Litigating reproductive health rights in the inter-American system: what does a winning case look like?

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 fulfill women’s reproductive health rights. Litigation outcomes that result in violations of reproductive rights are a “win” for health rights litigation, but when implementation fails, is a “win” still a win? Although there has been considerable success in litigating reproductive health rights cases, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are not adequately equipped to follow-up on cases after 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 provided by members of civil society, with the ultimate goal of developing measurable remedies that address underlying obstacles to domestic implementation

Bringing it home: the inter-American system and state obligations - using a gender approach regionally to address women's rights violations domestically

No description supplie

Women’s reproductive rights: repairing gender-based harm in the Inter-American System of Human Rights

This thesis examines women’s reproductive rights litigation before the Inter-American System of Human Rights and determines how the Inter-American System can more effectively take account of, and repair, harms specific to women in reproductive rights cases. The research conducted in this thesis builds upon a growing body of literature on women’s rights in the Inter-American System, and provides an original contribution by employing feminist socio-legal methodologies to identify the structural obstacles which cause violations of women’s reproductive rights, and to challenge the gap between genderbased rhetoric and reparation in women’s reproductive rights cases. The thesis centres around three specific women’s reproductive rights cases, which are critically examined using the Holistic Gender Approach to Reparations developed by Ruth Rubio-Marín and Clara Sandoval. In applying this Approach to the case studies, it is possible to determine how, to what extent and to what effect, each reproductive rights case incorporates gendered harm in its reparation design. This research utilizes doctrinal and empirical research methods to draw conclusions about how the Inter-American System and members of civil society such as women’s rights organizations and litigators can expand upon and improve the Inter-American System’s approach to repairing and eliminating violations of women’s reproductive rights. Through information gathered from interviews with actors familiar with the case studies and the Inter-American System, this thesis determines a number of strategies to improve the transformative potential of reparations issued by the Inter-American Commission and Court. These strategies, when combined with the Holistic Gender Approach to Reparations, establish the foundation on which to develop a “gender reparations tradition” within reproductive rights litigation before the Inter-American System of Human Rights

Engendering reproductive rights in the inter-American system

The challenge of including a gender perspective within human rights work has been a project only recently undertaken by the international human rights community (United Nations 1981, 1994, 1995). It is undeniable that much progress has been made over the past two decades in regard to advocacy and legal efforts to protect, promote and fulfil women’s human rights. However, there remain significant shortcomings in how the law is used to address systemic conditions that cause the subordination of women. This article seeks to explore the gap that exists between women’s rights rhetoric and implementation at the national level. An examination of women’s reproductive rights in the Inter-American System of Human Rights serves as a lens by which to explore how international human rights bodies fall short in addressing the gendered implications of women’s rights violations as they are embedded in national cultures

Amicus curiae brief presented to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of IV v. Bolivia

The IV v. Bolivia case examines the rights of a Bolivian migrant woman who was given a tubal ligation (sterilized) without her informed consent. In this amicus curiae, Ciara O'Connell (University of Sussex) and Diana Guarnizo-Peralta and Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito (Dejusticia) intervene in order to explain how the medical field frequently becomes a place where discrimination is exercised against women in the form of gender stereotyping and "paternalistic control." This amicus requests that the Inter-American Court issue reparation provisions in order to guarantee non-repetition of these women's reproductive rights violations. The suggested reparations consist of the adoption of education programs aimed at training medical students and medical professionals, as well as the general population, and reform of internal rules and manuals on informed consent so that they comply with international standards

Derry/Londonderry report on upholding the right to human rights to culture in post-conflict societies

This report was based on research commissioned by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in 2013. It provides an overview of critique of relevant international standards addressing cultural rights; identifies examples of good practice and areas were problems have arisen and uses the City/Londonderry City of Culture 2013 designation as a case-study of the opportunities and challenges in relation to the realisation of the right to culture in post-conflict and divided societies

The Derry/Londonderry report on upholding the human right to culture in post-conflict societies

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (the Commission) is mandated as a national human rights institution to uphold all of the human rights in the international human rights treaties. These include the right to culture. However, the Commission has found that little attention has been paid to cultural rights in human rights discourse. In particular, the promotion and protection of cultural rights in societies emerging from conflict is a neglected area. Little guidance exists for States, cultural stakeholders and such human rights actors as national human rights institutions as to how best to uphold cultural rights in such contexts. This gap is of particular concern for the promotion of cultural rights in Northern Ireland, a society that is emerging from decades of conflict. It is in order to redress this gap in literature and policy guidance that the Commission is publishing the present report. The report is set against the backdrop of the designation of Derry/Londonderry as UK City of Culture 2013. The experience of that city as City of Culture is used as a case study in relation to the realisation of cultural rights in a post-conflict society. As part of the UK City of Culture initiative, the Commission organised a conference and consultation on cultural rights in divided and post-conflict societies in association with the University of Ulster and in co-operation with the UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights, Ms Farida Shaheed. This event took place in Derry/Londonderry from 1 to 3 July 2013 and the discussions that took place informed the finalisation of the current report as well as the attached recommendations

Women's reproductive rights in the inter-American system of human rights: conclusions from the Field, June - September 2014

The Inter-American System of Human Rights has proven to be a forum for the advancement of women’s reproductive rights in the Inter-American region. However, the Inter-American System faces significant challenges in promoting structural transformative change that enables women’s enjoyment of their reproductive health rights. This report examines three reproductive rights cases from the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: María Mamerita Mestanza Chávez v. Peru; Paulina Ramirez Jacinto v. Mexico; and Artavia Murillo et al. v. Costa Rica. In the summer of 2014, interviews were conducted with representatives in each of the case study countries, with the objective of the research being two-fold: (1) to understand how each of the cases developed, and the subsequent challenges and advancements; and (2) to learn from these cases in order to suggest recommendations for how actors can make better use of the Inter-American System as one of several avenues for protecting, promoting and fulfilling women’s reproductive rights. The report first discusses challenges in implementing women’s reproductive health rights, and then explores how the Inter-American System can strengthen its work on women’s reproductive health rights

Incidence, management and outcomes of the first cfr-mediated linezolid-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis outbreak in a tertiary referral centre in the Republic of Ireland.

peer-reviewedAim: To report the first Irish outbreak of cfr-mediated linezolid-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis. Methods: Linezolid-resistant S. epidermidis isolated at University Hospital Limerick from four blood cultures, one wound and four screening swabs (from nine patients) between April and June 2013 were characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and staphylococcal cassette chromosome (SCCmec) typing. Antibiotic susceptibilities were determined according to the guidelines of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. The outbreak was controlled through prohibiting prescription and use of linezolid, adherence to infection prevention and control practices, enhanced environmental cleaning, isolation of affected patients, and hospital-wide education programmes. Findings: PFGE showed that all nine isolates represented a single clonal strain. MLST showed that they belonged to ST2, and SCCmec typing showed that they encoded a variant of SCCmecIII. All nine isolates were cfr positive, and eight isolates were positive for the G2576T 23S rRNA mutation commonly associated with linezolid resistance. Isolates exhibited multiple antibiotic resistances (i.e. linezolid, gentamicin, methicillin, clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, fusidic acid and rifampicin). The adopted infection prevention intervention was effective, and the outbreak was limited to the affected intensive care unit.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe