Our Issues: Human Rights

The Human Rights framework is an important tool for advancing reproductive justice for women of color both globally and locally. This framework affirms that rights are universal, transcends national borders and includes all aspects of the economic and social spheres. According to the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), the human rights framework is rooted in the principles of "universality, indivisibility, participation, accountability, transparency and non-discrimination".

The United Nations (U.N.) is an international organization founded in 1945 to facilitate collaboration in international law, security, economic development, social progress and human rights. The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 after World War II. There are nine core treaties that comprise the human rights framework and the recognition of women's reproductive rights as human rights are affirmed in several of these treaties, in particular the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Another component of the framework is the mechanism in which the treaties are monitored and the channels in which governments' are made accountable. There are treaty committees that monitor whether Nations who have ratified the treaty are living up to their obligations. International tribunals are available to those that have experienced human rights violations that were not recognized in their country's judicial system.

NLIRH and many other reproductive justice advocates use social justice as a vehicle to dismantle the misogynistic and discriminatory policies that impede us from asserting our human right to make autonomous decisions over our bodies and access to the services we need to make decisions regarding our reproductive health needs.

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