Where Human Rights Begin—Health, Sexuality, and Women in the New Millennium

More than a decade ago, three landmark world conferences placed the human rights of women on the international agenda. The first, in Vienna, officially extended the definition of human rights to include a woman's right to self-determination and equality. A year later, in Cairo, this concept was elaborated to deal explicitly with issues of sexuality and procreation. Subsequently, at a conference in Beijing, the international community committed to a wide range of practical interventions to advance women's sexual, social, political, and economic rights.

Despite these accomplishments, however, a difficult juncture has emerged in the struggle to fully realize women's rights as human rights. Complications such as terrorism and the "war" against it, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the incursion of religious fundamentalism into governments, and the U.S. government's retreat from the international agenda on sexual and reproductive rights have raised questions about the direction of policy implementations and have prevented progress from being straightforward.

Where Human Rights Begin—Health, Sexuality, and Women in the New Millennium (Rutgers University Press), edited by Coumbia University professor of clinical public health and obstetrics/gynecology Wendy Chavkin and OSI Senior Fellow Ellen Chesler, brings together eight wide-reaching and provocative essays that examine the practical and theoretical issues of reproductive health policy and implementation. Contributors, including Soros Reproductive Health Fellows, assess the impact of policies that have been initiated and consider future directions that governments must take in order to translate visionary ideas into actual achievements.

Contents

• Foreword, Mary Robinson
• Introduction, Ellen Chesler
• Not Culture but Gender: Reconceptualizing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, Jessica Horn
• Women's Reproductive and Sexual Rights and the Offense of Zina in Muslim Laws in Nigeria, Ayesha M. Imam
• Uganda: HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health, Lisa Ann Richey
• Mapping the Contours: Reproductive Health and Rights and Sexual Health and Rights in India, Radhika Chandiramani
• The Politics of Abortion in Mexico: The Paradox of Doble Discurso, Adriana Ortiz-Ortega
• Sexual-Reproductive Health and Rights: What About Men? Benno de Keijzer
• Maximizing the Impact of Cairo on China, Edwin A. Winckler
• International Human Rights from the Ground Up: The Potential for Subnational, Human Rights-Based Reproductive Health Advocacy in the United States, Martha F. Davis
• Conclusion, Wendy Chavkin