Read On! Reproductive health, gender stereotyping

(Read On! ... occasional posts on writing worth reading) Heartfelt thanks to our colleague Bert Lockwood for alerting us to 2 new books in the University of Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series, which he edits and which also features works by IntLawGrrls Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Connie de la Vega (prior post).
The new titles, which Bert rightly guessed that would be of interest to IntLawGrrls readers, are:

► Reproductive Health and Human Rights: The Way Forward (2009)

This book's co-edited by Laura Reichenbach, Senior Researcher for the Population Council in Islamabad, Pakistan,and Mindy Jane Roseman (below left), Academic Director of the Human Rights Program and Lecturer at Harvard Law School (not to mention this 'Grrl's law school classmate!).
Their book "critically reflects on the past fifteen years of international efforts aimed at improving health, alleviating poverty, diminishing gender inequality, and promoting human rights," by means of essays from scholars and practitioners "that are centered on the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its resulting Programme of Action." Issues discussed include "changing political, religious, academic, and disciplinary contexts," "maternal mortality, abortion, HIV/AIDS, adolescents, reproductive technologies, and demography," and "how ICPD has been sidelined by emerging health and development agendas and what could be done in response." Details here.

► Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives (forthcoming December 2009)

The authors are Rebecca J. Cook (right), Professor of Law and Faculty Chair in International Human Rights, Faculty of Law, at the University of Toronto, and Simone Cusack, an attorney at the Public Interest Law Clearing House in Melbourne, Australia.
Their book looks at domestic and international law and jurisprudence to "offe[r] perspectives on ways gender stereotypes might be eliminated through the transnational legal process in order to ensure women's equality and the full exercise of their human rights." Pivotal in their analysis is the 1979 Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, from which Cook and Cusack develop "strategies" such as "naming operative gender stereotypes, identifying how they violate the human rights of women, and articulating states' obligations to eliminate and remedy these violations." Details here.

On the job! Reproductive rights fellowship

(On the Job! pays occasional notice to interesting intlaw job notices) Recent law school graduates interested in law teaching are being sought as applicants for the Center for Reproductive Rights–Columbia Law School Fellowship.
This full-time, 2-year Fellowship, which will begin in July 2010, is designed to prepare recent law school graduates for legal aca­demic careers, with a focus on reproductive health and human and human rights. Affiliated with both the center and the law school, Fellows will have work space at both locations and will be assigned a law school faculty mentor. In addition to helping with the work of the center, Fellows will pursue independent research and scholarship in preparation for entering the legal academic job market at the conclusion of their first Fellowship year. Fellows are expected to produce a work of serious scholarship during their Fellowship tenure.
Eligible applicants must:
► Have earned a J.D. degree from an accredited law school in the United States; and
► Show a strong interest in developing a research agenda related to reproductive health and human rights, as well as exceptional promise as a legal scholar.
The application deadline is February 1, 2010. Details on the Center are at the Center's website; contact/e-mail information is here.

Go On! Women in Africa & Reproductive Rights

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia of interest) On Friday, 3 April 2009, the Washington and Lee School of Law Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice is sponsoring a symposium on "Reproductive and Sexual Health and the African Women's Protocol."
The conference focuses on the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa ("Maputo Protocol") and its implications for the health of women and girls.
Panels address such issues as declining access to health services for women, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, violence against women, the health impact of harmful traditional and modern practices, abortion, and overall sexual health.
Check out the full program and the stellar line-up of panelists from Africa and the Americas here.

On March 30

On this day in ...
... 1999 (10 years ago), reports were that Kosovo was in dire straits. Typical was a report for the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, which stated that: "All relief organizations have evacuated Kosovo at this time, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which had remained in Kosovo after the NATO bombing campaign" against Serbia began on March 24; that "[o]ver 100,000 people have been displaced from Kosovo since March 24"; and that surrounding areas, such as Albania and Macedonia, and even as far away as Bulgaria and Turkey, had swelled with Kosovar refugees.
... 2001, the administration of President George W. Bush "notified state Medicaid directors that Medicaid funds could not be used to cover RU-486, the so-called abortion pill, except in cases involving rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger."

(Prior March 30 posts are here and here.)

Health Care Denied: Immigrant Women in Detention

Horror stories about detained immigrant womens' access to reproductive health care have been bubbling to the surface of late. I've been blogging about these rights violations since the birth of our blog (here, here, and here), and most recently discussed the mistreatment of Juana Villegas, a pregnant undocumented immigrant who, arrested for driving without a license, went into labor in jail. She was cuffed by her foot to the bed until the final stages of labor, prohibited from seeing her husband during childbirth, shackled six hours after giving birth, and sent back to jail two days later without her newborn child.
Last month, the Texas Observer ran an excellent piece of investigative journalism detailing the harrowing stories of women detained after crossing the border into the United States. Many of these women are raped during their journey -- by coyotes, border bandits, and even border patrol agents -- but if they are unlucky enough to be caught by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), they are not told of their rights or their access to abortion providers. In 2008, nearly 10% of women in ICE custody (approximately 1000 women) were pregnant; not one woman in ICE custody in FY 2008 and 2009 has yet had an abortion. The policy of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, in contrast, is to provide abortion counseling to pregnant women and to arrange for an abortion for any woman who requests one (at Bureau expense if the pregnancy resulted from rape).

In a related story earlier this month, the Coalition of Latino Leaders set in motion "Operation Panty," to provide underwear to detained immigrant women in Georgia, who are issued with a uniform but no underwear. Those lucky enough to have the money are able to purchase only boxer shorts, which are particularly ineffective at certain times of the month; the unlucky wear the same underwear for days or weeks until they are deported.

This week, Human Rights Watch released a long report detailing similar stories of women denied access to medically indicated Pap smears, mammograms, and hormonal contraceptives to regulate menstruation; of nursing mothers denied breast pumps who developed mastitis; and of menstruating women so desperate for sanitary pads that one sat on a toilet for hours. HRW analyzes the myriad violations of international human rights treaties -- the right to health in the International Covenant on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights, the right to access to healthcare in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the right to humanity and dignity found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It shouldn't take a lawyer to point out that the denial of basic reproductive health care, particularly to survivors of sexual abuse, is a violation of fundamental human rights. Here's hoping that the new administration moves to address this pressing problem in an urgent fashion.

Go On! So Many Conferences ... So Little Time

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia of interest) In addition to the ASIL annual meeting that Diane previews above, two noteworthy conferences, both set for Friday, April 3, 2009, are fast approaching:

Reproductive and Sexual Health and the African Women's Protocol

Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington, Virginia

Description:

The African Women's Protocol, adopted by the African Union in 2003 and in effect in 2005, is the first regional human rights instrument to focus comprehensively on women's rights. The symposium will serve as a discussion of the Protocol's utility at the intersection of reproductive/sexual health and women's rights, both quintessentially unmet needs of the African continent.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic, lack of access to contraception, harmful cultural practices, sexual violence and exploitation, deteriorating access to health services, and abortion will be among the topics of Symposium papers.
Washington and Lee's 2008-09 Scholar-in-Residence, Charles Ngwena, Professor of Health and Human Rights at the University of the Free State, South Africa, will chair the symposium, bringing together prominent scholars from Africa, Asia, Canada and the United States.

Speakers include IntLawGrrls' own Susana SáCouto.

CEDAW and Its Optional Protocol

New England Law School, Boston, Massachusetts

Description:

New England Law Boston will sponsor an international conference on April 3 entitled 'CEDAW and Its Optional Protocol.' Cosponsored by the American Society of International Law (ASIL), the conference will recognize the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); examine work undertaken as a result, and discuss ways of increasing its effectiveness.
Members of the CEDAW Committee who will participate include Shanthi Dairiam, Pramila Patten, Cornelius Flinterman, and Silvia Pimentel. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will be represented by Jane Connors, director of the Human Rights Treaties Branch of the High Commissioner's Office. The conference will consist of several panels examining challenges to the effective implementation of the Convention, the issue of United States ratification, and the jurisprudence of the Committee, including comparative analyses of the work of other treaty-bodies and regional human rights institutions.

HIV+ Women & Forced Sterilization

The Legal Assistance Center, a human rights organization in Namibia, currently represents approximately 10 HIV-positive women who have been forcibly sterilized in government hospitals. Lawyers working on the cases for LAC report that some of the women had no idea that doctors had performed the sterilization while they were undergoing Cesarean sections. Many of the women did not discover the sterilization until they reported back to the hospital for follow-up care or other services. Some women consented to the procedures, but did so under duress. Although there is on-going litigation at the domestic level, these cases may end up before the Committee that monitors the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women at some point in the years to come.
Namibia ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW on May 26, 2000. In 2006, the CEDAW Committee decided a forced sterilization case brought by a Hungarian Roma woman who alleged that she had been sterilized without her informed consent. According to the Committee,

Before leaving the hospital the author asked the doctor for information on her state of health and when she could try to have another baby. It was only then that she learned the meaning of the word 'sterilization.'

The Committee found that the government had violated Article 10(h) of CEDAW by failing to provide appropriate family planning information. The Committee also found that the lack of informed consent violated Articles 12 and 16, which – respectively – guarantee the right to non-discriminatory health care services and the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights. In both cases, the women faced a pernicious form of discrimination based both on gender and HIV status or ethnicity.
Kudos to the Legal Assistance Center for taking this issue on!