Center for Reproductive Law and Policy

This report reviews the establishment of human rights and sexual rights within the international legal system. The analysis focuses on the incorporation of reproductive and sexual health considerations by six United Nations human rights treaty-monitoring committees. The report considers two categories of reproductive rights: the right to reproductive health care and the right to reproductive self-determination. Chapter 2 reviews the treaty-monitoring system and outlines potential future advancements by the monitoring committees in supporting reproductive and sexual rights.

This comprehensive report examines the status of women's reproductive rights since the 1995 Beijing Conference, focusing particularly on eight critical areas: 1) population, reproductive health and family planning; 2) contraception, including emergency contraception; 3) abortion; 4) HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; 5) harmful traditional practices affecting reproductive health, including female circumcision and female genital mutilation; 6) rape and other sexual violence; 7) marriage and family law; and 8) reproductive rights of adolescents.

This briefing paper focuses on certain issues that are universal to all adolescent girls - such as education, contraception, sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, abortion, and access to reproductive health care - and those that are of particular regional significance such as early marriage and female circumcision/female genital mutilation. The paper identifies the international legal standards that are relevant and recommends a critical legal and policy measure that all governments should strive to achieve.

This report details the factual content of national laws and policies in key areas of reproductive health and women's empowerment in seven Anglophone African nations: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. For each country, the report covers laws enacted by legislatures, legal principles developed by courts, and relevant policies issued by government entities such as ministries, administrative agencies, and official councils or commissions. International sources of law in each country are also discussed.

This document is a briefing paper that examines changes in abortion laws that have occurred since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The first section on legislative developments briefly summarizes the developments in national abortion laws that have occurred since the ICPD. Seven countries that have liberalized their abortion laws and two countries that have restricted their abortion laws since 1994 are discussed. The second section of the paper provides recommendations for action by governments, NGOs, and international donors.