By highlighting the limitations of abortion decriminalization, this article examines the discrepancy between legal action and the subsequent failure to achieve practical improvements. Using the South African Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOPA) as a reference, the author outlines the origins of transnational legislative strategies for reproductive rights. In providing a comparative analysis between the South African approach to abortion law reform and the approach employed in Nepal, the author suggests an alternative strategy to improve women’s health. Namely, the author advocates mitigating systemic barriers through government-issued guidelines on timely services, medical access and training for physicians and nurses. The article argues that reform movements are most effective with collaboration from government and international NGOs during periods of political transition (e.g., the end of the Apartheid in South Africa). In effect, narrowing the gap between law and practice requires shifting the focus from desired legislative outcomes to the proactive restructuring of healthcare services. 

This article examines the interplay between international law norms on women’s reproductive rights and South African reproductive health case law. The author first summarizes key elements of abortion rights and reproductive health in international human rights laws such as CEDAW and CESCR. The author then sets out two approaches to defining reproductive autonomy that can be adopted in a given region’s legal system, including court cases. The first is a “reproductive choice” approach that is negative because it fails to dismantle societal norms, attitudes, and structural barriers that impede women’s reproductive autonomy. The second, preferred by the author, is a “reproductive justice” approach that centres disadvantaged women within a commitment to the structural transformation of society. The author then examines the contemporary court system in South Africa, determining that its courts currently use a reproductive choice approach. The author uses a particular South African court case as a basis for re-imagining the jurisprudence within a reproductive justice approach. Finally, they reflect on the usefulness of such court cases as transformative tools of reproductive justice because they can secure better implementation of abortion legislation for disadvantaged women.

This article compares the current state of women’s reproductive health rights in Nigeria to the developing international human rights discourse on the topic. The author begins by reviewing the definitions and standards on reproductive health rights set by academic scholarship and international conventions, and particularly the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). They then examine Nigeria’s contemporary legal landscape on the matter. An overview of relevant portions of the Nigerian Constitution, national criminal and labour laws, and international and continental charters indicate areas of the law where reproductive rights may be bolstered. The author acknowledges the legal system’s failure to adequately protect women’s reproductive health rights and attributes it in part to enduring patriarchal sociocultural barriers. They conclude by proposing ways to strengthen legal support for reproductive rights, including gender-specific national reproductive health legislation and domestic integration of ratified treaties.

This article challenges the legality of government-sponsored population policies targeting Indigenous people from an international human rights’ perspective. The paper analyzes state-sponsored forceful interference with Indigenous people’s reproductive rights across the world with a special focus on Australia and Peru. Such programs threaten the long-term survival of Indigenous peoples. The author argues that international human rights law can play a crucial role in protecting Indigenous people’s reproductive rights through developing effective legal mechanisms for the prevention of future reproductive policies, and reparation for past practices. The paper concludes that Indigenous women’s right to reproductive autonomy must be recognized as an integral component of Indigenous people’s rights to self-determination, to health, and to prior and informed consent under international law.

This article discusses the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) engagement with the international human rights legislation (IHRL) framework. The OIC is the world’s second-largest intergovernmental organization and the only one unified around a single religion. Several of its human rights declarations justify restricting women’s rights by invoking the supremacy of Islamic law and norms. Blitt argues that failing to reject the OCI’s parochial, Islamic notions of equality and non-discrimination risks undermining the spirit of universality reflected in IHRL ideas of fundamental human freedom and equality in dignity and rights. More immediately, it legitimizes ongoing rights violations against women. Given the OIC’s reach in the Muslim world, these concerns potentially impugn the rights of large swaths of women around the world. Understanding the challenges that Islamic and other religious organizations have posed towards actualizing the IHRL framework will be key to ensuring its global effectiveness and harmony with cultural antecedents.

This article addresses the underlying concerns associated with the American Administration’s effort to examine human rights through the Commission on Unalienable Rights, created in July 2019. Namely, the article considers the problematic governing structure of the Commission, which includes a chair and members with well-known and extreme positions opposing reproductive rights. The article refutes the Administration’s attempt to undermine established human rights by creating a false narrative of confusion regarding their status and legitimacy. The author stresses that the Commission represents yet another effort by the Administration to erase reproductive rights from the global discourse. Finally, the article investigates the domestic attack on sexual and reproductive health, through the Commission’s formation, to probe an underlying interest in the destabilization of individual rights. 

This article addresses the extent to which telemedical abortion services are protected by transnational law, in particular, EU provisions on cross-border services. In places where the legal and political settlement regarding abortion are unstable, developments in technology offer a means to circumvent highly restricted access to termination procedures. Namely, women may be able to access treatment through the postal supply of abortion pills sourced through the internet. This article identifies two safe and effective telemedical services to women in Northern Ireland: Women on Web and Women Help. In providing a concise analysis of EU provisions, the article suggests that women may use this transnational legal toolkit to challenge regulatory arrangements that seek to limit their reproductive rights. In effect, the EU may provide a cross-border social solidarity framework that allows for alternative opportunities for legal contestation, particularly where other arguments have been unsuccessful against long-standing practice.  

This paper examines the Bangladesh Constitution and legal framework for reproductive rights, particularly a state-supported family planning program. Despite religious laws and strong religious beliefs in Bangladesh, the author argues that religious opposition to menstrual regulation and the use of contraceptives is scarcely evident. In fact, religion, including Muslim laws, can be used to promote family-planning and in general, reproductive rights for all women.

This article focuses on the many reproductive right violations that take place throughout the world. This particularly affects women and as a result, worldwide, many women are left without adequate reproductive healthcare. Part I of this article first explains reproductive health as a human right. Part II explains the reality of reproductive health, namely that governments tend to be the largest providers for reproductive health and yet this right is hardly respected on a consistent basis in practically every country. The conclusion of this article explains how governments and other health providers need to take accountability.

This article explores the depiction of ideas about Islam among anti-abortion and abortion rights groups in Muslim communities. Abortion is a hotly debated topic in the Muslim community, but most outsiders might assume that all Muslims subscribe to similar opinions regarding female reproductive rights. The author found that a majority of the organizations presented one-sided views of the situation, and anti-abortion websites used generalizations of the Muslim community and the conservative views of the Islamic religion to support their viewpoints.