INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS

This article considers legal principles being adopted by states globally that help shape the scope of laws and regulations that improve access to women's reproductive and sexual health services. First, the authors stress the importance of evidence-based treatment and decision- making, unbiased by religious, political and moral beliefs. For example, emergency contraception has become increasingly available to women in countries that have embraced an evidence-based approach to creating and applying laws. Second, they identify a movement towards clearer and

This Article addresses the specific duties of

This article addresses the legal and ethical duties of health service when dealing with prospective patients who are minors. The authors discuss how the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) limits parental powers by emphasizing adolescents' "evolving capacities" for self-determination. The authors address a number of concepts relevant to medical treatment and the rights and capacity of adolescents including "mature minors", "emancipated minors", age of consent, and confidentiality. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Adolescents, International]

This article highlights the key features of the 2003 World Health Organization handbook Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidelines for Health Systems, a non-political guide outlining practical methods for improving abortion services in countries where they are not prohibited. The authors summarize the guide recommendations, including the need for pre- and post-procedure clinical care, review and amendment of existing planning and managing services, including funding and training concerns, and the need for legal policy considerations.

This article discusses various national responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with a particular focus on the incorporation of international guidelines and responses into national strategies. The article begins by reviewing the decisions of national level courts and assesses the extent to which these courts establish the rights of HIV-positive patients to appropriate health care. The authors also consider the particular needs of women patients in clinical care. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - HIV/AIDS, International]

The author of this article argues that the high mortality rates experienced by pregnant women globally are largely preventable. She advocates a broad-based movement informed by human rights to overcome maternal death and disability by improving access to, and the quality of, emergency obstetric care services, and prioritizing maternal health issues at the clinical and national policy levels. The author uses human rights principles to assert that governments have an obligation to address the health concerns of pregnant women.