‘Catastrophic implications’: UN health expert condemns US over threat to abortion rights

Special rapporteur Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng argues in brief filed in a US court that overturning abortion rights would violate international human rights treaties ratified by the US

Jessica Glenza
Mon 8 Nov 2021

The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health has called on the US supreme court to uphold the right to abortion in America or risk undermining international human rights law and threatening that right elsewhere in the world.

The special rapporteur, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, is one of just a handful of global observers whose mandate is to travel the world defending human rights.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/08/catastrophic-implications-un-health-expert-condemns-us-over-threat-to-abortion-rights


UN Experts: Access to Contraception and Abortion Must Continue During COVID-19

SEPTEMBER 27, 2020
Health and Human Rights Journal

UN Experts joined together to remind states of their human rights duty to ensure access to contraception for anyone who wants it, including during COVID-19.  On World Contraception Day (26 September), the experts, led by the new Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, states, “The right to sexual and reproductive health includes women’s freedom to decide whether to be pregnant, how many children to have, and to space pregnancies. It also imposes a core obligation on States to provide the essential medicines of the relevant WHO List which includes contraceptives.”

COVID-19 has made it more difficult for women to access family planning services with restrictions on freedom of movement, as well as production and supply chains being disrupted. However, the state obligations remain in place, and the experts said people are entitled to information and access to health care facilities irrespective of lockdown conditions.

Continued: https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/09/un-experts-access-to-contraception-and-abortion-must-continue-during-covid-19/


AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Body Politics: Criminalization of Sexuality and Reproduction

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Body Politics: Criminalization of Sexuality and Reproduction

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
March 20, 2018

On 12 March 2018 at the Commission on the Status of Women, Amnesty International launched two reports, a primer and a toolkit, in the series on Body Politics: Criminalization of Sexuality and Reproduction. The series focuses on the human rights impact of criminalizing abortion, sex work, sex outside of marriage, adolescent sexuality, HIV exposure, non-disclosure and transmission, same-sex sexual conduct and pregnancy. It provides both critical analysis and tools for advocacy planning. Training materials will be published soon. This work is the culmination of six years of research, analysis and engagement with key partners.

In the Foreword to the Primer, Anand Grover, Former Special Rapporteur on the right to health, a senior advocate and a founder-member of the Lawyers Collective in India, wrote:

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/amnesty-international-body-politics-criminalization-of-sexuality-and-reproduction/