Human Rights and Reproductive Self-Determination

The author notes that women's interests and aspirations are gradually being translated into national and internationally recognized rights, particularly through recent UN conferences and the documents that have emerged from them. She also notes that the Cairo Conference testified to the centrality of reproductive self-determination to the dignity of women. This article clusters the human rights contained in various international and regional instruments around four different reproductive interests. Part I examines how the substance of abstract human rights can be developed by examining feminist methodologies, standard setting and the documentation of abuses. Part II sets out the human rights relating to reproductive self-determination in four areas: reproductive security and sexuality, reproductive health, reproductive equality and reproductive decision-making. Part II outlines "the way forward" by examining duties to respect human rights. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Reproductive Freedom, International]