On 17 May 1990, the World Health Organisation (WHO) removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), thereby taking an important first step towards addressing and removing the stigma...
Maternity Benefits and Child Care Leave to Mothers: The Supreme Court of India’s Narrow and Unsatisfactory Approach to Gender Equality in the Labour Force
The Supreme Court of India in a recent order in Shalini Dharmani v State of Himachal Pradesh reaffirmed that Child Care Leave granted to women was in furtherance of the...
Illegal Human Trafficking Profits Skyrocket
Human trafficking is big business. The United Nations (UN) just released an updated report that reveals traffickers are raking in record illegal profits. Meanwhile, the inherently valuable people whom traffickers...
The Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Iraq
The Republic of Iraq ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1986 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural...
If Frozen Embryos Are Unborn Children Then What Is IVF’s Future in the United States?
In Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade(1973), and the fate of reproductive freedom fell to the political whims of state...
The Enshrinement of Abortion in the French Constitution. Kairos: Dobbs as a window of opportunity? (Part I)
On 8 March 2024, the sealing ceremony for the 25th amendment to the French Constitution of 1958 took place at the ministry of Justice in Paris, marking the inclusion in...
The Enshrinement of Abortion in the French Constitution. Phronesis: after the celebration, a call for caution (Part II)
The first part of this blog examined the process that led to the amendment that enshrined abortion in the French Constitution. In this second part, it is argued that, while...
Empathy and Justice: Abortion Rights for Minor Rape Victims in India
Otherwise viewed as a laudable step in addressing rights to abort, India’s Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 (MTP) inadvertently leaves minor rape victims vulnerable. A recent decision of the...
Unveiling the Silent Struggles of Adolescents Seeking Safe Abortion in India
The tragic Nirbhaya Gang Rape Case revolutionised Indian Criminal Law with the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) in 2012. The primary objective of...
The ML v Poland ‘landmark’ judgment on reproductive rights and the ENNHRI third-party intervention: How ‘landmark’ is it in reality?
On 14 December 2023, in ML v Poland, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirmed that Poland’s 2020 Constitutional Court’s decision, resulting in a near-total abortion ban, violated the...
Birthing Justice: Commercial Surrogacy and the Imperative of Women’s Rights in Contemporary India
Claudia Goldin, the recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, provides a comprehensive account of women’s labour market participation through the centuries which demonstrates that their contribution to...
The UK’s First Country Visit under the Istanbul Convention. Part I: Systemic Challenges and Institutional Inertia
This blog marks the culmination of the 16 Days of Action for the Elimination of Violence against Women, seeking to call to end violence against women and girls around the...