CASES
Ramakant Rai & Health Watch UP Bihar v. Union of India and others/ Amici (Supreme Court of India)
Forum for Fact Finding Documentation and Advocacy v. Union of India and others (Supreme Court of India)
NEWS
Center Cites Rights Violations in Death of HIV-Positive Woman Following Childbirth
June 2007 - Gita Bai, a 30 year-old woman, died on April 2, 2007 when, because she was HIV-positive, doctors at a public hospital in India refused to assist her during childbirth. In response to the violations of Ms. Bai's human rights, the Center submitted a letter to the Human Rights Commission of the state of Madhya Pradesh in support of a petition filed by our partners, the MP Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (MPNP+) and the Human Rights Law Network, MP Unit, Indore (HRLN, MP). The Center has requested that the Commission respond immediately to this case.
Ms. Bai was evicted from the M.Y. Hospital while in labor after the doctors learned of her HIV status. She subsequently gave birth in a vehicle on her way out of the hospital. When she attempted to re-enter the hospital after delivering her baby, the guards were ordered to block the doorway, thereby preventing her from receiving life-saving treatment. When she was finally admitted, two days later, she was denied crucial follow-up care, including nevirapine, a drug used to prevent maternal-infant HIV transmission. After three days of trauma and humiliation, Gita Bai succumbed to the most common causes of maternal death: sepsis and excessive bleeding.
Gita Bai's case is a stark example of the discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS, and reveals the heightened vulnerability of women–especially pregnant women–to abuse and discrimination.
INDIA MUST PROTECT WOMEN'S HEALTH, UN BODY SAYS
March 2007 -- In an advanced version of its Concluding Observations released this month, the Committee monitoring compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) voiced concern about high maternal mortality rates, unsafe abortion, and inadequate obstetric and family planning services in India. Maternal mortality accounts for 15% of all deaths of women of reproductive age in that country. The Center called attention to these issues in a shadow letter submitted to Committee members, which highlighted violations of Indian women's sexual and reproductive rights.
Specifically, our letter pointed to the serious risk faced by adolescents and adult women of dying of pregnancy-related causes. It also emphasized lack of access to modern contraceptives, lack of awareness and education about HIV/AIDS, and the prevalence of harmful practices such as child marriage. Furthermore, our letter outlined disturbing evidence of coercion in family planning services as a result of state-level laws and policies that punish couples for having more than two children. A recent Supreme Court case that upheld one such coercive law—denying individuals with more than two children the right to hold or run for public office at the panchayat level—is a tragic example of the state's failure to comprehend the impact of widespread disregard for reproductive health and rights in India.
The Committee urged the Indian government to prioritize decreasing maternal mortality rates by establishing adequate obstetric delivery services and ensuring women access to health services, including safe abortion and comprehensive contraceptive services. The Committee also recommended that the Indian government provide detailed information about the impact of its programs to decrease maternal mortality and improve access to health care. The Center commends the CEDAW Committee for demonstrating its commitment to women's health and rights by raising these important issues and hopes the Indian government will take immediate steps to implement the Committee's recommendations.
TRAINING LAWYERS IN INDIA AND NEPAL
September 2006 -- In August, the Center, in collaboration with our local partners, the Human Rights Law Network and the Forum for Women, Law and Development, conducted multi-day capacity building trainings for lawyers in India and Nepal. The trainings, the first of their kind in the region, provided information about international and comparative legal norms and jurisprudence. They are part of the Center's long term strategy to build the capacities of regional legal organizations to do strategic reproductive rights litigation and engage with international mechanisms and national human rights bodies. Approximately forty lawyers traveled from various parts of India and Nepal to participate. By sharing information about successful legal approaches in different parts of the world, the Center works with local experts to develop creative legal strategies to address rights abuses. Based on positive feedback from participants, the Center will develop a more in-depth series of trainings in the region and support litigation initiatives.
PUBLICATIONS
Reports
New publication!
Litigating Reproductive Rights: Using Public Interest Litigation and International Law to Promote Gender Justice in India
This report explores the use of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to promote gender justice and advance women’s reproductive rights in India. Women's reproductive rights in India are severely undermined by gender-biased practices. As a result, women face a wide range of human rights abuses that breach fundamental provisions of the Indian Constitution and international conventions ratified by the Indian government. This publication shows how a variety of actors can, through the strategic use of PIL, play a role in ensuring that the Indian government upholds its obligations to protect women and provide justice to those whose rights have been violated. The report is based on an analysis of relevant international and Indian constitutional law, case studies of select Indian Supreme Court litigation, and interviews with key stakeholders.
Women of the World: South Asia
Learn more by reading our India chapter (PDF) from Women of the World: South Asia
Our Women of the World reports document laws and policies which impact women's reproductive and sexual health and shape their reproductive choices. Reproductive rights are internationally recognized as critical to both advancing women's human rights and promoting development. In recent years, governments worldwide have acknowledged and pledged to advance reproductive rights to an unprecedented degree. Formal laws and policies are crucial indicators of government commitment to promoting reproductive rights.
The Women of the World reports are the product of collaboration between the Center for Reproductive Rights and NGOs around the world. Each volume presents regional and national information about the following:
- Laws and policies regarding health, population, contraception, abortion, sterilization, safe pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted infections;
- Women's legal status within marriage, including divorce, custody and property; labor rights; access to credit and education; and the right to physical integrity;
- Reproductive health and rights of adolescents, including the legal status of adolescent marriage, sex education, and sexual offenses against minors;
- Customary and religious laws and practices that influence the status of women and girls.
The reports show that although governments have adopted laws and policies to promote women's reproductive health and rights, such instruments have not always had the desired effect. In fact, oftentimes, the problem lies with the law or policy itself. The reproductive rights of women in the region continue to be violated with impunity due to the lack of enforcement of potentially beneficial laws and the lack of accountability for governmental failure to remove barriers to health care and to end gender-based discrimination.
Briefing Papers
Reporting to Treaty Monitoring Bodies
Organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights and its partners play an essential role in providing credible and reliable independent information to international human rights treaty monitoring bodies regarding the legal status and real-life situation of women and the efforts being made by governments to comply with human rights treaties. Shadow reports work to supplement, or "shadow," governments' reports on human rights issues by calling attention to their strides, as well as their setbacks.
Articles
Press Releases
Regional Partner Organizations
