By: Cristina Eloisa Baclig
November 07, 2022
MANILA, Philippines—The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) called on the Philippine government to decriminalize abortion and improve sexual and reproductive health services such as post-abortion healthcare in the country.
UNHRC, in a recently released concluding observation at its 136th session, said it acknowledged the Philippines’ “efforts to reduce unsafe abortion and maternal mortality.”
By Chinyere Obasi
July 17, 2022
The most prolific human rights organizations in the United States and abroad value equal and unrestricted access to all maternal care, including abortion, as a human right.
At home, the American Civil Liberties Union has fought for the right to abortion since the 1950s, and Physicians for Human Rights has reaffirmed this stance as recently as May of 2022. Abroad, the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the World Health Organization have all argued the same: Access to abortion is a human right. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the U.N.’s official body designed to advocate for and protect such liberties, wrote in a 2018 statement that “States parties must provide safe, legal and effective access to abortion” when the pregnant person is at risk of harm, physical or otherwise, and that those parties should not take steps toward criminalizing abortion, which would inherently promote unsafe abortion.
Continued: https://harvardpolitics.com/poor-decision-making/
JURIST Staff
AUGUST 30, 2021
After years of advocacy by women’s rights groups, the Government of Nepal has agreed to decriminalize abortion and protect the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls. Nepalese law students Smriti Phuyal and Smriti Pantha from NLU Delhi and Kathmandu University School of Law file this exclusive report for JURIST from Kathmandu.
The move began when the Center for Reproductive Rights and its Nepal-based partners made a compliance report for the Universal Periodic Review (“UPR”) focusing on the barriers to safe abortion services in Nepal and its impact on the sexual and reproductive health rights of women.
Denied abortions, Latin American child rape survivors petition UN
Groups on behalf of young rape survivors from Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua call on region to provide abortion access.
30 May 2019
Reproductive rights groups petitioned a United Nations agency on Wednesday on behalf of four young pregnant rape survivors in Latin America, calling on the region to ease up on its restrictive abortion laws.
Due to the laws, the girls were forced to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term and became "mothers against their will", said the petition by the US-based Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Global and other rights groups in Ecuador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Irish abortion law violated woman’s human rights, UN says
Siobhan Whelan forced to travel to UK for abortion after fatal foetal abnormality diagnosis
June 13, 2017
Paul Cullen
A United Nations committee has found Ireland violated the human rights of a woman who had to travel to Britain for an abortion after her baby was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality.
The UN human rights committee has told the State to pay compensation to the woman, Siobhan Whelan, and to provide psychological treatment to her.
Continued at source: Irish Times: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/irish-abortion-law-violated-woman-s-human-rights-un-says-1.3118145
UN repeats criticism of Ireland's 'cruel and inhumane' abortion laws
Committee finds in favour of Siobhán Whelan, who was denied a termination despite fatal foetal syndrome diagnosis
Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Tuesday 13 June 2017
The United Nations has again ruled that Ireland’s abortion laws have subjected a woman to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
It is the second time in 12 months that the UN’s human rights committee has denounced the abortion rules in the Irish Republic, which denies women with fatal foetal abnormalities the right to terminate pregnancies.
Continued at source: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/13/un-denounces-ireland-abortion-laws-as-cruel-and-inhumane-again
UN highlights the shame of Ireland’s harsh abortion laws
13 June 2017
A ruling issued today by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) that Ireland’s harsh abortion laws violated the human rights of an Irish woman is yet another reminder of the desperate need for reform, Amnesty International said.
The UNHRC ordered that Ireland redress the harm it caused to Siobhán Whelan, who was forced to travel to the UK for an abortion in 2010, including by reforming its abortion laws to prevent similar violations happening to other women.
“This is the second case within a year where the UN has found Ireland’s abortion laws to be grossly out of step with its international human rights obligations. While we welcome this ruling, it is outrageous that women have to go to the UN to have their human rights respected. How many more women will have to suffer before the Irish government opens its eyes?” said Gauri Van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Deputy Europe Director.
Continued at source: Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/un-highlights-the-shame-of-irelands-harsh-abortion-laws/
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