International reproductive health and human rights experts are featured in this article about the importance of access to family planning for women in developing countries seeking human rights.

1. Women’s Rights are Human Rights: International Organizations Take
on Sexual and Reproductive Rights
By Tawana Jacobs and Dina Bogecho
For more than a generation, human rights organizations have been at the forefront
of the movement to prevent and end abuses to the rights of individuals around the world.
Following the adoption of the International Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD) Programme of Action ten years ago, many organizations amended their original
missions and expanded their work to specifically address the reproductive and sexual
rights of women. Leaders from two organizations that set the standard for much of the
human rights community—Gita Sahgal, director of Amnesty International's Gender Unit
and LaShawn Jefferson, executive director of the Women’s Rights Division of Human
Rights Watch (HRW)—recently talked with us about how the work of their
organizations, and the work of human rights organizations in general, has evolved since
1994, and how it might continue to evolve in the future.
The ICPD Programme of Action emphasizes the need to provide women and girls
with more choices through improved access to education, health services, skill
development and employment. These goals resonate within the human rights community,
and both Amnesty International and HRW see a natural connection between their work
and the ICPD goals. As Sahgal stated, “We found ourselves working on women’s
reproductive and sexual rights issues while focusing on the traditional issues of civil and
political rights. Forced abortions, torture in hospitals, and arrests of women are just a few
examples of that work. We officially expanded our issues to include economic, social and
cultural rights in 2001 and are now working on their interdependence.”
The same type of transition has taken place within other human rights
organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), according to Jefferson. “The
Women’s Rights Division hasn’t always included a reproductive rights focus,” said
Jefferson. “During our work to fight against pregnancy discrimination in the workplace,
we found ourselves working to support reproductive and sexual rights for women.” Both
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe that the goals of ICPD can be
achieved through the strengthening and improved enforcement of international human
rights laws.
Human rights organizations, like AI and HRW, recognized the need to direct
some of their resources to women’s issues before ICPD. Many established special
projects, or widened the scope of others, to directly address the rights of women. Sahgal
and Jefferson admit, however, that much work remains within their community to
advance and protect the sexual and reproductive rights of women. Organizational
constraints and differing objectives can sometimes impede efforts to develop partnerships
with other organizations working to address women's rights, but both Sahgal and
Jefferson expressed hope that their community will continue to be welcomed at the table.

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Over the past ten years, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch have addressed women’s reproductive and sexual rights in a
variety of different ways. HRW has tackled such issues as forced sterilization,
reproductive rights in the workplace, the trafficking of women and girls and the impact of
domestic violence on women’s health as components of larger endeavors. They have also
advocated in support of ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), conducted an investigation into the linkages
between domestic violence, cultural attitudes and women and examined women’s
vulnerability to HIV infection in Uganda. With regard to Amnesty International’s work,
sexual and reproductive rights concerns have figured prominently in the organization’s
efforts to repeal the death penalty in Nigeria, to investigate and report on the situation of
women victims and survivors of the Rwandan genocide, to stem the increasing incidence
of rape in Burundi and in their recently launched campaign to “Stop Violence Against
Women.”
When asked why the human rights community has chosen to address such issues,
Sahgal and Jefferson had the same response — interdependence. Most advocates
understand that they cannot avoid issues related to women’s reproductive and sexual
rights. Amnesty International, according to Sahgal, is one of those organizations. Indeed,
the group’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign, originally slated to be a two-year
project, was recently extended and will now last six years. Some organizations, like
Human Rights Watch, would see their portfolios as incomplete without including
women’s reproductive and sexual rights. According to Jefferson, Human Rights Watch
sees the low status of women in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia along with the impact on
HIV-infection rates as a key factor and “catalyst” in their work in this area.
The inclusion of issues related to women’s reproductive and sexual rights has
garnered a mostly positive response from most donors and members within the human
rights community. At AI, members understand the interdependence of issues and most
have pushed for change, according to Saghal. The response has been similar at
HRWwhere, as Jefferson stated, “Everyone has been positive and supportive.”
Nevertheless, sexual and reproductive health and rights issues remain firmly on
the human rights agenda. Currently Amnesty International is devoting more attention to
rights of women in conflict and post-conflict situations, while HRW is studying the
comprehensiveness of women’s reproductive heath programs. A larger, possibly multi-
year project to examine access to reproductive health care services among minority
women and women in economically disadvantaged communities is on the horizon. HRW
is also in the process of developing a policy in support of sexual rights. AI’s longer term
plans include an in-depth study of ways to improve accountability when parallel
authorities — government and communities — put women at risk of increased violence
by failing to protect them against violent offenders. And of course the organization plans
to continue efforts to connect issues addressed in the ICPD Programme of Action with
events occurring in local communities and to document and oppose violations of
reproductive and sexual rights.

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Finally, some human rights organizations are moving towards adopting official
positions on abortion. HRW views abortion as an integral part of a woman’s right to
make her own choices about reproductive health, according to Jefferson, but the
organization has yet to adopt a formal policy statement. HRW is expected to adopt an
official policy within the year. AI, and other human rights organizations that follow their
lead, take a more nuanced position. No official position has been adopted on abortion,
however, the acceptance of the ICPD Programme of Action by AI’s membership will
allow them to focus additional resources to work against the denial and sexual and
reproductive rights.
As governments continue to strive towards achieving the goals of ICPD by 2015,
they can now count human rights organizations among the international nongovernmental
organizations actively advocating for the empowerment of women and for the protection
of their reproductive and sexual rights.