه محور، سنتی و پدرسالار _که دگرباشی را به‌مثابه هویت رد می‌کند_ تجربه می‌کنند. پرسش این پژوهش از همین‌جا شروع شده است. در واقع، ضرورت تمرکز بر اجتماع دگرباشان و آسیب‌پذیری این افراد سرکوب شده و به سکوت واداشته شده انگیزه‌ای شد برای روشنگری درباره وضعیت این افراد که عامدانه نادیده گرفته شده و از سوی اجتماع به حاشیه رانده شده‌اند.

این پژوهش از روش تلفیقی رویکردهای پدیدارشناسانه، هرمنوتیکی، پسامدرن و روان‌شناختی بهره برده است تا روشی نظری را به وجود آورد که برای پژوهش درباره تجربه دگرباشی مناسب باشد و در عین حال، شهود و احساسات خود پژوهشگر را نیز دربرگیرد.

این مطالعه در فاصله سال‌های ۱۳۹۶ و ۱۳۹۷ شمسی انجام گرفت و داده‌های میدانی کار در تابستان و پاییز 1396 شمسی جمع‌آوری شد. یکی از ویژگی‌های خاص دامنه این مطالعه آن است که تنها بر دگرباشان گرایش جنسی (LGB) تمرکز کرده است و به افراد تراجنسیتی (Tran sex) که دارای دو جنبه زنانه و مردانه جنسیت هستند و هردوی این جنبه‌ها به‌طور هم‌زمان در وجود آن‌ها فعال است، نپرداخته است.

از پژوهش «داستان شهر ممنوعه» تاکنون سه مقاله انگلیسی و دو مقاله فارسی در نشریات مختلف به چاپ رسیده که نسخه برخی از آن‌ها در صفحه مقالات سایت کامیل احمدی موجود است.

While the various recent crises, including the financial and economic crisis, Brexit and the refugee crisis exposed more than ever the power structure and the diverging interests in the Member States about the forms of integration of the EU, we are witnessing serious contestations whether and how the European project can continue. Though it is not as spectacular as other crises of the EU, the issue of equality between men and women has also become a battlefield in recent years. This politicization is "the ocean reflecting in a drop." What is taking place in the field of gender equality incorporates many of the characteristics of the EU's legitimacy crisis, and the rise of right-wing populist parties. Thus, by having a deeper understanding of this issue, one may gain a better understanding of the others as well, and go beyond the simplifying framework of being pro-or anti-EU. The starting point of this volume, as exposed in Anikó Gregor's and Andrea Pető's introductory chapters, is that equality between men and women at EU level is discussed mainly in connection with economic considerations-gender equality itself is often promoted in the context of greater participation in the labour market, thus promoting economic growth. This approach, as many have pointed out (Elomäki 2015), has strengthened in recent years: gender equality has to be addressed, because it is profitable for the state and/or the market. There has been a series of studies on the cost recovery of investment in institutional childcare. It was calculated that investment in prevention of violence against women results in savings for healthcare and social care systems. EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality), the EU's agency of gender equality released a study called "Gender Equality Boosts Economic Growth" on International Women's Day 2017 (EIGE 2017). | 5 PREFACE | 7 Zacharenko proposes a social framing on the field of reproductive rights; Edit Szénássy analyses the EU's and three East-Central European national Roma strategies which can be thought-provoking for progressive actors committed to human rights; György Mészáros courageously addresses the potential conflicts between feminist aims and current mainstream forms of LGBT activism on the European level and how to move forward; and Csilla Malomvölgyi formulates some dilemmas arising in the field of refugee and migration policy of the EU. The last section explicitly addresses the economic architecture of the EU and what its considering and reconsidering mean, in constructive terms, for feminist activism (Emília Barna et al.), for the global responsibilities (Zuzana Uhde) and for possible new scenarios and imaginable policy measures addressing the structural problems (Zofia Łapniewska). The concluding chapter by a social-democratic politician, Kata Tüttő, who works in the Environment, Climate Change and Energy Commission of the European Committee of the Regions, describes the challenges to tackle for social democracy, in the prospect of radical changes provoked by digitalization. The causes that have created the rise of Hofer, Wilders, Le Pen, the causes that have created Brexit, the heated debates over the refugee crisis and a two-speed Europe have not ceased to exist. It is only the beginning of the struggle. We give territory to the Right unless we propose better answers to structural questions than before-be it gender equality or other topics. Feminist thinkers from East-Central Europe have some ideas to consider. Let's take them seriously.

Rights Driven Institutionalization of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” also known as “Hamara Kal” (HK) was a four year (2009-12)2 programme funded by European Commission. Hamara Kal means "OUR FUTURE". Rutgers-WPF implemented the project in districts of Multan (South Punjab), Matiari (Sindh-Rural) and Karachi (Urban and Rural-Sindh) with the support of local partners. The project commenced in 2009 with broader objective of “Improving the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights – SRHR Status in Pakistan” and it ended in early 2013.
This report encapsulates findings of the end-project evaluation, conducted on four DAC criteria (Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Impact) recommended by OECD for evaluation of development programs. Secondary information from the document review, quantitative data from the survey of primary beneficiary and qualitative insights from key stakeholders have informed the pages of this report.

Race, Racism and Development places racism and constructions of race at the centre of an exploration of the dominant structures, discourses and practices of international development. Combining insights from  race critical, postcolonial and feminist theory with a political economy framework, it puts forward provocative analyses of the relationships between development, race, capital, embodiment and resistance in historical and contemporary contexts, raising compelling questions about contemporary imperialism and the possibilities for transnational political solidarity.

There are some cases in which the government should coerce its citizens into providing care to vulnerable persons. For example, suppose that a woman and her infant are snowed in a cabin, and that the only available food for the infant is her mother's breastmilk. The government should coerce the mother into breastfeeding her infant. This fact, however, has significant implications: first, it shows that David Boonin's recent argument for legalised abortion fails. And second, it shows that (given fetal personhood) abortion should be illegal.

A common argument for abortion involves denial of the personhood of the unborn embryo or fetus. Mary Anne Warren pioneered this type of argument in her influential 1973 article on abortion. However, her understanding of the concept of personhood reveals both ignorance of Western philosophy and a deficient metaphysics.

Using a feminist hermeneutic, Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson attempts to set out in this article how a third or fourth-wave intersectional reading of the stories of Hagar and Sarah and Leah, Rachel, and their maids can become a source of both truth and healing within feminist activist communities today, particularly those working for reproductive justice. Reinhardt-Simpson identifies several issues within the stories such as societal acceptance of women who seek power only within patriarchal constructs or to benefit the aims of patriarchy, as well as issues that divide women both then and today such as class, race, and status and the way that women relate to each other within a patriarchal structure. Reinhardt-Simpson concludes that a liberatory reading of these stories can point us toward reconciliation with our sisters.

It is frequently assumed that the quasi-judicial decisions of human rights treaty monitoring bodies do not have a significant impact on state practice. Yet if these decisions provide a political and symbolic resource in domestic and international politics, there might be room for increased optimism. In this chapter, we investigate the effects of the 1994 Toonen decision of the Human Rights Committee (HRC). We find that the case had a partly transformative effect on LGBT politics in the respondent state—Australia—but that the impact of that communications procedure was contingent (compared to levels of compliance with other HRC decisions against Australia). Turning to the international arena, we find that the Toonen decision most likely sparked greater attention by primarily (although not exclusively) Western states on LGBT issues before the HRC. However, subsequent state reporting to the Committee has dealt primarily with non-discrimination and not with de-criminalization of homosexual relations specifically. Svånå for assistance in coding the state party reports and state-level criminalization.

A growing body of scholarship argues that by disentangling gestation from the body, artificial wombs will alter the relationship between men, women, and fetuses such that reproduction is effectively 'degendered'. Scholars have claimed that this purported 'degendering' of gestation will subsequently create greater equity between men and women. I argue that, contrary to the assumptions made in this literature, it is law, not biology, that acts as a primary barrier to the 'degendering' of gestation. With reference to contemporary case law involving disputes over frozen embryos, I demonstrate that though reproductive technologies have already made it possible for gendered progenitors to have an 'equal' say in gestation, law mires the possibilities of these technologies in traditional stories of gendered parenthood. Looking to the way binary assumptions about gender limit the self-determination of trans men and nonbinary and genderqueer people who are gestational parents, I argue the 'degendering' of gestation will come not with artificial wombs but with the end of limited legal paradigms for gendered gestational parenthood.

A tese de doutoramento tem como objetivo investigar os efeitos decorridos da emergência das pessoas com deficiência, em especial as com deficiência intelectual, em sujeitos de direitos sexuais e reprodutivos. Busca também compreender os paradoxos e os dilemas envolvidos na ampliação dos direitos à sexualidade para uma população que é social e juridicamente tomada como vulnerável e incapaz. Por fim, busca compreender a gramática pela qual direitos e políticas públicas relativas à saúde sexual e reprodutiva, como também as políticas de enfrentamento ao abuso e a violência sexual, são formuladas e acessadas. Para tal realizei uma pesquisa etnográfica em duas frentes. Uma delas toma a Lei Brasileira de Inclusão de 2015, bem como outros diplomas legais a ela atrelados. A outra analisa quatro casos de interrupção legal de gestação realizados em uma política pública de atenção e cuidado às mulheres em situação de violência sexual. Desse modo, ao realizar esse empreendimento etnográfico, coloco em perspectiva modalidades de gestão médico-jurídicas sobre os direitos e as formas de exercício da sexualidade por meio de uma economia moral e gramáticas emocionais sustentada por noções de dor, sofrimento e vulnerabilização.

The enormous problems of maternal and infant mortality in today’s world are directly linked to inadequate or nonexistent maternal health care for millions of women everywhere. This article argues that viewing the right to maternal health care as a human right is an opportunity to discern ways in which both individuals and states wishing to advocate for maternal health care could use existing international human rights law to do so. By examining international human rights law that has developed to establish maternal health care as a human right since the 1970s, this article builds a framework within which policy alternatives, for both states and individuals, to advocate for the right to maternal health care are elucidated. After clarifying the international agreements and community policies that currently recognize maternal health care as a human right, the author projects future trends in international human rights law regarding the right to maternal health care. Making recommendations to build a multifaceted human rights approach to reducing maternal death, the article emphasizes the critical need for both states and individuals to act to prevent maternal mortality globally.

Reproductive health rights, though an emerging rights issue, border on human rights, sexual rights, population control and development rights. Customary practices in Nigeria seem to contextualize all activities including reproductive health rights. This research proved the enormity of the weight of customs and norms on Nigerians with regards to reproduction especially on females who appeared to have no say on the issue of reproduction. Such customs include widow inheritance, polygyny/polygamy, girl child marriage and female genital mutilation. Maternal mortality ratio and child mortality rates remain high even in this 21 st Century. Suggestions are proffered on the need for equal rights to reproduction by males and females, better family planning methods, provision and access to functional and accessible health facilities for all persons and demystifying the customary beliefs and practices which impede women's rights to reproduction.

In Cameroon, sexuality education is limited to sections of HIV/AIDS sensitization and family planning programs, except in Muslim communities, which teach some form of it in Koranic schools strongly linked to religious values (Centre for Reproductive Rights, 2013; p. 84).
In this Central African country, as in many others, the topic of sex is a sore one, made even more complicated given the country’s characteristic diversity of people and cultures.
This paper presents an argument for the potential for sexuality education to fulfill young women in Cameroon as a right. Using the Rights Based Approach, the essay addresses not the necessity of incorporating sexuality education into formal education which is not limited to sexual health but includes sexual expression as well.
The paper begins by tracing the history of sexuality education, then presents the need for and promise of it in Cameroon. Next, employing the Rights Based Approach sexuality education is assessed as a Cameroonian right and finally an outline of what sexuality education may possibly involve and bring about is forwarded.

This chapter argues that although the legal recognition of transsexuality came early in the Czech Republic, the social and legal understanding and recognition of transgender identity and transgender people’s rights has been and continues to be limited. I understand transsexuality as the desire to undergo (or having undergone) ‘gender reassignment treatment/surgery’  and consider legal provisions that are exclusively tied to physical transition as addressing transsexuality. I understand transgender to be a wider concept, which includes but goes beyond transsexuality, and entails the desire to live in (or living in) the role of a gender which is not the one designated at birth.  The chapter’s main argument is that while Czech law has to some extent addressed concerns of those who wish to ‘fully transition’ – such as the possibility of a name change and birth-record change connected to sex/gender confirmation surgery – it has not paid attention to those transgender people who do not wish to do so.
It observes that the law is based on a heteronormative, biological, and dualistic understanding of sex (rather than gender). First, its heteronormative character manifests itself in the requirement that a marriage be dissolved before a person can submit to sex/gender confirmation surgery.  It continues to be unthinkable for Czech law that two persons of the same sex could be married. Second, the biological attachment to ‘sex’ is apparent in the requirement of surgical intervention for any legal recognition of a person’s preferred sex/gender. The law recognises the possibility that ‘biological sex’ and ‘psychological sex’ are misaligned. And it now enables their ‘realignment’, medically and legally. What it does not recognise is the possibility that gender identity can be different from biological sex, without a person wishing to physically modify their body, including their sex characteristics. The law does not accept that it might be called to recognise such a situation and enable some legal recognition of a person’s preferred legal sex/gender or allow for a name change without that person first having submitted to gender confirmation surgery. Czech law can thus be said to address transsexual rather than transgender issues. Third, the law is incapable of transcending the sex binary. This is true for gender identities non-confirming to the clear male-female binary – a part of the required Real Life Test is the ‘proven ability to live in the opposite sex role’.  It is also apparent with regard to reproduction. The law continues to require sterilisation as part of legal recognition, thus normatively ensuring the biological reproductive binary of men and women. All three underlying gender assumptions of the law impact the ability of transgender people to self-determine in ways recognised by the law.
Aside from the limiting conceptualisation of transgender issues as relating to sex, the legal framework can moreover hardly be considered as guaranteeing ‘rights’. Access is very much in the hands of the medical establishment (with regard to determining suitability for surgical intervention), at the mercy of administrators (especially with regard to name change), and at the discretion of family courts (with regard to care of children of transgender parents). I believe that both observations can be understood as legacies of the Czech Republic’s socialist past: the country’s intellectual isolation up until the 1990s prevented it from reaching a critical understanding of gender as a social construct when this happened in the West. I therefore dedicate particular attention to historical developments leading up to the current framework.
The chapter is organized as the other contributions to the comparative volume. It discusses 1) Legal Framework and Statistics, 2) Changing Legal Sex/Gender – Procedure and Requirements, 3) Consequences of the Change of Legal Sex/Gender and 4) Legal Challenges to the Existing Rules.

Women's reproductive autonomy has gained limited recognition at the international level. This recognition has been difficult to secure and remains contentious. This article examines the struggle for reproductive autonomy within the context of the abortion debate in Ireland, where reproductive rights particularly and women's human rights generally have often been portrayed as hostile to cultural and national sovereignty. The entanglement of religious and nationalist principles with the struggle for reproductive autonomy in Ireland demonstrates the ways in which gender identities and roles are given greater or lesser weight depending on their " fit " with state interests and the ongoing process of nation-building. Lost within these negotiations and compromises is a recognition of the universal legitimacy of women's human rights claims.

El libro está a la venta en la librería virtual de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, en el siguiente enlace: https://libreriavirtual.bnp.gob.pe/#/detalle/28


Los ensayos y artículos reunidos en este libro  atraviesan los campos de estudio de diversas disciplinas interrelacionadas, a fin de dar al lector una visión distinta, de naturaleza compleja. Para cumplir este objetivo se reunió un panel de expertos internacionales que nos manifiestan, desde diversos enfoques, sus propias visiones. Estas perspectivas cognitivas, al reunirse en esta publicación, componen un verdadero mosaico de reflexión sobre uno de los temas sociales más sensibles de nuestra historia reciente. En efecto, el libro se aproxima al caso peruano de esterilización forzada desde la economía política, los estudios de género, la justicia, las políticas de la memoria, la salud, la crítica y la cultura.

El libro cuenta con una presentación de Kimberly theidon, un prólogo de Jelke Boesten y testimonios de afectadas, médicos, autoridades y familiares de víctimas; en ese sentido, la fragmentación del libro en cuatro partes —I. Economía y género (Christina Ewig), II. Salud pública y ética médica (Gonzalo Gianella) III. Justicia y políticas de la memoria (Gabriella Citrioni), IV. Resistencia y crítica (Giulia Tamayo)— es más bien una manera de articular las tensiones que se generan entre las fronteras disciplinarias y, a la vez, un esfuerzo para hacer converger las diversas perspectivas desde donde se aproxima el análisis, todo ello con el fin de ayudar a la comprensión del paradójico y complejo contexto que permitió (y años más tarde logró frenar) la implementación continua de la neo eugenesia en el Perú.

En un Estado democrático de derecho la intervención jurídica en relación con el aborto no puede ni debe reflejar sin más una visión del derecho en su forma más tradicional, caracterizada por su carácter estrictamente coercitivo y punitivo, tal y como sucede en Honduras en donde existe una prohibición total. Por el contrario, los estándares internacionales de derechos humanos señalan que la interrupción del embarazo no puede ser considerada prohibida u obligatoria, sino solo permitida en determinadas circunstancias, tales como, cuando un embarazo ha sido producido por una violación, cuando la salud física o psíquica de la mujer peligra si continua con la gestación o cuando el feto presenta graves malformaciones.