Reproductive Health: The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as a Catalyst for Change in Colombia

JIM RUSSELL

ABSTRACT

Insufficient access to reproductive health care, including family planning, is a painful manifestation of discrimination on the basis of sex in developing and developed nations. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women addresses this issue directly, but it has not been used to its full extent by women's organizations in the developing world because of the belief that formal legal protections have little or no effect. There are indications that this attitude is changing in Colombia, where efforts to bridge the gap between the formal and substantive equality of women are relatively new and many women's legal services groups are discovering the value of the Women's Convention for their political strategies. The author explores how the Women's Convention, when employed by Colombian advocates for women's rights in local arena, acts as a catalyst for social transformation in the area of reproductive health. This success suggests that the Women's Convention can assist in the creation and expansion of international political networks which are sensitive to the perceptions and needs of women.

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Citation: (1991) 49(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 106.
Copyright © 1991. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
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