Sexual and Reproductive Rights in the Courtroom: Litigation Strategies in Light of the Zika Outbreak
Earlier this year the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in response to the Zika virus, stating that “the level of alarm is extremely high.” It has taken...
UN Rights Experts Warn Against the Grave Threat of Unsafe Abortions
A group of United Nations human rights experts have called on States to repeal restrictive abortion laws and policies; dismantle discriminatory barriers to access to safe reproductive health services; decriminalise...
Advancing the Right to Education in South Africa
James Rooney is one of the Oxford Human Rights Hub/Rhodes University Travelling Fellows. The Fellowship is a partnership between the Oxford Human Rights Hub, Rhodes University in South Africa, and...
Who Benefits From India’s Move to Ban Commercial Surrogacy?
The press release on the latest draft Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill (the Surrogacy Regulation Bill) categorises India as “a surrogacy hub for couples from different countries”, but raises alarm...
Whole Women’s Health: A Call for Evidence-Based Regulation of Abortion
Decades ago, the medical profession helped build the public-health case for decriminalising abortion, and the Supreme Court of the United States appealed to medical science in deciding Roe v Wade....
Ireland’s Abortion Ban: Subjecting Women to Suffering and Discrimination
Ireland has one of the world’s most restrictive abortion law regimes. Following a referendum in 1983, the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution was inserted in the form of Article...
Surrogacy: A Global Form of Exploitation
Surrogacy appears to be an altruistic alternative for infertile couples that desire to become parents but are unable to for a number of reasons, not just medical. Due to its...
Conscientious Objection or Oppression: That is the Question
On 11th of August last year, the Supreme Administrative Court of Uruguay issued a judgment that recognises the fundamental right of physicians and healthcare personnel to conscientiously object to participating...
Inter-American Court Judgment Against Costa Rica on In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF): A Challenge to the Court’s Enforcement Authority
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ (IACtHR) recent order that Costa Rica invalidate a Supreme Court decision in order to authorise and regulate in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has brought up...
Judging Abortion in Northern Ireland: Facing the Challenges, Taking the Opportunities
The Northern Ireland legal system and, more specifically, Northern Irish courts have been thrust into the national spotlight this week following the prosecution of a 21 year old woman who...
Justice Scalia’s Repudiation of Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights
Throughout the three decades that Justice Antonin Scalia served on the United States Supreme Court, he was invariably viewed as one of the Court’s staunchest opponents of sex equality and...
Abortion in Texas: Does Casey Still Have Content?
On March 2, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court heard much awaited arguments in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the most important abortion case since the Court decided Planned Parenthood of...
