According to the United Nations Commission on Women’s Rights, the United States is one of only seven countries in the world that is not party to the international convention on the protection of women’s human rights, including their rights to reproductive health and sex.
“The Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) urges the United States of America to comply Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to respect, protect, realize and promote the human rights of women and girls,” the commission said in a statement.
CEDAW notes that although the United States signed the convention in 1980, it has yet to ratify it.
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United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet described the US Supreme Court’s ruling that brought down Roe v Wade as “a blow to women’s human rights and gender equality. “
The Committee again reiterates its call for States Parties to remove sanctions against women who have abortions and to legalize abortion – at least in cases of rape, incest, intimidation threaten the life or health of the pregnant woman and in the case of severe fetal distress. decline.
“With 189 member countries, CEDAW is the only quasi-global treaty that comprehensively protects women’s human rightsincluding their sexual and reproductive health rights,” the statement said.
Terms of protection
The UN-appointed panel paid particular attention to article 16, which “protects the right of women to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children,” added. that unsafe abortion is the leading cause of maternal death.
They also point out that under Article 12, the right to health care includes the right to bodily autonomy and includes the reproductive and sexual freedoms of women and girls.
Freedom of choice
Access to safe, legal abortion and quality post-abortion care, especially in the event of complications from unsafe abortion, helps to reduce maternal mortality and prevent unintended pregnancies want to be underage and guarantee the freedom to make decisions about women’s bodies.
The Commission has repeatedly emphasized that denying access to safe and legal abortion is a “serious limitation to a woman’s ability to exercise her reproductive freedom and to coerce women into a full-term pregnancy.” includes mental and physical suffering resulting in gender-based violence and, in certain cases, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in violation of the CEDAW Convention”.
The UN-appointed Commission reiterated its commitment to upholding the human rights of women and girls around the world and “will not abandon this mandate, especially with regard to access to safe abortion and legal for all women”.
Unsplash / Gayatri Malhotra
Protesters protest against the US Supreme Court’s decision to criminalize women’s abortion rights.
