State obligations to implement African abortion laws: employing human rights in a changing legal landscape.

Int J Gynaecol Obstet

Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa.

Published: November 2012

Women in the African region are overburdened with unsafe abortion. Abortion regimes that fail to translate any given abortion rights into tangible access are partly to blame. Historically, African abortion laws have been highly restrictive. However, the post-independence era has witnessed a change toward liberalizing abortion law, even if incremental for many jurisdictions. Furthermore, Article 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa has significantly augmented the regional trend toward liberalization by recognizing abortion as a human right in given circumstances. However, states are failing to implement abortion laws. The jurisprudence that is emerging from the European Court of Human Rights and United Nations treaty bodies is a tool that can be used to render African governments accountable for failure to implement domestic abortion laws.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgo.2012.08.001DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

abortion laws
16
abortion
9
african abortion
8
human rights
8
african
5
rights
5
state obligations
4
obligations implement
4
implement african
4
laws
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!