Gender, Human Rights, and Reproductive Health

It is important to note that applying human rights to support gender equity has been an evolving practice. Although international law demands that countries promote, protect, and fulfill the rights of women and men equally,¹ in the past, human rights were invoked primarily to protect the individual liberties of those involved in political or public pursuits² - generally, men. Human rights law ignored rights violations occurring within the home or family. Human rights are now applied to encompass social rights directly affecting women, such as health and education; and the power of international human rights law is now recognized as protecting people in the private sphere of intimate relationships. Ongoing advocacy to support gender equity may require

• amplifying the definition and understanding of human rights to include abuses of women;
• expanding the scope of state responsibility for the protection of women's human rights;
• enhancing the effectiveness of the human rights system in enforcing women's rights and holding abusers accountable.³

¹See, for example, Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Art. 12, "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning." Emphasis added.
²Called "civil and political rights," these individual liberties include protections in voting, political participation, public expression, and interaction with the police and judiciary. See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
³Women, Law and Development International and Human Rights Watch, Women's Rights Project (1997) cited in Lisa Veneklasen and Valerie Miller, A New Weave 202 (2002).

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