26 SEP 2021
13.00 – 15.00
(ICT)
Reproductive Rights as Social Rights: Fostering Access and Implementation
The right to abortion is inevitably linked with the right to autonomy over one’s body and mind. But abortion is not to be reduced to just a debate between life and choice, criminalisation of abortion is discriminatory, patronising, and should find no place in contemporary socio-legal frameworks that are founded on human rights and equality. Yet we continue to punish and stigmatise women for exercising their right to abortion in many parts of the world, including South Asia.This interdisciplinary session introduces how legal design tools can be used for advocacy and rights implementation in the field of reproductive rights and will bring together legal academics, practitioners, and activists from across various jurisdictions. The session is a collaboration between iProbono, Law & Policy Forum for Social Justice, Faculty of Law, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the City Law School, City, University of London.
By way of background, to ensure access to safe abortion and other reproductive rights in South Asia, iProbono and Law and Policy Forum for Social Justice filed a writ petition before the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of Nepal in 2021 seeking decriminalisation of abortion in Nepal. his session on ‘Reproductive Rights as Social Rights: Fostering Access and Implementation’ will also support this litigation and advocacy efforts in Nepal.
Presenters:
Mara Malagodi |Chinese University of Hong Kong
Bandana Upreti | iProbono