The purpose of this handbook is to provide national human right institutions with tools and guidance on how to integrate reproductive rights into their work. Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international laws and international human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic rights of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes the right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents.
This Handbook is intended to give an introduction to reproductive rights, both what they mean in practice and their normative background, and how NHRIs can work within this field. Naturally, many NHRIs already work within the reproductive rights field, and a number of experiences from NHRIs have been gathered and are mentioned in the Handbook.
Overview
The outline of this Handbook is as follows:
- Chapter 1: Promoting the Reproductive Rights Agenda – an overview of the meaning of sexual and reproductive health together with a summary of the main global commitments
- Chapter 2: The National Human Rights Institution Mandate – how NHRIs can advance reproductive rights under their mandate
- Chapter 3: Promoting a Human Rights-Based Approach to Reproductive Health – how a human rights-based approach can be utilized for the advancement of reproductive rights
- Chapter 4: Reproductive Rights and Human Rights Standards and Principles – the normative human rights basis for what is understood as
reproductive rights
A list of publications for further reading can be found preceding the annexes. The annexes contain information on United Nations Treaty Bodies and their practice, as well as an overview of the experiences of regional bodies and NHRIs.
You can download this handbook for free here.
