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Francesca Gallelli - 6th September 2019
Calls for the protection of reproductive and sexual health are included in an increasing number of resolutions of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council concerned with women’s rights, indicating the centrality of this area for women’s freedom and well-being. Yet, the enthusiasm for the important development quickly turns into dismay, when the focus […]
Tuur Desloovere - 11th August 2019
A decision of the Belgian Constitutional Court is the latest in a series of judgments in Europe deciding essentially the same question: should non-binary gender identities be recognized by (non-binary) gender/sex markers on official documents? This post explores the different answers offered by courts across Europe. On 19 June 2019, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled […]
Dahee Chung and Andrew Wolman - 4th August 2019
Since 1953, abortion has been illegal in Korea, except for cases of rape, incest, severe genetic disorders, specific diseases, or threat to a woman’s health. There is a maximum two-year sentence for doctors who perform the procedure, and women who have abortions are subject to a fine and prison sentence of up to a year. […]
Lyndon Baines-Johnson and Mwai Daka - 22nd July 2019
In February 2019, President Bio of Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency to combat rape and sexual violence. However, if the declaration is to have full effect, ambiguities and gaps within the country’s legal framework need to be cleared up, and replaced by clear law preventing child marriage, and sexual and gender-based violence. Most […]
Sadaf Vafa - 21st July 2019
In February 2019, the news of an 11-year-old girl being married to a man who was almost 50 years old, caused severe criticism of the Iranian Civil Code, which allows for the marriage of children under the age of 18. According to the most recent statistics by UNICEF, 17 percent of girls in Iran are […]
Natalia Brigagao - 18th July 2019
In 1998, there was an explosion at an irregular, high-risk fireworks factory in the city of Santo Antônio de Jesus, Brazil, which led to 64 deaths and left six people severely injured. Survivors and family members were not offered due access to justice, which led them to report the violations to the Inter-American Commission of […]
Christine Kahura - 13th June 2019
The narrow basis for the procurement of abortions in Kenya discriminates against women and girls based on their sex and gender. The most adversely affected are poor women and girls living in rural and informal settlements. These women must rely on unsafe back street abortions that pose a risk to their lives. One such woman […]
Rishika Sahgal and Andrew Byrnes - 3rd June 2019
This year sees the centenary of the abolition of the legal barriers to women’s entry into the legal profession in the United Kingdom. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 (UK), which commenced operation on 23 December 1919, provided that a person should not be disqualified ‘by sex or marriage from entering or assuming or carrying […]
Raghav Mendiratta - 19th May 2019
On April 22, 2019, in a significant decision for India’s transgender community, the Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu upheld the right of a trans-woman and a man to register their marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. What was so far only etched as an abstract right of gender self-determination through the NALSA judgment, […]
Adilya Zhilgildina - 5th April 2019
Teenage pregnancy rates in Kazakhstan are high, with 3443 births in 2017, much higher than during the Soviet period. As a means to decrease the prevalence of teenage pregnancy, the Vice Minister of Healthcare has proposed a more liberal abortion regime by making abortions more accessible to teenagers, providing access to birth control and introducing […]
Prankul Boobana - 12th March 2019
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India (‘SC’) recently relaxed the stringent conditions imposed by the Maharashtra government for obtaining licenses and running dance bars, public establishments which are an important source of livelihood for female dancers. These dancers generally belong to the traditional dancing communities and are following their hereditary occupation. It […]
Gauri Pillai - 22nd February 2019
Oxytocin is a WHO-recommended drug for the inducement of labour during childbirth, and in the prevention and treatment of post-partum haemorrhage. Recently, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court set aside a notification issued by the Central Government which prohibited the manufacture and distribution of Oxytocin for domestic use by licensed private sector companies. […]