Litigating Reproductive Health Rights in the Inter-American System: What Does a Winning Case Look Like?

Abstract

Remedies and reparation measures emerging from the Inter-American System of Human Rights in reproductive health cases have consistently highlighted the need to develop, and subsequently implement, non-repetition remedies that protect, promote, and fulill women's reproductive health rights. Litigation outcomes that determine there have been violations of reproductive rights are regarded as a "win" for health rights litigation, but when implementation fails, is a "win" still a win? here has been considerable success in litigating reproductive health rights cases, yet the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are not adequately equipped to follow up on cases ater they have been won. Successful and sustainable implementation of reproductive health rights law requires incorporation of non-repetition remedies in the form of legislation, education, and training that seeks to remodel existing social and cultural practices that hinder women's enjoyment of their reproductive rights. In order for a reproductive health rights case to ultimately be a "winner, " case recommendations and decisions emerging from the Commission and Court must incorporate perspectives from members of civil society, with the ultimate goal being to develop measurable remedies that address underlying obstacles to domestic implementation.

Abortion Law and Human Rights in Poland: The Closing of the Jurisprudential Horizon

“…In the European and Inter-American systems for the protection of human rights the regulation of abortion has not been included in the treatise order and is shaped by jurisprudence (Fewncik 2012 ; O’Connell 2014 ; Puppinck 2013 ).…”

Abortion Rights as Human Rights

“…A well-known critique, human rights litigation is often unable to produce changes in the local delivery of services, leaving unanswered the thorny but crucial questions that inadequate infrastructure and resources raise (O’Connell, 2014: 118). Human rights advocates understand the limitations of court-based and rights-based strategies in addressing the systemic obstacles to securing effective health care (see Ely Yamin, 2005: 1157).…”