While the countries of Western Europe have rapidly progressed in securing women's right to reproductive health care, the women in East Central Europe face strong challenges to their reproductive rights (To read more about reproductive rights in East Central Europe, see Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Lives, East Central Europe). The contraceptive prevalence rate in the region is one of the lowest in the world and there are continuing efforts in many countries of the region to erode the right of a woman to decide whether or not to have an abortion. Safe motherhood programs tend to ignore the specific needs of rural and ethnic minority women, leading in some cases to discriminatory practices. HIV/AIDS rates in the region are steadily growing, especially among adolescents, and the collapse of basic public health systems throughout the region makes the containment of the HIV virus even more difficult.
At a time when the European Union has expanded to take in new member states from East Central Europe, the divide between east and west on women's health grows. For example, estimates based on UN and WHO data show that abortion rate is extraordinarily higher in Eastern Europe than in other parts of Europe. This is due to the fact that contraceptives are far less accessible and utilized in Eastern Europe and that adolescents do not have access to sexuality education or youth friendly programs; high rates of abortion usually reflect the lack of access to modern methods of family planning, and low rates generally indicate accurate sex education and easily accessible family planning services. To narrow this widening gap with other parts of Europe, nations of East Central Europe should promote laws and policies that advance the reproductive rights of women and adolescents in the region.
Council of Europe Takes Groundbreaking Step
[April 28, 2008]
On April 16th, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved a major resolution on access to safe and legal abortion. The Assembly urged all member states to "decriminalize abortion, within reasonable gestational limits" and to guarantee women's access to safe and legal abortion.
"This resolution shows the potential of regional human rights systems for advancing women's reproductive rights, "Director of the Center's International Legal Program Luisa Cabal commented on reading the resolution. "PACE's affirmation of the right to safe and legal abortion should prompt other regional bodies to call upon their member states to ensure women’s health and dignity."
Drafted by the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, the resolution aims to remove all barriers to safe, affordable abortion services. In addition to its provisions on abortion, the resolution urges states to develop evidence-based, appropriate sexual and reproductive health policies, including compulsory sex education. States must also provide access to affordable contraception and family planning services.
Slovak Constitutional Court Rejects Attempt to Outlaw Abortion
[December 11, 2007]
On December 4, the Slovak Constitutional Court rebuffed an attempt by conservative politicians to outlaw abortion. Members of the Christian Democratic party had challenged the country’s abortion law, which allows the procedure upon request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, on the grounds that it violates the right to life of fetuses. The Center submitted a friend of the court brief in the case, arguing that giving rights to fetuses would allow legal claims that undermined women’s fundamental rights to equality, health, life, and privacy. The Center had made a similar argument in 2003 at the European Court of Human Rights in another case involving fetal rights, Vo v. France. In that case, the court declined to give a fetus the legal rights of a born person. The Slovak case is the first in which a national-level high court has applied the Vo v. France ruling.
The Center filed its brief together with the CUNY Law School Human Rights Clinic, Slovak Family Planning Association, and ProChoice Slovakia.
Click here to read the brief in English > >
Click here to read the brief in Slovak > >
U.S.-based Sex-Ed Program Challenged in International Human Rights Case: Center Charges that Croatia is Endangering the Lives of its Young People
[October 10, 2007]
The Center for Reproductive Rights along with partners filed the first human rights legal challenge to a faith-based sex-education program based in the U.S. The program, TeenSTAR, promotes abstinence, discourages the use of contraception, reinforces gender stereotypes, and fosters discrimination against the LGBT community. If the case is successful, it could lay the groundwork for more successful challenges against similar faith-based programs (including those funded by the U.S.-government) in other countries around the world.
Click here to learn more about the case > >
Click here to read the Center's legal memorandum > >
European Court of Human Rights Rejects Poland’s Appeal in Landmark Abortion Decision
[September 2007]
The European Court of Human Rights announced on September 25, 2007 that they will not review their earlier judgment in the case of Tysiąc v Poland, despite a request to do so by the Polish government. In their March 2007 decision, the Court held for the first time that governments have a duty to establish effective mechanisms to ensure women’s access to abortion where it is legal. The case centered on the tragic story of Alicja Tysiąc, a Polish woman who is nearly blind because she was forced to continue a pregnancy that threatened her health.
"Thousands of women are denied access to abortions they need and are legally entitled to in Poland every year," said Christina Zampas, Senior Legal Adviser for Europe at the Center. "This decision means that the Polish government—and other governments in Europe—must take steps to make sure that women like Tysiąc don't needlessly suffer at the whim of doctors." This final judgment is a tremendous victory for women in Poland and in all of Europe.
Poland Appeals Tysiąc
[June 2007]
The Polish government has announced that it will appeal the case of Tysiąc v. Poland to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The case centers on the story of Alicja Tysiąc, a Polish woman who went nearly blind because she was forced to continue a pregnancy that threatened her health. In March of this year, the European Court of Human Rights held, for the first time, that European governments have a duty to ensure that women have access to abortion where it is legal. The conservative League of Polish Families (LPR), a ruling party in the government, has consistently pushed to ban abortion completely. "I hope that the Grand Chamber will reject the appeal," said Christina Zampas, Senior Legal Adviser for Europe at the Center, adding that "the Polish government should focus on protecting women's health rather than continuing a political fight with dire consequences for women."
Call for Applications to Legal Training
[May 25, 2007]
The Center and its partners–the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) and the Network of East-West Women (NEWW)–are pleased to announce a call for applications to the second Women's Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI), 2007-2009. The goal of the Institute is to strengthen the ability of lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states and the Caucasus to litigate cases concerning women's human rights. The program is comprised of a two-year, four-part series of workshops bringing together the same group of fifteen participants over the course of the training.
Proposed Polish Constitutional Amendments that Threatened Women's Rights Have Failed
[April 13, 2007]
In a victory for women's rights, the Polish Parliament rejected several constitutional amendments that had the potential to ban abortion in all circumstances. The amendments sought to extend the Constitution's protection of life and human dignity to the moment of conception. Extending this protection threatened to further restrict Poland's current law, which permits abortion only to save a woman's health and life, in cases of fetal impairment, and when the pregnancy is a result of a crime. Although the majority of the Parliament supported the proposed changes, they were unsuccessful in obtaining the necessary two-thirds vote. The leader of the League of Polish Families, a political party in the ruling coalition, made a statement soon after the voting that his party will continue efforts to strengthen legal protection of fetal life.
The Center and our partner, the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning, submitted comments to key government officials and members of Parliament arguing that international human rights treaty provisions do not extend "right to life" protections to fetuses and that recognizing the right to life from conception threatens women's basic human rights, including rights to dignity, equality, and privacy.
Abortion Legalized in Portugal
[April 2007]
President Cavaco Silva of Portugal recently signed a bill to legalize abortion on request during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. In March, the Portuguese parliament voted to reform its abortion law, which had criminalized the procedure except when a woman's life or health was at risk and in cases of rape. While Portugal's legal restrictions on abortion were in place, tens of thousands of Portuguese women underwent illegal abortions every year, many under unsafe conditions and some resulting in prosecution. Under the new law, a woman in the first 10 weeks of an unwanted pregnancy will be able to seek safe abortion services without fear of criminal prosecution.
Center Applauds Landmark Abortion Decision by European Court of Human Rights
[March 22, 2007]
The European Court of Human Rights held on March 20, 2007, for the first time, that governments have a duty to establish effective mechanisms for ensuring that women have access to abortion where it is legal. The case centers on the tragic story of Alicja Tysiąc, a Polish woman who nearly went blind because she was forced to continue a pregnancy that threatened her health. "There are thousands of women who are denied access to abortions they need and are legally entitled to in Poland every year," said Christina Zampas, Senior Legal Adviser for Europe at the Center. "This decision means that the Polish government—and other governments in Europe—must take steps to make sure that women like Tysiąc don't needlessly suffer at the whim of doctors."
Training Lawyers in Poland on How to Use the European Court of Human Rights
[February 13, 2007]
This month, in collaboration with the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning and the Warsaw University Law Clinic, the Center is leading a capacity-building training for Polish lawyers. The four-day session will train approximately 15 lawyers on how to take reproductive rights cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Throughout Europe, reproductive rights advocates are finding that the ECHR has tremendous potential to advance reproductive rights in the region. In fact, one case currently pending before the Court may do just that. Tysiąc v. Poland centers on a Polish woman who is severely visually impaired and was denied an abortion that would have prevented further irreversible damage to her eyesight. While abortion is legally restricted in Poland, it is permitted to avert threats to a pregnant woman's physical health, such as the one the applicant faced. The Tysiąc case, in which the Center filed an amicus brief, was recently declared admissible by the Court, and is expected to be decided this year.
Victory in Landmark Reproductive Rights Case Before CEDAW
[November 9, 2006]
While undergoing surgery in connection with a miscarriage in a public hospital in Hungary, A.S., a Hungarian woman of Roma origin, was asked to sign a statement of consent to a caesarean section. The statement also contained a barely legible handwritten note containing the Latin word for sterilization. It was only after she was sterilized that A.S. discovered that she could never become pregnant again. Her inability to have children has caused her great suffering.
Today, the United Nations committee that monitors compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women found Hungary in violation of the Convention for its failure to protect A.S.'s reproductive rights. The decision establishes that failure to ensure that women provide their full and informed consent to be sterilized violates their most basic human rights. It marks the first time an international human rights tribunal has held a government accountable for failing to provide necessary information to a woman to enable her to give informed consent to a reproductive health procedure. "The practice of coercive sterilization must be stamped out globally," says Christina Zampas, Legal Adviser for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "Now we have clear precedent in international law, and women whose rights have been violated have a legal tool to fight back with."
The Center filed an amicus curiae brief in A.S. vs. Hungary, a case brought by the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and the Budapest-based Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI) on behalf of A.S. The case was brought before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Training Lawyers in Poland
[September 29, 2006]
In September, the Center, in collaboration with our partners, the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning and the Warsaw University Law Clinic, conducted a four day capacity-building training for Polish lawyers. The training, the first of its kind in the country, provided information about national, international and comparative legal norms and jurisprudence related to reproductive rights issues and helped lawyers to develop skills to litigate reproductive rights cases at both national and international levels. Approximately fifteen lawyers traveled from various parts of Poland to participate. By sharing information about successful legal approaches in different parts of the world, the Center works with national experts to develop creative legal strategies to address rights abuses. In response to positive feedback from participants, the Center will develop a follow-up training in Poland that will focus on training lawyers to take reproductive rights cases to the European Court of Human Rights.
Helsinki Commission Critical of Slovakian Response to Sterilization of Romani Women
[August 14, 2006]
On August 14, 2006, the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, issued a report highly critical of the Slovakian government's response to widespread forced and coerced sterilizations of Romani women during and after the Communist period. The Helsinki Commission is a U.S. Government agency consisting of members of the United States Senate, House of Representatives, and Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce created to monitor and encourage participating European countries' compliance with their human rights commitments. In its report, the Helsinki Commission recognized that while the Slovakian government has passed stricter laws regarding sterilization and informed consent in the aftermath of mass allegations of wrongdoing, authorities have still failed to admit the practice occurred. The Commission also condemned the Slovakian government's investigation into the matter as deeply flawed, citing examples of threats to intimidate accusers and victims, conflicts of interest, and the denial of Romani women’s access to their medical files.
The Helsinki Commission also cited Poradna's and the Center for Reproductive Rights' 2003 report, Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom in Slovakia, and highlighted its important role in uncovering reproductive rights abuses and pushing for reform. The Center for Reproductive Rights supports the Helsinki Commission's criticisms of the Slovakian government for its refusal to acknowledge past wrongs despite clear evidence to the contrary. The Center continues to advocate on behalf of Romani women regionally and internationally and is encouraged by the Helsinki Commission’s attention to this grave violation of human rights.
Strengthening Lawyers to Advance Reproductive Rights through Litigation in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States
For women in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEE/NIS), legal, economic and social changes of the last 15 years have created new opportunities to seek justice through national-level courts, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and United Nations treaty monitoring bodies. As in many regions of the world, strategic litigation has been underutilized by women's rights groups in the CEE/NIS region and has not been used as an advocacy strategy in the area of reproductive rights. Thus, despite situations ripe for litigation, there is little reproductive rights jurisprudence in the CEE/NIS region.
The Network of East-West Women, the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and the Center for Reproductive Rights co-organize the Women's Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI) to strengthen the ability of lawyers from CEE/NIS to litigate women's human rights cases. Training activities are aimed at developing feminist legal analyses and litigation skills, cross-border cooperation, and networking. The project is a two-year, four-part series of workshops bringing together the same group of fifteen participants. Through substantive training sessions the Institute builds the needed skills—and networks—among feminist lawyers in the region, enabling them to successfully seek justice for women in various legal arenas.
In the two most recent trainings, lawyers from different countries throughout the region had the opportunity to learn from and engage in discussions with staff from the European Court of Human Rights, the CEDAW Optional Protocol Secretariat, and the Human Rights Committee, as well as women's rights lawyers and law professors. Following these discussions, the participants drafted moot petitions and communications for the European Court of Human Rights and the CEDAW Optional Protocol. These exercises provided participants with the opportunity to practice litigation in the areas of women's rights and reproductive health and rights.
Click here for more information on the participants > >
Landmark Case to be Decided by the European Court of Human Rights
July 13, 2006 -- In June 2006, the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible a landmark case in which the Court will decide – for the first time – whether a state violates the European Convention on Human Rights when it fails to ensure that women legally entitled to abortion can effectively exercise their right. This is a significant step forward, considering that the Court denies admissibility to more than 90% of the applications it examines. The Center filed an amicus brief with the Court in this case.
The applicant in the case is a Polish woman who is severely visually impaired and was denied an abortion that would have prevented further irreversible damage to her eyesight. While abortion is legally restricted in Poland, it is permitted to avert threats to a pregnant woman’s physical health, such as the one the applicant faced. Other grounds on which abortion is permitted are threats to a woman's life, fetal impairment and rape.
Upon becoming pregnant in 2000, the applicant consulted her doctors about the possible impact of the delivery on her eyesight. Numerous doctors all concluded that the pregnancy and delivery posed a serious health risk but ultimately refused to issue a certificate for the pregnancy to be terminated. After finally obtaining a certificate authorizing the abortion, the applicant went to a public hospital in Warsaw to have the procedure, only to have her request refused again. At this point, the applicant had no choice but to carry her pregnancy to term. As predicted, after the delivery, the applicant's eyesight badly deteriorated due to hemorrhages in her retina. Corrective surgery is not possible in her case, and she currently faces a serious risk of blindness.
The Center's brief argues that states permitting abortion in prescribed circumstances – as Poland does in cases of physical health risk to the woman – have obligations to ensure that the guarantee of abortion in their national laws is an effective right in practice. To this end, states should adopt effective legal and policy measures to ensure women's access to services, as many of Poland's regional neighbors have. Poland's failure thus far to take such steps not only deprives Polish women of a reproductive health service provided for under national law, but threatens their well-being and basic rights to privacy, dignity, life, health, and nondiscrimination under international law. Other amici in the case include the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning.
D v. Ireland Declared Inadmissible on Procedural Grounds
In 2001, an Irish woman became pregnant with twins. She later learned that one fetus had stopped developing while the other had developed a fatal chromosomal abnormality. But under Irish law, abortion is illegal except to save a woman's life and providers are prohibited from fully discussing abortion with their patients or making full referrals for legal abortion services outside the country when requested. She took her case to the European Court of Human Rights...
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