Research reveals that there are several major barriers that young people face to accessing  contraception , primarily with acquiring services, especially in areas that contraceptives have strict laws on contraceptive use. [ 67 ]  The legal status of  oral contraception  in Latin America varies by country and can. In 2009  Honduras  banned the free distribution and sale of emergency contraceptives. [ 68 ]  That same year, the  Constitutional Court of Peru  ordered the  Health Ministry  to refrain from distributing  emergency contraceptives  to the public sector. [ 68 ]  In  Costa Rica , where emergency contraceptives are not blatantly prohibited, the popular emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel is not registered as a product, which impedes access to the drug from within the public health system as well as the private market. [ 68 ]  Although the remaining countries in the region allow for the free distribution of emergency contraceptives, they do not have uniform regulations. In  Chile ,  Colombia  and  Ecuador , the right to have access to emergency contraceptives is recognized. [ 68 ]  In  Nicaragua  and  Bolivia , the protocols of their respective health ministries are essentially law. [ 68 ]  In Argentina and Brazil, the distribution of emergency contraceptives is not legally recognized except in protocols and informative guides. [ 68 ]


In Antigua and Barbuda, abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life. In  Bahamas , abortion is only allowed in cases of  rape ,  incest ,  fetal deformity , or endangerment to mother's life. [ 69 ]  In Barbados, abortion is legal in cases of fetal impairment, or endangerment to mother's life, and is only allowed with an authorized health professional in a specially licensed facility. [ 4 ]  In  Cuba , abortion is allowed at the woman's request up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy, and is only allowed with an authorized health professional in a specially licensed facility. [ 4 ]  In Dominica, abortion is completely banned. In  Dominican Republic , abortion is completely banned. In Grenada, abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life. [ 70 ]  In Haiti, abortion is completely banned. In Jamaica, abortion is completely banned. [ 71 ]  In  Saint Kitts and Nevis , . In Saint Lucia, abortion is allowed in cases of police-reported rape, incest, or endangerment to mother's life, and is only allowed with an authorized health professional in a specially licensed facility. [ 4 ]  In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, abortion is allowed in cases of fetal impairment, rape, incest, or endangerment to mother's life, and is only allowed with an authorized health professional in a specially licensed facility. [ 4 ]  In  Trinidad and Tobago , abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life. [ 4 ]


In  Belize , abortion is only allowed in cases of fetal impairment or endangerment to mother's life, and is only allowed with the authorization of health professionals. [ 4 ]  In  Costa Rica , abortion is only legal in cases of therapeutic abortion. [ 4 ]  In El Salvador, abortion is completely banned. [ 4 ]  In  Guatemala , abortion is only legal when it is performed to save mother's life. In Honduras, abortion is completely banned. [ 4 ]  In  Mexico , policies vary by state, with some allowing abortion at mother's request up to 12 or 13 weeks and others allowing in cases or fetal impairment, rape, incest, or endangerment to mother's life. [ 4 ]  In  Nicaragua , abortion is completely banned. [ 4 ]  In  Panama , abortion is allowed in cases of fetal impairment, endangerment to mother's life, or rape. [ 4 ]


In  Argentina , abortion is allowed at the woman's request up to 14 weeks into the pregnancy. In Bolivia, abortion is allowed in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to mother's life. [ 4 ]  In  Brazil , abortion is only allowed in cases of rape or endangerment to mother's life and only allowed with the authorization of a health professional. [ 4 ]  In  Chile , abortion is only allowed in cases of rape or endangerment to mother's life and only allowed with the authorization of a health professional. [ 4 ]  In  Colombia , abortion is allowed at the woman's request up to 24 weeks into the pregnancy; from 24 weeks on, it is allowed only in cases of police-reported rape, incest, or endangerment to mother's life or health. [ 4 ]  In  Ecuador , abortion is allowed in cases of rape or endangerment to mother's life. [ 4 ]  In  Guyana , abortion is allowed at the woman's request up to 8 weeks into the pregnancy, and is only allowed with an authorized health professional in a specially licensed facility. [ 4 ]  In  Paraguay , abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life. [ 4 ]  In  Peru , abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life, and is only allowed with an authorized health professional in a specially licensed facility. [ 4 ]  In  Suriname , abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life. [ 4 ]  In  Uruguay , abortion is allowed at the woman's request up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy and only allowed with the authorization of a health professional. [ 4 ]  In  Venezuela , abortion is only legal when it is performed to save the mother's life. [ 4 ]


Chemical castration  is  castration  via  anaphrodisiac   drugs , whether to reduce  libido  and sexual activity,  to treat cancer , or otherwise. Unlike  surgical castration , where the  gonads  are removed through an incision in the body, [ 1 ]  chemical castration does not remove organs and is not a form of  sterilization . [ 2 ]


Chemical castration is generally reversible when treatment is discontinued, [ 3 ]  although permanent effects in body chemistry can sometimes be seen, as in the case of  bone density  loss increasing with length of use of  depot medroxyprogesterone acetate  (DMPA). In men, chemical castration reduces sex drive and the capacity for sexual arousal, side effects of some drugs may include depression, suicidal ideation,  hot flashes ,  anemia , infertility, increase in body fat and higher risks of  cardiovascular diseases  and  osteoporosis . In women, chemical castration acts by decreasing testosterone levels in order to lower their sex drive, side effects include the deflation of  breast glands , expansion of the size of the nipple and shrinking of  bone mass .


In some jurisdictions, chemical castration has been used to reduce the libido of sexual offenders. [ 4 ]  The effectiveness of chemical castration in decreasing recidivism among sex offenders is controversial.


When used on males, these drugs can reduce sex drive, sexual fantasies, and capacity for  sexual arousal . Life-threatening side effects are rare, but some users show increases in body fat and reduced bone density, which increase long-term risk of  cardiovascular disease  and  osteoporosis , respectively. Males may also experience  gynecomastia  (development of larger-than-normal mammary glands in males); full development is less common unless chemical castration is combined with feminizing oestrogen therapy. [ 5 ]


Some drugs, such as  medroxyprogesterone acetate ,  cyproterone acetate  and  LHRH agonists  can decrease serum testosterone and  estradiol  in the body, thus impairing the metabolism of  glucose  and  lipid . These drugs can also cause depression,  hot flashes , infertility and  anemia , aside from cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis. The risk of side effects caused by chemical castration drugs can increase depending on the length of time under which they are administered. [ 6 ]  A 2004 study in which eleven men were chemically castrated ended with one committing suicide after one year of treatment; [ 7 ]  in another 2020 study, increases in suicidal ideations was reported by 8% of its treatment group, which led to the hospitalization of two of the 25 subjects who had been administered  degarelix . [ 8 ] [ 9 ]


When used on females, the effects are similar, though there is little research about chemically lowering female's sex drive or female-specific anaphrodisiacs, since most research focuses on the opposite, but anti-androgenic hormone regimens would lower testosterone in females which can impact sex drive or sexual response. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]  These drugs also deflate the breast glands and expand the size of the nipple. Also seen is a sudden shrinking in bone mass and discoloration of the lips, [ 13 ] [ 14 ]  reduced body hair, [ 15 ]  and muscle mass. [ 16 ]


The first use of chemical castration occurred in 1944, when  diethylstilbestrol  was used with the purpose of lowering men's testosterone. [ 17 ]
The  antipsychotic  agent  benperidol  was sometimes used to decrease sexual urges in people who displayed what was thought of as inappropriate sexual behavior, and as likewise given by  depot injection , though benperidol does not affect testosterone and is therefore not a castration agent.
Chemical castration was often seen as an easier alternative to  life imprisonment  or the  death penalty  because it allowed the release of the convicted. [ 18 ]


In 1981, in an experiment by Pierre Gagné, 48 males with long-standing histories of sexually deviant behaviour were given  medroxyprogesterone acetate  for as long as 12 months. Forty of those subjects were recorded as having diminished desires for deviant sexual behaviour, as well as less frequent sexual fantasies and greater control over sexual urges. The research recorded a continuation of this improved behaviour after the administration of the drug had ended, with no evidence of adverse side effects, and so recommended medroxyprogesterone acetate along with counselling as a successful method of treatment for serial sex offenders. [ 19 ]


Leuprolide   acetate  is an  LHRH   agonist  that is most commonly used in chemical castration today. [ 20 ]  This drug has been observed as having higher rates of success in reducing abnormal sexual urges and fantasies, but is often reserved for those offenders who are at a high risk of reoffending due to the drug's intense effects. [ 21 ]


Psychotherapy has also recently been used in conjunction with chemical castration in order to maximize and prolong the beneficial results. [ 22 ]  Schober et al. reported in 2005 that when  cognitive behavioral therapy  combined with leuprolide acetetate was compared to cognitive behavioral therapy alone, the combination therapy produced a much more significant reduction of pedophilic fantasies and urges as well as masturbation. [ 23 ]  Chemical castration therapy reduces an individual's libido which then makes some offenders more responsive to the introduction of psychotherapy. [ 24 ]  This combination therapy is most often utilized in those who are at a high risk of offending. [ 22 ]


Offering criminals the option of chemical castration for a reduction in sentence is an example of  compulsory sterilization [ 25 ]  as it can leave a subject sterile if they are required to continue treatment for more than 3 years. [ 6 ]


Some criminologists argue that the appearance of a lower recidivism rate in male sex offenders who take chemical castration treatment than in those who do not can be explained by factors other than biological effects of the medication. One hypothesis is that men who accept the negative effects of hormonal treatment in exchange for shorter prison sentence are distinct in that they value freedom from incarceration higher than men who rather stay in prison for a longer time than face the side effects of chemical castration. These criminologists explain apparently lower recidivism as an artifact of men who accept chemical castration being more engaged in hiding the evidence for reoffending, and that paroling such offenders constitute a risk of releasing criminals who commit as many new crimes as others but are better at hiding it. These criminologists also argue that police investigators treating castrated men as less likely to reoffend than non-castrated men may cause an investigation bias and  self-fulfilling prophecy , and that men who sell some of their prescribed medicines on the black market for drugs get a hidden income that improves their ability to afford measures to hide recidivism that is not available to men without such prescriptions. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ]


Some neurologists acknowledge that testosterone plays a role in sexual arousal but consider that reducing sex drive will likely not reduce inappropriate sex behaviour. These researchers argue that since a weaker internal signal in the brain means a higher requirement for external stimulation to create a feedback loop that tires the  brain circuits  out as in orgasm and lead to satisfaction, a reduction of the internal stimulation from hormones would make the required external stimulation stronger and also more specific, as weaker signals involve narrower ranges of other brain functions in their loops. These scientists therefore argue that the biological (as opposed to sociological) effect of reduced testosterone is to make it more difficult and not easier to use masturbation without pornography or other socially acceptable substitutes to manage remaining sex drive in a former offender, and that many community persons (both male and female) find that a lower initial arousal makes it more difficult to orgasm by masturbation without pornography or with non-preferred stimulation. [ 29 ] [ 30 ]


In July 2022, a proposed policy of chemical castration for rapists was introduced at the national policy conference of the ruling party, the  African National Congress , by the party's Women's League. [ 31 ]


In March 2010, Guillermo Fontana of  CNN  reported that officials in  Mendoza , a  province  in  Argentina , approved the use of voluntary chemical castration for rapists, in return for reduced sentences. [ 32 ]


In 1966,  John Money  became the first American to employ chemical castration by prescribing  medroxyprogesterone acetate  (MPA) as a treatment for a "Bisexual transvestite with pedophiliac homosexual incest" who was in 'treatment' after their wife informed Money about them having sexually abused their 6-year-old son. [ 33 ]  The drug has thereafter become a mainstay of chemical castration in America. Despite having been extensively used in the United States for the purpose of decreasing sexual impulses, the drug has never been approved by the FDA for use as a treatment for sexual offenders. [ 17 ]


California  was the first U.S. state to specify the use of chemical castration for repeat  child molesters  as a condition of their parole, following the passage of a modification to Section 645 of the California  penal code  in 1996. [ 34 ] [ 35 ]  This law stipulates castration for anyone convicted of child molestation with a minor under 13 years of age if they are on  parole  after their second offense. Offenders may not reject the intervention, [ 34 ] [ 35 ] [ 36 ] [ 37 ]  although they may elect surgical castration instead of ongoing DMPA injections. [ 38 ]


The passage of this law led to similar laws in other states such as Florida's Statute Section 794.0235 which was passed into law in 1997. [ 39 ]


At least seven other states, including  Georgia ,  Iowa ,  Louisiana ,  Montana ,  Oregon ,  Texas  and  Wisconsin , have experimented with chemical castration. [ 17 ]  In Iowa, as in California and Florida, offenders may be sentenced to chemical castration in all cases involving serious sex offenses.  On June 25, 2008, following the Supreme Court ruling in  Kennedy v. Louisiana  that the execution of child rapists where the victim was not killed was ruled unconstitutional, [ 40 ]  Louisiana Governor  Bobby Jindal  signed Senate Bill 144, allowing Louisiana judges to sentence convicted rapists to chemical castration. [ 41 ] [ 42 ] [ 43 ]   Alabama  passed such a law in 2019. [ 44 ]


The  American Civil Liberties Union  of  Florida  opposes the administration of any drug that is dangerous or has significant irreversible effect as an alternative to incarceration; however, they do not oppose the use of antiandrogen drugs for sex offenders under carefully controlled circumstances as an alternative to incarceration. [ 41 ]   Law professor John Stinneford has argued that chemical castration is a  cruel and unusual punishment  because it exerts control over the mind of sex offenders to render them incapable of sexual desire and subjects them to the physical changes caused by the hormones used. [ 45 ]


Some people have argued that, based on the  14th Amendment , the procedure fails to guarantee equal protection: although the laws mandating the treatment do so without respect to gender, the actual effect of the procedure disproportionately falls upon men. [ 17 ]  In the case of voluntary statutes, the ability to give  informed consent  is also an issue; in 1984, the  U.S. state  of  Michigan 's court of appeals held that mandating chemical castration as a condition of probation was unlawful on the grounds that the drug  medroxyprogesterone acetate  had not yet gained acceptance as being safe and reliable and also due to the difficulty of obtaining informed consent under these circumstances. [ 17 ]


After the outrage following the  gang rape of a woman  in  Delhi , the Government has submitted a draft proposing chemical castration along with an imprisonment of up to 30 years for rape convicts as part of the anti-rape law in India. The ministry is preparing a detailed bill and the recommended changes are under review. [ 46 ] [ 47 ]
Government is also planning to re-define the Juvenile Act and lower their age. One of the accused in the rape case is a juvenile and aged a few months less than 18 years. A view has been expressed by a section that only those below 15 years should be described as juvenile. [ 48 ] [ 49 ]


In 2016, the Indonesian President  Joko Widodo  introduced a presidential regulation (Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No.1/2016) to allow chemical castration to be handed down as a punishment to child sex offenders. The regulation alters the contents of the 2002 Law on Child Protection (Law No. 23 of 2002). [ 4 ]  DPR later enacted the regulation and amended the law (Law No. 17 of 2016) to enable chemical castration. [ 50 ]  Although, a convicted child sex offender convicted in 2019 and eligible to be castrated chemically, the technical details on how the punishment will be carried out was under debate between the Government and Indonesian Physicians Association, resulting the sentence suspended until the technical details made. [ 51 ]  On 7 December 2020, government finally issued Government Regulation No. 70/2020, that detailing technical details on how chemical castration carried out. The chemical castration punishment carried by specifically appointed physician in central government-run or local government-run hospital, and witnessed by witnesses from Attorney General, Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Ministry of Social Affairs, and Ministry of Health. The drugs used for the sentence however, not declared in the government regulation. The government regulation also authorized Ministry of Law and Human Rights to issue regulation to notify the Attorney General, and Ministry of Health to compile the technical procedure for the clinical assessment, conclusion, and implementation. [ 52 ]


In May 2009, two brothers from  Haifa —convicted child molesters—agreed to undergo chemical castration to avoid committing further crimes. [ 53 ]


In 2020, Pakistan's Prime Minister  Imran Khan  told a journalist that he would prefer that rapists and child molesters be publicly hanged, but he added that, because he imagined that such capital punishment would gain negative attention for Pakistan on the international stage, he would instead like such offenders to "undergo chemical castration, or surgery be performed so they cannot do anything in future." [ 54 ]  The Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020, approved by President  Arif Alvi  in December 2020, [ 55 ]  allows for chemical castration of rapists without the consent of the offender. [ 56 ]  Lawmakers gave it permanent approval in November 2021. [ 57 ]


In July 2011, South Korea enacted a law allowing judges the power to sentence sex offenders who have attacked children under the age of 16 to chemical castration. [ 58 ]  The law also allows for chemical castration to be ordered by a Ministry of Justice committee. On May 23, 2012, a serial sex offender legally called Park in the court case was ordered by the committee to undergo this treatment after his most recent attempted offense. On January 3, 2013, a South Korean court sentenced a 31-year-old man to 15 years in jail and chemical castration, the country's first-ever chemical castration sentence. [ 59 ] [ 60 ]  In 2017, the sentencing was extended to include all forms of rapes and sexual assault cases against women, including attempted rape.


Legislation allowing chemical castration exists in France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, North Macedonia, Belgium and Turkey. [ 61 ] : 16   The drug  cyproterone acetate  has been commonly used for chemical castration throughout Europe.  It resembles the drug MPA used in America. [ 17 ]


On June 5, 2012,  Estonia  passed a law that allows voluntary chemical castration as a part of complex treatment for less serious sex offenders as an alternative of imprisonment. However, the treatment is rarely used in practice. [ 62 ]


In the 1960s,  German  physicians used  antiandrogens  as a treatment for sexual  paraphilia . [ 17 ]


On March 6, 2012,  Moldova  legislated forcible chemical castration of child molesters; the law came into effect on July 1, 2012. [ 63 ]


In October and November 2013,  North Macedonia  authorities were working on developing a legal framework and standard procedure for implementation of chemical castration that would be used for convicted  child molesters . The castration is intended to be voluntarily, where as for the child molesters that repeat the criminal act it should be mandatory. [ 64 ]


On September 25, 2009,  Poland  legislated forcible chemical castration of child molesters. [ 65 ]  This law came into effect on June 9, 2010; therefore in Poland "anyone guilty of raping a child under the age of 15 can now be forced to submit to chemical and psychological therapy to reduce sex drive at the end of a prison term". [ 66 ]


In 2008, an experimental intervention program was launched in three  Portuguese   prisons : Carregueira ( Belas, Sintra ),  Paços de Ferreira  and  Funchal . The program developers note the voluntary nature of the program a crucial factor in its success. They initially planned to cover ten inmates per prison, contemplating a possible enlargement to other prisons in the future. The program also included a  rehabilitation  component. [ 67 ]


In 2021, the right-wing populist  Chega  party pushed for a chemical castration bill in parliament. [ 68 ]


In October 2011, the Russian parliament approved a law that allows a court-requested forensic psychiatrist to prescribe the chemical castration of convicted sex offenders who have harmed children under the age of 14. [ citation needed ]


In the  United Kingdom , computer scientist  Alan Turing , famous for his contributions to mathematics and computer science, pleaded guilty in 1952 to a charge of  gross indecency  for engaging in homosexual acts and accepted chemical castration as a term of his probation, thus avoiding imprisonment. [ 69 ]   At the time, homosexual acts between males were illegal and homosexual orientation was widely considered to be a mental illness that could be treated with chemical castration. [ 69 ]   Turing experienced side effects such as gynecomastia (breast enlargement) [ 70 ]  and bloating of the physique. [ 69 ]  He died two years later, with the inquest returning a verdict of suicide. [ 71 ]  In 2009 British Prime Minister  Gordon Brown  issued a public apology for the "appalling" treatment of Turing after an online petition gained 30,000 signatures and international recognition. [ 72 ]  He was given a posthumous  Royal Pardon  in December 2013.


A law allowing voluntary chemical castration was created in the UK in 2007 by then home secretary  John Reid . [ 73 ]


On April 30, 2010, a 30-year-old man in the  United Kingdom  found guilty of attempting to murder a 60-year-old woman in order to abduct and rape her two granddaughters (aged eight and two) agreed to undergo chemical castration as part of the terms of his sentence. He was jailed for a minimum of 10 years at the High Court in Glasgow. [ 74 ]


In 2010, a  58-year-old repeat child sex offender who had been subject to chemical castration was accused of inappropriately touching and kissing a seven-year-old young girl. He was found not guilty by a jury, which was not informed of the context of his previous offenses. [ 75 ]


In New Zealand, the  antilibidinal drug   cyproterone acetate  is sold under the name Androcur. In November 2000 convicted  child sex offender  Robert Jason Dittmer attacked a victim while on the drug. In 2009 a study into the effectiveness of the drug by Dr David Wales for the Corrections Department found that no research had been conducted in New Zealand into the effectiveness and such trials were "ethically and practically very difficult to carry out." [ 76 ]


A major medical use of chemical castration is in the treatment of hormone-dependent cancers, such as some  prostate cancer , where it has largely replaced the practice of surgical castration. [ 77 ] [ 78 ]  In 2020 a man in Canada who was receiving antiandrogen drug treatment for colon cancer  murdered his doctor  over the belief that they were chemically castrating him due to his race.


Chemical castration involves the administration of  antiandrogen  drugs, such as  cyproterone acetate ,  flutamide , or  gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists .


Climate change  is a global phenomenon with wide-ranging and profound impacts on various aspects of human life. Beyond its well-known  environmental consequences , climate change significantly affects human health, including the realm of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHRs). Nowhere are these impacts more pronounced than in  Africa , a continent that is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its socio-economic, geographic, and ecological factors. Understanding the intersection between climate change and SRHRs is crucial for developing holistic and effective strategies to address these interconnected challenges. [ 1 ]


According to the  International Institute for Sustainable Development  (IISD), climate change has a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights ( SRHRs ) in Africa. The report states that barriers to the realization of SRHR inhibit progress toward  gender equality  and may impede climate action. At the same time, the impacts of climate change may negatively affect SRHR, for example, through interruptions in sexual and reproductive health services caused by extreme weather events. [ 2 ]


Extreme weather events can reduce access to SRHR services, as such increase the rate of sexual risk behavior and lead to early sexual debut, higher prevalence of infectious diseases, and sexual abuse and exploitation [ 3 ]  Climate change can have negative impacts on  maternal health  and create conditions that result in increases in  gender-based violence , including harmful practices such as  child marriage . A study of 21 sub-Saharan African countries comprising nearly 300,000 respondents examining the impacts of long-term temperature increases on HIV found long periods of droughts were associated with increased HIV prevalence and other STI's. The study also showed that droughts were more likely to have impact on those people living in rural areas, younger age groups, and increased engagement in transactional sex [ 3 ]  The consequences of climate change are diverse, severe, and predicted to worsen over the coming years. Even if temperature changes are maintained in line with the  Paris Agreement  (that is to limit temperature increases to below 2 °C, and preferably below 1.5 °C, compared to pre-industrial levels), there will be significant impacts on  biodiversity ,  water availability ,  food security , and health. [ 4 ]


The effects of climate change disproportionately affect women and girls, who often bear the brunt of its consequences. When climate-related disasters strike, women and girls face heightened vulnerabilities, putting them at greater risk of gender-based violence. [ 5 ]  This is made worse by how sexual and reproductive health issues are overlooked during disasters. [ 6 ]  Displacement from their homes can lead to  early marriages  for young girls as their families struggle to provide for them. Child marriage exposes girls to higher risks of intimate partner violence due to power imbalances in these relationships. [ 7 ]  This stems from cultural norms that allow women and children less decision power and the ability to relocate when facing climate change.  [ 8 ]


The far-reaching consequences of climate change on SRHRs have been the subject of research in  Uganda ,  Kenya ,  Malawi ,  Mozambique , and the  Sahel . The studies have found that women and girls face limited access to healthcare services during climate-related disasters. The lack of resources, such as clean water and menstrual products, further hampers their ability to manage their health with dignity.  [ 9 ]   These negative impacts are felt most by girls and women, and individuals who have already experienced multiple barriers to the realization of their SRHR. In particular, adolescents; sex workers; people living with disabilities; or those of underrepresented sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics face significant barriers in accessing SRHR information and services, including in humanitarian settings. [ 10 ]


Climate change contributes to food insecurity and consequently impacts maternal health. This is largely because of the economic consequences of climate change. [ 11 ]   For example, during the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85, it was reported that women and infants were more likely to die from inequitable access to food resources. [ 12 ]


Specifically, in Africa, there are higher rates of malnutrition among women who are pregnant and breastfeeding. [ 13 ]  This causes negative repercussions on the health of children. Across 19 African countries climate change has caused decreases in birth weights because of the lack of maternal nutrition. [ 14 ]  Furthermore, in cases of natural disaster, women are more likely to have negative reproductive outcomes that range from premature delivery to preeclampsia.  [ 15 ]


The impacts are made worse by infectious diseases that spread faster with a weakened infrastructure and agricultural deficits. [ 16 ]  Across the regions of West Africa, central Africa, and east and southern Africa, children born from mothers with malaria were recorded to be twice as likely to be underweight. [ 17 ]


Insecurity caused by extreme weather events can lead to increased rates of risky sexual behavior, including condom less sex and transactional sex that causes higher prevalence of infectious and sexual diseases. [ 18 ]  A study of about 300,000 individuals in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that this has caused increased risk of STIs and HIV especially during long periods of drought and long term temperature increases. [ 19 ]  Furthermore the study showed that younger age groups have higher risks of infection during transactional sex. A study in Lesotho has also revealed that teenaged girls face an additional 11% risk of being HIV-positive following a drought crisis. [ 20 ]  Migration from climate change also exacerbates the issues as many people see the move as a protective move and do not recognize that it may provoke sexual and reproductive health crises. [ 21 ]


During climate-related disasters, healthcare services, including sexual and reproductive health services, are often limited or unavailable. This lack of access leaves women without the necessary medical support during childbirth, risking their health and that of their newborns. Additionally, the absence of clean water and menstrual products hinders women's and girls' ability to manage menstruation with dignity, further impacting their SRHRs. [ 22 ]


Challenges are made worse with climate-induced migration. With a prediction of 85.7 million climate migrants in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, Africa faces one of the worst refugee crisis of the generation. [ 23 ]  When entire communities are forced to move during climate change migration there is a lack of access to lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services and programs. [ 24 ]   Migrant and refugee women face the risk of rape, unwanted pregnancy, and unsafe abortion.  [ 25 ]  This often leads to further issues of depression and social isolation.  [ 26 ]


For marginalized and vulnerable populations, as well as those with disabilities, the impact of climate change compounds their existing challenges and vulnerabilities. These groups face additional barriers in accessing healthcare, adapting to changing environmental conditions, and recovering from climate-related disasters. The intersectionality of social, economic, and health disparities further exacerbates their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. [ 27 ]


With the rise of concerns about climate change's impact on communities, the African Union met in October 2022 to discuss green recovery efforts. They created Africa's Agenda 2063 that covered socio-economic transformations to mitigate the effects of changing geographical developments. Within their strategy, they highlighted the intersectionality of climate change and gender problems and why women and youth needed to be included in their plans. [ 28 ]  This follows a IPCC report from 2007 that marked how climate change would effect food insecurity, chronic diseases, and public health gains. [ 29 ]


These proposals are important to the greater wellbeing of African nations because gender-aware policies play an important role in reaching the inclusive agricultural growth to meet the commitments outlined in the Malabo Declaration.  [ 30 ]  United States has announced plans to help the continent reach its goal of securing sexual and reproductive health. For instance at the US-Africa Business forum plans were passed to create a regional Transport Compact with Niger and Benin that included $7.5 million for entrepreneurship and training programs for women, to mitigate HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, trafficking in persons risks, and road enhancements to support poor and vulnerable women who sell their goods along the transport corridors.  [ 31 ]


The Uganda National Climate Change Policy identifies vulnerable populations and highlights them in climate change  adaptation  and mitigation efforts. [ 32 ]  In particular they identify issues that relate to women and children. Their efforts have been geared towards mitigation of future population growth by strengthening family planning and reproductive health. They hope to achieve this through strategies such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). [ 33 ]  The Ugandan government has also pressed for improved education curricula to ensure increased social awareness of risks to reproductive and sexual health associated with climate change as well as to train professionals tasked to address these risks.


Compulsory sterilisation in Sweden  were  sterilisations  which were carried out in Sweden, without a valid consent of the subject, during the years 1906–2013 on  eugenic , medical and social grounds. Between 1972 and 2013, sterilisation was also a condition for  gender reassignment surgery .


In 1922 the  State Institute of Racial Biology  was founded in  Uppsala . In the 1930s, a law was passed that allowed mass sterilisation. [ 5 ]  The stated rationale behind the legislation was to prevent sterilisation from becoming a contraceptive method in the hands of the individual. [ 3 ] [ 6 ]


Another law, passed in 1941, was more far reaching and stated three broad grounds on which sterilisation could be carried out: [ 7 ]


The law did not foresee any age of consent limit. However, it was never legal to physically restrain a person. [ 8 ]


The number of eugenic sterilisations peaked in the 1940s; from 1946, the number of sterilisations under the 1941 legal provisions gradually decreased. [ 9 ]


In 1997, on behalf of the Swedish government, the ethnologists Mikael Eivergård and Lars-Eric Jönsson made an attempt at estimating what percentage of sterilisations were coerced. They found that a quarter of the applications were made under circumstances similar to coercion such as a condition for release from an institution and that another 9 percent were signed under pressure. In half of the cases they found no sign of coercion or pressure, but signs of the applicants' own initiative. Tydén uses these percentages to make an estimate of the number of operations under coercion. He found that 15,000 were made as a condition for release and that another 5500 to 6000 were made under other kinds of pressure, whereas 30,000 were voluntary and on the applicants' own initiative. [ 10 ]


According to a 2000 government report, 21,000 people were estimated to have been forcibly sterilised, 6,000 were coerced into a "voluntary" sterilisation while the nature of a further 4,000 cases could not be determined. [ 11 ]


From the 2000s, the Swedish state paid out damages to victims who filed for compensation. [ 12 ]


Until 2013, sterilisation was mandatory before  sex change . [ 13 ]  This last mandatory sterilisation has been criticised by several political parties in Sweden and since 2011 the  Parliament of Sweden  was expected to change the law but ran into opposition from the  Christian Democrat  party. After efforts to overturn the law failed in parliament, the Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeal overturned the law on 19 December 2012, declaring it unconstitutional [ 14 ] [ 15 ]  after the law was challenged by an unidentified plaintiff.


The  Contraceptive Train  was a  women's rights  activism event which took place on 22 May 1971. [ 1 ]  Members of the  Irish Women's Liberation Movement  (IWLM), in protest against the law prohibiting the importation and sale of contraceptives in the  Republic of Ireland , travelled to  Belfast  in  Northern Ireland  to purchase  contraceptives .


On Saturday, 22 May 1971 the group met at  Connolly Station  in  Dublin  and then travelled to Belfast in  Northern Ireland  to purchase contraceptives, which were banned in the Republic of Ireland. [ 2 ]  The IWLM members were divided about who should go to Belfast. Some members thought that single women should not go because "buying contraception implied they were having sex before marriage." [ 3 ]


Contraception in the Republic of Ireland had been illegal since 1935 under the 1935 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, [ 4 ]  and while contraception was legal in Northern Ireland it was restricted, so the women involved could not get  the pill  without a doctor's  prescription  (even though they tried). [ 5 ]  The women bought  condoms  and  spermicide jelly , and instead of buying the pill they bought hundreds of packets of aspirin, as they realized that the majority of the  Customs  officials would not know what the pill would look like. [ 6 ] [ 2 ]  They were followed by television crews from the United States and Japan, as well as Ireland. [ 5 ]


On arrival back at Connolly Station, there were demonstrating protesters waiting for them. [ 7 ]  At customs, the women involved loudly declared what they had purchased and refused to hand over the contraceptives. [ 5 ]  Some women publicly swallowed the aspirin in defiance of the law, pretending that they were the pill. [ 6 ]  Others waved the contraceptives in the air as they passed through the station. [ 7 ]


Women who were involved with the Contraceptive Train put themselves at risk of being detained or prosecuted for bringing  birth control  into Ireland. [ 8 ]  They also risked  social stigma  from their families and friends. [ 9 ]


This action was a landmark moment in the Irish women's movement: it helped break the "taboo against discussing contraceptive practice." [ 6 ]  It also made a "powerful statement" which raised awareness of the issue surrounding women and contraception. [ 10 ]  The event received a large amount of press coverage. [ 11 ]


The  Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women  ( CEDAW ) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the  United Nations General Assembly .
Described as an international  bill of rights  for  women , it was instituted on 3 September 1981 and has been ratified by 189 states. [ 1 ]  Over fifty countries that have ratified the convention have done so subject to certain declarations, reservations, and objections, including 38  countries  who rejected the enforcement article 29, which addresses means of  settlement  for disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the convention. [ 2 ]  Australia's declaration noted the limitations on central government power resulting from its federal constitutional system. The  United States  and  Palau  have signed, but not ratified the treaty. The  Holy See ,  Iran ,  Somalia ,  Sudan , and  Tonga  are not signatories to CEDAW.


The CEDAW Chairperson position is currently held by  Hilary Gbedemah . [ 3 ]


The convention has a similar format to the  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination , "both with regard to the scope of its substantive obligations and its international monitoring mechanisms". [ 4 ]  The convention is structured in six parts with 30 articles total. [ 5 ]


Article 1  defines  discrimination against women  in the following terms: [ 5 ]


Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.


Article 2  mandates that states parties ratifying the convention declare intent to enshrine  gender equality  into their domestic legislation, repeal all discriminatory provisions in their laws, and enact new provisions to guard against discrimination against women. [ 5 ]  States ratifying the convention must also establish tribunals and public institutions to guarantee women effective protection against discrimination, and take steps to eliminate all forms of discrimination practiced against women by individuals, organizations, and enterprises. [ 5 ]


Article 3  requires states parties to guarantee basic human rights and  fundamental freedoms  to women "on a basis of equality with men" through the "political, social, economic, and cultural fields." [ 5 ]


Article 4  notes that "[a]doption...of  special measures  aimed at accelerating  de facto  equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination." It adds that special protection for  maternity  is not regarded as gender discrimination. [ 5 ]


Article 5  requires states parties to take measures to seek to eliminate prejudices and customs based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of one sex or on  stereotyped   role for men and women . [ 5 ]  It also mandates the states parties "[t]o ensure...the recognition of the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children." [ 5 ]


Article 6  obliges states parties to "take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of  trafficking in women  and  exploitation of prostitution  of women." [ 5 ]


Article 7  guarantees women equality in political and public life with a focus on equality in  voting , participation in government, and participation in "non-governmental organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country." [ 5 ]


Article 8  provides that states parties will guarantee women's equal "opportunity to represent their Government at the international level and to participate in the work of  international organizations ." [ 5 ]


Article 9  mandates state parties to "grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their  nationality " and equal rights "with respect to the nationality of their children." [ 5 ]


Article 10  mandates equal opportunity in education for female students and encourages  coeducation . It also provides equal access to athletics, scholarships and grants as well as requires "reduction in female students' drop out rates." [ 5 ]


Article 11  outlines the  right to work  for women as "an  unalienable right  of all human beings." It requires  equal pay for equal work , the  right to social security ,  paid leave  and  maternity leave  "with pay or with comparable  social benefits  without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances." Dismissal on the grounds of maternity,  pregnancy  or status of marriage shall be prohibited with sanction. [ 5 ]


Article 12  creates the obligation of states parties to "take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of healthcare in order to ensure...access to health care services, including those related to  family planning ." [ 5 ]


Article 13  guarantees equality to women "in economic and social life," especially with respect to "the right to family benefits, the right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit, and the right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all aspects of cultural life." [ 5 ]


Article 14  provides protections for rural women and their special problems, ensuring the right of women to participate in development programs, "to have access to adequate health care facilities," "to participate in all community activities," "to have access to agricultural credit" and "to enjoy adequate living conditions." [ 5 ]


Article 15  obliges states parties to guarantee "women equality with men before the law," including "a  legal capacity  identical to that of men." It also accords "to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the  movement of persons  and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile." [ 5 ]


Article 16  prohibits "discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations." In particular, it provides men and women with "the same right to enter into marriage, the same right freely to choose a spouse," "the same  rights and responsibilities during marriage  and at its dissolution," "the same rights and responsibilities as parents," "the same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children," "the same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to choose a family name, a profession and an occupation" "the same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property, whether free of charge or for a valuable consideration." [ 5 ]


Articles 17 – 24  These articles describe the composition and procedures of the CEDAW Committee, like the hierarchical structure and rules and regulations of systematic procedure of the relationship between CEDAW and national and international legislation and the obligation of States to take all steps necessary to implement CEDAW in full form. [ 6 ]


Articles 25 – 30  (Administration of CEDAW)


These articles describe the general administrative procedures concerning enforcement of CEDAW, ratification and entering reservations of concerned states. [ 6 ]


Resolutions 1325 10th anniversary events highlight use of CEDAW mechanisms [ 7 ]


The 10th anniversary of Resolution 1325 in October 2010 highlighted the increasing demand for accountability to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Many expressed concern about the fact that only 22 Member States out of 192 have adopted national action plans. Women are still underrepresented, if not totally absent, in most official peace negotiations and sexual violence in peacetime and in conflict continue to increase.


These realities emphasized the need to use external legal mechanisms to strengthen the implementation of SCR 1325, particularly CEDAW. The well-established mechanisms of CEDAW – the Member States compliance report and the civil society shadow reporting process were cited as possible instruments to ensure accountability.


Several regional and international meetings including the High Level Seminar "1325 in 2020: Looking Forward...Looking Back", organized by the African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, and the "Stockholm International Conference 10 years with 1325 – What now?" called for the use of CEDAW to improve 1325 implementation.


Intersection between SCR 1325 and CEDAW [ 8 ]


While CEDAW and UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on Women, Peace and Security are important international instruments on their own, there is also an intersection among the three standards that can be used to enhance their implementation and impact.


Resolutions 1325 and 1820 broaden the scope of CEDAW application by clarifying its relevance to all parties in conflict, whereas CEDAW provides concrete strategic guidance for actions to be taken on the broad commitments outlined in the two Resolutions. [ 9 ]


CEDAW is a global human rights treaty that should be incorporated into national law as the highest standard for women's rights. It requires the UN Member States that have ratified it (185 to date) to set in place mechanisms to fully realize  women's rights .


Resolution 1325 is an international law unanimously adopted by the Security Council that mandates the UN Member States to engage women in all aspects of peacebuilding including ensuring women's participation on all levels of decision–making on peace and security issues.


Resolution 1820 links sexual violence as a tactic of war with the maintenance of international peace and security. It also demands a comprehensive report from the UN Secretary-General on implementation and strategies for improving information flow to the Security Council; and the adoption of concrete protection and prevention measures to end sexual violence.


Resolutions 1325 and 1820, and CEDAW share the following agenda on women's human rights and  gender equality : [ 7 ]


A General Comment from the CEDAW committee could strengthen women's advocacy for the full implementation of Resolutions 1325 and 1820 at the country and community levels. Conversely, CEDAW's relevance to conflict-affected areas will be underscored further by the two Resolutions.  In other words, all three international instruments will reinforce each other and be much more effective if used together in leveraging women's human rights. [ 10 ]


The six UN member states that have not ratified or acceded to the convention are  Iran ,  Palau ,  Somalia ,  Sudan ,  Tonga , and the  United States . [ 11 ]


The one  UN non-member state  that had not acceded to the convention is the  Holy See / Vatican City . [ 11 ] [ 12 ]


The  Republic of China (Taiwan)  in 2007 has also ratified the treaty in its legislature, but is unrecognized by the United Nations and is a party to the treaty only unofficially. [ 13 ]


The latest state to have acceded the convention was  South Sudan  on 30 April 2015. [ 11 ]


The United States made several unsuccessful attempts at ratification in 1988, 1990, 1994, 2000 and 2010. [ 14 ] [ 15 ]  Within the United States, over 40 cities and local governments have adopted CEDAW ordinances or resolutions. [ 16 ]  The adoption of these measures has spawned a "Cities for CEDAW" movement in the U.S. [ 17 ]


Many  reservations  have been entered against certain articles of the convention. [ 18 ]  There are also some reservations that are not specific to an article within the convention but rather a general reservation to all aspects of the convention that would violate a stated principle. For example,  Mauritania  made a reservation stating it approved the convention "in each and every one of its parts which are not contrary to  Islamic Sharia ." [ 19 ]  A number of these reservations, especially those entered by Islamic states parties, are subject to much debate. [ 4 ]


Article 28 of the convention states that "a reservation incompatible with the object and purpose of the present convention shall not be permitted." [ 5 ]  As a result, many states parties have entered objections to the reservations of other states parties. [ 20 ]  Specifically, many Nordic states parties were concerned that some of the reservations were "undermining the integrity of the text." [ 21 ]  Over the years, some states parties have withdrawn their reservations.


As of May 2015, sixty-two states parties have entered reservations against some part of the convention. [ 19 ]  Twenty-four states parties have entered objections to at least one of these reservations. [ 19 ]  The most reserved article is Article 29, concerning dispute resolution and interpretation of the convention, with thirty-nine reservations. [ 19 ]  Because reservations to Article 29 are expressly allowed by the convention itself, these reservations were not very controversial. [ 21 ]  Article 16, concerning the equality of women in marriage and family life is subject to twenty-three reservations. [ 19 ]  The committee, in General Recommendation No. 28, specifically stated that reservations to Article 2, concerning general non-discrimination, are impermissible. [ 22 ]  However, Article 2 has seventeen reservations. [ 19 ]


The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, usually abbreviated as "CEDAW Committee", is the United Nations (UN) treaty body that oversees the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The formation of this committee was outlined in Article 17 of the CEDAW, [ 23 ]  which also established the rules, purpose, and operating procedures of the committee. [ 24 ]  Throughout its years of operation the committee has held multiple sessions to ensure the rules outlined in the CEDAW are being followed. Over time the practices of the committee have evolved due to an increased focus on  women's rights  issues.


The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women was formed on 3 September 1981 after the CEDAW received the 20  ratifications  required for it to enter into force. Article 17 of the CEDAW established the committee in order to ensure that the provisions of the CEDAW were followed by the countries that had signed and agreed to be bound by it. [ 24 ]  The first regular session of the committee was held from 18 to 22 October 1982. In this session the first officers of the committee were elected by simple majority, with Ms. L. Ider of  Mongolia  becoming chairperson. [ 25 ]  Other officers elected were three vice-chairpersons: M. Caron of Canada, Z. Ilic of  Yugoslavia  and L. Mukayiranga of  Rwanda . The final officer elected was D. P. Bernard of  Guyana  as  rapporteur  of the committee. During this session, the committee also unanimously approved to adopt its  rules of procedure . [ 25 ]


The rules regarding where and when the committee can hold sessions are laid out in their rules of procedure. [ 26 ]


The committee is allowed to hold as many meetings as are required to perform their duties effectively, with the  states  party to the CEDAW and the  Secretary-General of the United Nations  authorizing the number of regular sessions held. [ 26 ]  In addition, special sessions can be held at the request of either a state party to the convention or the majority of the members serving on the committee. [ 26 ]  Seventy-two sessions have been held to date, with the most recent taking place from 18 February to 9 March 2019. [ 27 ]  The first thirty-nine sessions were held at the  United Nations headquarters  building in New York City, with the fortieth and subsequent sessions held at the  Palais des Nations  in Geneva. [ 27 ]  At its regular sessions, the Committee hears reports from states party to the CEDAW on their progress in adhering to CEDAW and implementing its ideas in their countries. [ 28 ]  The committee also holds pre-sessional work groups to discuss the issues and questions that the committee should deal with during the following session.


Under  article 18  of the CEDAW states must report to the committee on the progress they have made in implementing the CEDAW within their state. [ 26 ]  As most of the information the committee works with comes from these reports, guidelines have been developed to help states prepare accurate and useful reports. [ 29 ]  Initial reports discussing the current picture of discrimination against women in the reporting states are required to specifically deal with each article of the CEDAW, and consist of no more than one-hundred pages. [ 26 ]  States are required to prepare and present these initial reports within one year of ratifying the CEDAW. [ 24 ]  Periodic reports detailing the state's progress in adhering to the articles of the CEDAW should be no more than seventy-five pages in length and should focus on the specific period of time since the state's last report. [ 26 ]  States party to the CEDAW are typically required to provide periodic reports every four years, but if the committee is concerned about the situation in that state they can request a report at any time. [ 24 ]


The committee chooses which reports addressing by considering factors such as the amount of time the report has been pending, whether the report is initial or periodic (with more priority given to initial reports), and from which region the report originates. [ 26 ]  Eight states are invited to give their reports during each session and it is required a representative from the state is in attendance when the report is presented. [ 26 ]  The committee focuses on constructive dialogue when a report is presented and appreciates careful time management on the part of the state presenting its report. [ 26 ]  Due to the high backlog of overdue reports the committee has encouraged states to combine all of their outstanding reports into one document and sends reminders to states who have reports that are five years overdue. [ 26 ]  The CEDAW also requires that the committee provide an annual report that includes its activities, comments relating to the reports provided by states, information relating to the Optional Protocol of the CEDAW, and any other general suggestions or recommendations the committee has made. [ 26 ]  This report is given to the  United Nations General Assembly  through the  Economic and Social Council . [ 26 ]  All reports, agendas and other official documents pertaining to the committee, including the reports provided by the states, are provided to the public unless otherwise decided by the committee. [ 26 ]


Along with issuing its annual report and offering advice to reporting states, the committee has the ability to issue general recommendations that elaborate on its views of the obligations imposed by CEDAW. [ 29 ]  To date, the committee has issued thirty-two general recommendations, the latest dealing with the gender related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women. [ 30 ]  The recommendations issued by the committee in its first decade were short and dealt mainly with the content of states' reports and reservations to the convention. [ 29 ]  Since 1991, however, recommendations have been focused on guiding states' application of the CEDAW in specific situations. [ 29 ]  The formulation of a general recommendation begins with dialogue between the committee on the topic in the recommendation with various non-governmental organizations and other UN bodies. [ 29 ]  The recommendation is then drafted by a member of the committee and discussed and revised in the next session, and finally adopted in the following session. [ 29 ]


Currently the committee is working on the  General Recommendation  Trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration.


For the first ten years the committee operated significantly differently from now. The only form of  censure  given to the committee by the CEDAW was their general recommendations and concluding comments following a report. [ 41 ]  Due to the emergence of the Global Campaign for Women's Human Rights in 1991 more attention was given to the CEDAW, reviving the committee. [ 41 ]  The committee made changes to the CEDAW that allowed it to meet more than once a year, and have taken advantage of this by meeting at least twice a year since 1997. [ 41 ]  The committee originally only met for two weeks in its annual sessions, but that has now been changed to meeting multiple times a year in eighteen-day sessions. [ 28 ]  CEDAW also gained new complaint and inquiry proceedings allowing the committee to initiate inquiry proceedings if it believes a state is in severe violation of the articles of the CEDAW. [ 41 ]


Despite evolving since the committee was first formed, members believe there are ways in which the committee can better meet the goals outlined in the CEDAW. [ 24 ]  One of the committee's main goals moving forward is expanding its information base, allowing it to more effectively deal with issues that arise concerning the CEDAW. [ 24 ]  The committee is authorized in  Article 22  of the CEDAW to invite specialized UN agencies such as the  United Nations Development Programme  to deliver reports discussing women's rights issues in the state under discussion. [ 24 ]  Another method for gathering information is requesting reports from non-governmental organizations dealing with discrimination against women that are operating in the country under discussion. [ 24 ]  This is recommended to insure that the committee is receiving the full, unbiased picture of affairs within the reporting state. [ 24 ]


Another recommendation for improvement involves interpreting and clarifying the language used in the CEDAW in order to make the document as useful as it can be. [ 24 ]  A third improvement that has been suggested is improving the efficiency of the committee. [ 24 ]  Due to the backlog in reports faced by the committee it has been suggested that the government officials who prepare reports presented to the committee should be trained, in order to make all reports uniform and more easily processed. [ 24 ]  A final suggestion for improvement is the implementation of a right of petition in the CEDAW, allowing the committee to hear complaints from citizens of a state against the state, increasing the committee's strength and direct impact on the problem of discrimination against women. [ 24 ]


The official languages of the committee are  English ,  Arabic ,  French ,  Russian , and  Spanish , with any statement made in one of the official languages translated into the other four. [ 26 ]  A speaker who does not speak one of the official languages provides a translator. [ 26 ]  All formal decisions and documents issued by the committee are provided in each of the official languages. [ 26 ]  The original rules of procedure adopted by the committee did not include Arabic as an official language, but the rule was amended in the committees second session to include Arabic. [ 25 ]


Twenty-three members serve on the committee, described as experts for their experience and expertise in women's issues. [ 42 ]  The members are nominated by their national governments and elected through a secret ballot by states party to the convention. [ 42 ]  Upon winning the election and taking up their responsibilities the members of the committee recite the following statement, known as the solemn declaration, "I solemnly declare that I shall perform my duties and exercise powers as a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously". [ 26 ]  The members come from a wide range of occupations including doctors, lawyers, diplomats and educators, providing various viewpoints to the committee due to their diversity. [ 42 ]  Many members continue to hold full-time jobs outside the committee and receive little monetary payment for their work on the committee. [ 42 ]


To insure that the nationality of members encompasses all the diverse states who have signed the CEDAW, members are elected according to regions divided into  Latin America  and the  Caribbean ,  Africa ,  Asia ,  Western Europe , and  Eastern Europe . [ 42 ]  The members of the committee differ from those of other treaty bodies of the United Nations in that they have all been women with only one exception. [ 24 ]  In the event a member of the committee is unable to continue serving on the committee before their term is up, the state that had nominated the resigning member shall nominate another expert from their country to fill the seat. [ 26 ]  Committee members and experts also attend an annual luncheon, hosted by the  NGO Committee on the Status of Women, NY  (NGO CSW/NY), where key issues are discusses and the efforts of the committee are honored. [ 43 ]


Officers of the Committee


The officers of the committee are composed of a chairperson, three vice-chairpersons and a rapporteur. [ 44 ]  Officers of the committee are nominated by another member of the committee, as opposed to a government which nominates members for the committee. [ 25 ]  All officers are elected by majority vote to a two-year term of office, and remain eligible for re-election after their term expires. [ 26 ]  The chairperson's duties include declaring a meeting to be open or closed, directing the discussion in a session, announcing decisions made by the committee, preparing agendas in consultation with the secretary-general, designating the members of pre-sessional working groups and representing the committee at United Nations meetings which the committee is invited to participate in. [ 26 ]  In the case the chairperson is unable to perform any her duties she designates one of the three vice-chairpersons to take over her role. If the chairperson fails to designate a vice-chairperson prior to her absence then the vice-chairperson with the first name in English alphabetical order takes over. [ 26 ]  In the event an officer is unable to continue serving on the committee before her term expires a new officer from the same region as the original officer shall be nominated, elected and will take over the vacated office. [ 26 ]
As of June 2019, the 23 members are:


The  Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women  is a side-agreement to the convention which allows its parties to recognise the competence of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to consider complaints from individuals. [ 46 ]


The Optional Protocol was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 6 October 1999 and entered into force on 22 December 2000. [ 47 ]  As of June 2024 [update]  it has 80 signatories and 115 parties. [ 48 ]


Controversy around CEDAW comes from two opposite directions: social and religious  conservatives  which claim that CEDAW is seeking to impose a  liberal ,  progressive ,  feminist  standard on countries, in detriment of  traditional values ; and  radical feminists , who are skeptical of the power, or even desire, of CEDAW to radically transform societies and truly liberate women, and claim that CEDAW adheres to a form of weak  liberal feminism  similar to other mainstream organizations. They also claim that UN members cannot create goals which represent values of the poor, conservative, religious, or weak, because few, if any, UN officials/staff are actually from this group for which they claim to represent. [ 49 ] [ 50 ] [ 51 ]


In 2016, the candidate nominated from the  Nordic countries ,  Gunnar Bergby , caused controversy, after the Norwegian government had used "radical gender quotas" to nominate him over a 'more qualified' woman, CEDAW expert  Anne Hellum  whose candidacy had been supported by all the large women's rights NGOs and the research environments in women's law in the Nordic countries as well as the outgoing Nordic committee member Niklas Bruun; as a result, Bergby's nomination was 'widely condemned' by women's rights NGOs and experts in all the Nordic countries. Bergby was the third man in a row from the Nordic countries nominated to the committee while no women had been nominated from the Nordic countries since the 1990s; the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told the women's rights NGOs that they refused to nominate a woman as a matter of principle because they wanted a man for the third time due to a need for "men's voices". Law professor at the  University of Oslo  Cecilia Bailliet stated that the women's rights NGOs in the Nordic countries were "shocked" over the nomination of Bergby over a "more qualified" woman and that Norway had "violated its commitments to gender equality as well as Norwegian law". [ 52 ] [ 53 ] [ 54 ] [ 55 ]


In 2019, Andorran human rights activist  Vanessa Mendoza Cortés  presented a case to CEDAW for the decriminalisation of  abortion in Andorra  and was subsequently taken to court for defamation by the government of Andorra. [ 56 ] [ 57 ] [ 58 ]


In 2024,  Reem Alsalem , was asked to provide input to  a legal case  in the form of a position paper to the  Australian Human Rights Commission . Alsalem's paper discussed the definition of "woman" in international human rights treaties, particularly CEDAW. Alsalem argues that while CEDAW does not explicitly define "woman", it refers to biological females and that sex and sex-based discrimination in that context is understood as a biological category. [ 59 ]  The outcome of the case is viewed as one of great significance to advocates of female-only services and spaces in Australia, and for all countries around the world where CEDAW has been ratified. [ 60 ]


In 2024, the committee issued a corrective recommendation regarding the exclusion of women from the line of succession in Japan’s imperial system [ 61 ]  This system, with a documented history of over 1,500 years, occasionally allowed women from the imperial family to ascend the throne. However, if these women married men outside the imperial family, their sons—who would carry a non-imperial  Y chromosome —were not eligible for succession. Under the Imperial Household Law, enacted in 1889, female members of Imperial family were officially excluded from the succession line.


Although the authority of the emperor as the highest priest of  Shinto  was revoked by the United Nations (the  Allied Powers ) following Japan’s defeat in  World War II  in 1945, this new recommendation was perceived by the Japanese public as further infringement on religious dogma and interference in domestic affairs by the UN, causing widespread shock. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs swiftly lodged a strong protest with the committee, demanding the UN recommendation be retracted. [ 62 ]  The recommendation was prompted by reports to the UN from groups such as the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, [ 63 ]  known for its leftist and anti-imperial stances. [ 64 ] [ 65 ]  This move is seen as part of political maneuvering by certain political factions within Japan.


Droit du seigneur [ a ]  ('right of the lord'), also known as  jus primae noctis [ b ]  ('right of the first night'), sometimes referred to as  prima nocta [ c ] , was a supposed  legal right  in  medieval Europe , allowing  feudal lords  to have sexual relations with any female subject, particularly on her wedding night.


There are many references to the custom throughout the centuries.


The French expression  droit du seigneur  translates as "right of the lord", but modern French usage prefers  droit de jambage  ( French:   [dʁwa   d(ə)   ʒɑ̃baʒ] , from  jambe , 'leg') or, more commonly,  droit de cuissage  ( French:   [dʁwa   d(ə)   kɥisaʒ] , from  cuisse , 'thigh'). [ citation needed ]


The term is often used synonymously with  jus primae noctis , [ 1 ]   Latin  for "right of the first night".


The Greek historian  Herodotus  mentions a similar custom among the  Adyrmachidae  in  ancient Libya : "They are also the only tribe with whom the custom obtains of bringing all women about to become brides before the king, that he may choose such as are agreeable to him." [ 2 ]


When the  plebeians  of the  Etruscan  city of  Volsinii  rebelled against the aristocrats in 280 BC, "They took their wives for themselves and placed the daughters of the nobles under the  jus primæ noctis , while all their former masters on whom they could lay hands were tortured to death." [ 3 ]


It is also mentioned in the  Babylonian Talmud , Tractate Ketubot 3b תיבעל להגמון (tibael lehegmon), regarding a decree imposed on the Jewish community by a Syrian-Greek ruler, in which all Jewish brides were taken before their wedding. [ 4 ]


The medieval marriage fine or  merchet  has sometimes been interpreted as a payment for the  droit du seigneur  to be waived. [ 5 ]  Alternatively, it has been interpreted as compensation to the lord for the young women leaving his lands. [ 6 ]   Encyclopædia Britannica  states that the evidence indicates it was a monetary tax related to vassal marriages, since a considerable number of seigneurial rights revolved around marriage. [ 7 ]


A similar payment to church authorities has also been interpreted as relating to the  droit du seigneur . However, according to British scholar W. D. Howarth, the  Catholic Church  at some times prohibited consummation of a marriage on the first night. The payment was for an  indulgence  from the church to waive this prohibition. [ 8 ]


In the  Wooing of Emer  in  Irish mythology  the King  Conchobar  has the  droit du seigneur  over all marriages of his subjects. He is afraid of  Cú Chulainn 's reaction if he exercises it in this case, but is equally afraid of losing his authority if he does not. The  druid   Cathbad  suggests a solution: Conchobar sleeps with Emer on the night of the wedding, but Cathbad sleeps between them. [ 9 ]


The biography of  Gerald of Aurillac  written by  Odo of Cluny  (879–942) gives an account of the young nobleman demanding to  rape  one of his serfs, only to have the act averted by a  miracle , sending Gerald on the road to sainthood. American historian  Vern Bullough  suggested that this illustrates that such behaviour was commonplace in the period, and that the "legend [of  droit du seigneur ] reflected the reality". [ 10 ]


In the 14th-century French epic poem  Baudouin de Sebourc , a tyrannical lord claims the  jus primae noctis  unless he receives part of the bride's dowry. [ 5 ]


The supposed right was abolished by  Ferdinand II of Aragon  in Article 9 of the  Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe  in 1486. [ 11 ]


Before the  Jurchens  overthrew their  Khitan  rulers, married Jurchen women and Jurchen girls were raped by  Liao dynasty  Khitan envoys as a custom which caused resentment by the Jurchens against the Khitan. [ 12 ]  Liao Khitan envoys among the Jurchens were treated to guest prostitutes by their Jurchen hosts. Unmarried Jurchen girls and their families hosted the Liao envoys who had sex with the girls. Song envoys among the Jin were similarly entertained by singing girls in Guide, Henan. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]


Although the Liao Khitan had superior power over the Jurchens when ruling them, there is no evidence that guest prostitution of unmarried Jurchen girls to Khitan men was hated or resented by the Jurchens. It was only when the Liao Khitan forced aristocratic Jurchen families to give up their beautiful wives as guest prostitutes to Liao Khitan messengers that this stirred resentment and anger by the Jurchens.


A historian has speculated that this could mean that in Jurchen upper classes, only a husband had the right to his married wife while among lower class Jurchens, unmarried girls' virginity and sleeping with Liao Khitan men did not matter and did not impede their ability to marry later. [ 15 ] [ 16 ]


The Jurchens' sexual habits and mores seemed lax to  Han Chinese , such as marrying with an in-law, which was one of China's " Ten Heinous Crimes ". Jurchens very commonly practiced guest prostitution, giving female companions, food and shelter to guests. Unmarried daughters of Jurchen families of lower and middle classes in native Jurchen villages were provided to Liao Khitan messengers for sexual intercourse as recorded by Hong Hao (Hung Hao). [ 17 ] [ 18 ]


Marco Polo  also reported that in  Hami  (Camul), guest prostitution was practiced with hosts giving their female relatives, sisters, daughters and wives to guests in their house.  Tanguts  practiced this guest prostitution. [ 19 ] [ 20 ]


In Shakespeare's play  Henry VI, Part 2  ( c.  1591 ) the rebel  Jack Cade  proclaims: "there shall not a maid be married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they have it". [ 21 ]  According to the French scholar Alain Boureau, Cade was demanding the payment of  merchet , not the right of first night, [ 22 ]  but others disagree. [ 23 ]


The English lexicographer  Thomas Blount  recorded the "right" as a medieval custom of some English manors in  Fragmenta Antiquitatis  in 1679. [ 24 ]


The Curiosities of Literature  (1823) by the British writer  Isaac D'Israeli  stated the practice had been widespread across Europe. [ 25 ]


The right was mentioned in 1556 in the  Recueil d'arrêts notables des cours souveraines de France  of the French lawyer and author  Jean Papon . [ 26 ]  The French writer  Antoine du Verdier  also commented on it in 1577. [ 27 ]


The French philosopher  Montesquieu  referred to the practice in  The Spirit of the Laws  (1748), saying that it had been enforced in France over three nights. [ 28 ]


Voltaire  mentioned the practice in his  Dictionnaire philosophique , published in 1764. [ 29 ]  He wrote the five-act comedy  Le droit du seigneur  or  L'écueil du sage [ 30 ]  in 1762, although it was not performed until 1779, after his death. This play was the first time the term  droit du seigneur  was used. [ 31 ]


In 19th-century France, a number of writers made other claims about the supposed power of the overlords during the  Ancien Régime , such as the  droit de ravage  (right of ravage; providing to the lord the right to devastate fields of his own domain), and the  droit de prélassement  (right of lounging; it was said that a lord had the right to disembowel his serfs to warm his feet in). [ 32 ]


In  Mozart 's  The Marriage of Figaro , which premiered in 1786 with a libretto by  Lorenzo Da Ponte , the comic plot revolves around the successful efforts of the young bride and groom, Susanna and Figaro, to block the efforts of the unfaithful Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna. To achieve his aim, the frustrated Count threatens to reinstitute  droit du seigneur . It was based on a  play of the same title  by  Pierre Beaumarchais . [ 33 ]


The  Acta Sanctorum  ("Acts of the Saints"), published from 1643 onwards, mentions the  jus primæ noctis  in the hagiographies of St Margaret and  St Forannan . [ 34 ]


In 1527, the Scottish historian  Hector Boece  wrote that the "right" had existed in Scotland until abolished by  Malcolm III  ( r.  1058–93) under the influence of his wife, Margaret (later  St Margaret of Scotland ). The payment of  merchet  was instituted in its place. [ 35 ] [ 6 ]  Boece attributed the law to  a legendary king , Ewen or Evenus III. [ 36 ]  The modern French scholar Alain Boureau says that Boece probably invented King Ewen, but he views this as mythology, not as a polemic against medieval barbarism. [ 35 ]


Other Scottish scholars of his era quoted Boece with approval, including  John Lesley  (1578),  George Buchanan  (1582), and Habbakuk Bisset (1626). [ 6 ] [ 37 ]  The historical existence of the custom in Scotland was also accepted in Scottish legal works such as  James Balfour 's  Practicks  ( c.  1579 ),  John Skene 's  De Verborum  (1597), and  Thomas Craig 's  Jus Feudale  (1603). [ 6 ]  The English scholar  Henry Spelman  stated in his  Glossary  (1664) that the custom had existed in Scotland, but not in England. [ 6 ]  The English jurist  William Blackstone  cited Boece's statement in his  Commentaries on the Laws of England  (1765–1769), while similarly noting that the custom had never existed in England. [ 38 ]  In 1776, the Scottish jurist  David Dalrymple  disputed the existence of the custom, arguing Boece's account was purely legendary, but his position was often seen as based on  Scottish patriotism . [ 39 ]  However, according to the Scottish legal scholar  David Maxwell Walker , instances have been recorded of the  jus primæ noctis  being claimed up to the 18th century. [ 6 ] [ 40 ]  Walker concluded that it is possible that the  jus  existed as a custom in Scotland, dependent on the attitude of the king, and survived longer in remote regions. [ 6 ]


After their travels in Scotland in 1773,  Samuel Johnson  and  James Boswell  documented the custom of the payment of merchet, linking it with the "right of first night". They paralleled it with that custom of  Borough English , suggesting that the  English custom  favored the youngest son because the paternity of the eldest son was doubtful. [ 41 ]  Sir  Walter Scott  mentioned the custom in his historical Scottish novel,  The Fair Maid of Perth  (1828). [ 33 ]


The Spanish novel  Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda  ("The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda", 1617) by  Miguel de Cervantes  contains an episode where a bride and groom escape a barbaric marriage custom in Ireland. According to the British scholar W.D. Howarth, Cervantes was inspired by Peruvian marriage ceremonies and what is described is different from the classic version of the  droit du seigneur  as it involves multiple virgins. However, Cervantes' story was a source for the English play  The Custom of the Country , written by  John Fletcher  and  Philip Massinger  and published in 1647. The play has the classic version of the "right of first night" with money payment as an alternative. According to Howarth, this suggests that  droit du seigneur  was a familiar notion to people at that time, which he traces back to Boece. [ 42 ]


In modern times,  Zaire 's president  Mobutu Sese Seko  appropriated the  droit de seigneur  when traveling around the country, where local chiefs offered him virgins. [ 43 ]


The term has also been used to describe the sexual exploitation of  slaves in the United States . [ 44 ]


As late as the 19th century, some  Kurdish  chieftains in  Anatolia  raped  Armenian  brides on their wedding night (part of what was then known as the  khafir  or  hafir  system). [ 45 ] [ 46 ]


In the  Hawaiian Islands , the privilege for  chiefs  was often observed, according to " Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai'i " by  Milton Diamond . [ 47 ]  A young girl's parents viewed the coupling with favor. [ 48 ]  This is because the girl might conceive the chief's child and be allowed to keep it.


Scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries gave the historical basis of the "right of first night" a good deal of attention. [ clarification needed ] [ 33 ]  Historians David M. Walker and Hector McKechnie wrote that the right might have existed in medieval Europe, [ 6 ] [ 49 ]  but other historians [ who? ]  have concluded that it is a myth, and that all references to it are from later periods. [ 50 ] [ 7 ]  Over time, the  Encyclopædia Britannica  and the  Larousse  encyclopedias dramatically changed their opinion on the topic, moving from acceptance to rejection of the historical veracity of the idea. [ 51 ]  French writer  Louis Veuillot  wrote a book in 1854 disputing its existence. [ 52 ]  After an exhaustive historical study, German jurist Karl Schmidt concluded in 1881 that it was a scholarly misconception. [ 33 ]  After Schmidt, many of those who believed in the existence of the custom based their opinions on anthropological studies of tribal societies, though according to W. D. Howarth, this was a misguided argument because of the disparity between the tribal societies and medieval European society. [ 53 ]


In  The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State  in 1884, socialist  Friedrich Engels  argued it was real and had an anthropological origin. [ 54 ]  In 1910, the Celtic scholar  Whitley Stokes  said that the existence of the practice was "evidenced though not proved" to have existed in Ireland. [ 55 ]  In 1930, Scottish legal scholar Hector McKechnie concluded, based on historical evidence, that the practice had existed in Scotland in early times. [ 49 ]  Italian scholar  Paolo Mantegazza , in his 1935 book  The Sexual Relations of Mankind , said that while not a law, it was most likely a binding custom. [ 33 ]


The  Expert Group Meeting (EGM): prevention of violence against women and girls  was convened as part of the  United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 's multi-year programme of work for 2010–2014. The "Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls" forms a priority theme for its fifty-seventh session in 2013 (CSW57). The meeting took place in  Bangkok ,  Thailand , 17–20 September 2012 and was organised by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women ( UN Women ), in collaboration with the following organisations:


This table includes a list of countries by emergency contraceptive availability. [ 1 ]


(LNG refers to  Levonorgestrel   and UPA refers to  Ulipristal acetate ).


€4,50 (LNG)


€6,1 – €7,8 (LNG)


€12,90–13,50 (LNG)


Free (government clinics) [ 22 ]


€8,55–€9,85 (€0–€0,85 if <21 years old) (LNG)


€10 (LNG)


€14,50–22,50 (LNG)


Over 16 (LNG)


€15,00 (LNG)


€21,40 (LNG)


†Under 17s need a prescription (LNG)


€21,00 (LNG)


€12,45 (LNG)


€15,79 (LNG)


€18,87 (LNG)


€18 (LNG)


€7 (LNG)


ILS 55-100 (LNG)


€5,54 (LNG)


€19,90 (LNG)


€8,04 (LNG) †
€4,21 – €4,73 (Mifepristone)


€15 (LNG)


€24,60 (LNG)


Gs. 35.000 otherwise


€13 (LNG)


$7.50 (LNG)


€22 (LNG)


€17 (LNG)
Free from youth centres


€17,50 (LNG)


The  Estrela report  (officially  Report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights—A7-0306/2013 ) [ 1 ]  was a  non-binding resolution  on  women's health  and  reproductive rights  in the  European Union  advanced by the Portuguese MEP  Edite Estrela  of the  Socialist Party  in 2013. It was narrowly defeated in a vote in the  European Parliament  on 10 December 2013. A counter-resolution proposed by conservative and  Eurosceptic  MEPs was passed asserting that such issues should be dealt with on the national level. [ 2 ]


European Union law forbids the Parliament from regulating reproductive and women's issues. [ 3 ]  In 2002, a similar resolution had been approved by the plenum. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]  At the time the report was proposed,  Ireland ,  Malta , and  Poland  were the only European Union countries with severe restrictions on abortion, allowing it only in cases of risk to a woman's life or not at all. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]


The report, which contained almost ninety recommendations, [ 7 ]  called on member states to provide age-appropriate  comprehensive sex education , treatment for  sexually transmitted diseases  and access to safe  contraception  and  abortion  (emphasising that abortion should not be used as a form of  family planning ). The report decried the harmful effects of  teenage pregnancy  and  gender-based violence  and stated that women's rights were equal to other  human rights . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 6 ]


The report was drafted by Portuguese MEP  Edite Estrela  of the  Socialist Party , who stated that the purpose of the resolution was to underline that people ought to be able to make "their own informed and responsible choices on their sexual and reproductive life". In September 2013, it was approved by the  European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality  by a large margin. The resolution was then voted on by the main European Parliament, which sent it back to the committee. Few changes were made and the committee approved it again, leading to a second vote in the main chamber on 10 December. [ 2 ]


Supporters expected the vote to be routine because they believed the report was similar to previous resolutions. A number of  social conservative  and  anti-abortion  lobby groups, many of them newly formed, were vocal in their opposition to the report, including  CitizenGo . [ 3 ] [ 6 ]  Estrela received about 80,000 emails opposed to the report, in a campaign described as " astroturf " by the  Gunda Werner Institute  [ de ] . [ 5 ] [ 8 ]


The floor debate was described as "acrimonious"; [ 3 ]   a failed resolution of the  Europe of Freedom and Democracy  group would have recommended providing information about " natural family planning ", "post-abortion trauma" and encouraging young people to form relationships with the opposite sex. [ 6 ] [ 9 ]  MEPs did not vote on the Estrela report but instead narrowly passed a resolution declaring that women's rights were a matter for the member states not the European Union [ 3 ] [ 10 ]  by 334 to 327 votes, with 35 abstentions. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]  After the announcement of the results, MEPs from right-wing parliamentary groups were heard jeering and  catcalling . [ 2 ]  According to the  European Women's Lobby , a few votes were incorrectly tallied and in fact an equal number of MEPs voted for and against the counter-resolution. Nevertheless, the counter-resolution stood. [ 13 ]


Following the rejection of the report, Austrian MEP  Hannes Swoboda , then president of the  Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats , criticized  the "misleading and demagogical campaign" in opposition. [ 2 ]  Estrela said that the European Parliament had been more progressive in 2002. [ 5 ]


Forced abortion  is a form of  reproductive coercion  that refers to the act of compelling a woman to undergo termination of a pregnancy against her will or without explicit consent. [ 1 ]  Forced  abortion  may also be defined as coerced abortion, and may occur due to a variety of outside forces such as societal pressure, or due to intervention by perpetrators such as an intimate partner, parental guardian, medical practitioners, or others who may cause abortion by force, threat or  coercion . [ 1 ]  It may also occur by taking advantage of a situation where a pregnant individual is unable to give consent, or when valid consent is in question due to  duress . This may also include the instances when the conduct was neither justified by medical or hospital treatment, which does  not  include instances in which the pregnant individual is at risk of life-threatening injury due to unsustainable pregnancy. [ 1 ]  Similar to other forms of reproductive coercion such as forced  sterilization , forced abortion may include a physical invasion of  female reproductive organs , therefore creating the possibly of causing long term threat or injury preventing viable future pregnancies. [ citation needed ]  Forced abortion is considered a  human rights violation  by the United Nations due to its failure to comply with the human right to reproductive choice and control without coercion, discrimination, and violence. [ 2 ]


During  World War II , abortion policy in  Nazi Germany  varied depending on the people, group, and territory the policy was directed at, as German women were forbidden to have an abortion. [ 3 ]  The commonality between policies was its purpose in promoting the birth rate and population of the putative "Aryan race" and minimizing the population of those such as  Jewish ,  Polish , and  Roma  women. [ 3 ]  Additionally, those deemed an overall burden on German society such as the disabled or mentally ill were also subjected to forced abortion with sterilization to follow, and were among the only Germans who were legally subjected to receiving an abortion. [ 3 ]  These accounts have been categorized as a part of Nazi Germany's "systematic program of genocide, aimed at the destruction of foreign nations and ethnic groups". [ 4 ]


After the war ended, the practices of forced abortion towards condemned groups among Nazi society was determined to be a war crime upon assessment during the  Nuremberg Trials . [ 3 ]  Those guilty of encouraging or enforcing abortion during the Holocaust were sentenced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment due to their practice being considered a "inhumane act of extermination". [ 3 ]


Forced abortions associated with administration of the  one-child policy  have occurred in the People's Republic of China; they are a violation of  Chinese law  and are not official policy. [ 5 ]  They result from government pressure on local officials who, in turn, employ strong-arm tactics on pregnant mothers. [ 6 ]  On September 29, 1997, a bill was introduced in the  United States Congress  titled  Forced Abortion Condemnation Act , that sought to "condemn those officials of the  Chinese Communist Party , the  government of the People's Republic of China  and other persons who are involved in the enforcement of forced abortions by preventing such persons from entering or remaining in the United States". [ 7 ]  In June 2012  Feng Jianmei  was forcibly made to abort her 7 month old fetus after not paying a fine for breaking the one-child policy. [ 5 ]  Her case was widely discussed on the internet in China to general revulsion after photos of the stillborn baby were posted online. [ 8 ]  A fortnight after the forced abortion she continued to be harassed by local authorities in  Shanxi Province . [ 9 ]  On July 5, the  European Parliament  passed a resolution saying it "strongly condemns" both Feng's case specifically and forced abortions in general "especially in the context of the one-child policy". [ 10 ]


Part of the work of the activist " barefoot lawyer "  Chen Guangcheng  also concerned excesses of this nature. [ 11 ]  By 2012, disagreement with forced abortion was being expressed by the public in China, thought to be fuelling pressure to repeal the  one-child policy . [ 6 ] [ 12 ]  After the shift to a  two-child policy  in January 2016, the practice was reported in 2020 to still occur through  persecution of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang  leading to the US government imposing sanctions on officials in response. [ 13 ]


Forced abortions and  infanticide  are used as a form of punishment in  prison camps . The North Korean regime banned pregnancy in its camps in the 1980s. [ 14 ]   China  returns all illegal immigrants from  North Korea  which usually imprisons them in a short-term facility. Many  North Korean defectors  assert that forced abortions and infanticide are common in these prisons. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]  The majority of the prisoners held in the Chinese detention centers are women. Repatriated North Koreans are subject to forced abortions regardless of perceived crimes. North Korean police's efforts are to prevent North Korean women from having ethnically mixed children with  Han Chinese  men. Medical care was not provided to North Korean women who underwent forced abortions. [ 17 ]


On June 21, 2019, the UK  Court of Protection  ordered a disabled woman to have an abortion against her will. [ 18 ]  The woman had a moderate  mood disorder  and  learning disability  and under the care of an  NHS trust , which argued that she was  mentally incompetent  and that having a child would worsen her mental health. Justice Nathalie Lieven subsequently approved the forced abortion under the  Mental Capacity Act 2005  despite the wishes of herself and her mother. The decision was criticized by the  Catholic Church , the  Disability Rights Commission , and numerous anti-abortion activist groups such as Life and the  Society for the Protection of Unborn Children . [ 19 ]  The case was subsequently overturned by the  Court of Appeal . [ 20 ] [ 21 ]


In a series of focus groups conducted around the United States by anti-trafficking activist  Laura Lederer  in 2014, over 25% of survivors of  domestic sex trafficking  who responded to the question reported that they had been forced to have an abortion. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]


Forced sterilization  and abortion are common practices in Russian  psychoneurologic internats (PNIs)  [ ru ] . Since children cannot legally live in psychoneurologic internats in Russia, and there are no institutions where internats' patients can live with their children, almost all pregnant women are aborted in PNIs. During abortions, PNI patients are also often subjected to forced sterilization - their  fallopian tubes are tied , motivated by allegedly detected "serious complications". [ 24 ]


Section 314 in The Indian Penal Code deals with forced abortion, it reads as- 'Whoever, with intent to cause the miscarriage of a woman with child, does any act which causes the death of such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine; If act done without woman's consent.'  [ 25 ]


The  Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act  (MTP) was passed in 1971 in response to the rising incidence of abortions performed without proper medical supervision, which was leading to an alarmingly high number of maternal deaths. Abortion was made legal in India as a result of the MTP statute. Before this legislation, having an abortion was considered a crime, which led to a significant number of women having them despite the risks involved. [ 26 ]  This legislation establishes norms and restrictions for the termination of pregnancy, which may only be performed by registered medical practitioners (a medical practitioner who has a recognised medical qualification, as defined in section 2 (h) of the  Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 ). [ 26 ]  The most recent update to this statute was made in 2021, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act of 2021 modifies the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 to increase the maximum limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks for certain women. The Amendment increases the upper gestational limit from 20 to 24 weeks for certain categories of women, which would be specified in the MTPA 2021 and would include rape survivors, incest victims, and other vulnerable women (such as women with disabilities or minors). [ 27 ]


Researchers anticipate that there would be 6.8 million fewer female births in India by 2030 due to the continued practise of selective abortions. [ 28 ]  The  Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act of 1994  makes it unlawful to divulge the sex of an unborn child save for medical grounds in India. The sex ratio at birth worsened in several states due to inconsistent legal enforcement. Indian authorities often arrest groups who do for pregnancy tests. India's gender ratio—900-930 females for 1,000 males—reflects its attitude towards girls. Males are breadwinners and girls burdens in all socioeconomic classes. Males get healthier diets and better access to medical treatment than girls. [ 28 ] [ vague ]