До характеристики міжнародно-правового забезпечення репродуктивних прав людини

Abstract

In recent years, the demographic situation in many countries of the world and the increase in the number of families without children have led to an active demand for reproductive medicine services. The problem of low fertility is very difficult to solve without changing the attitude of society towards the family and its values. Therefore, today issues of development and guarantees of reproductive rights arise. International acts are documentary and, at the same time, basic guarantees in the field of reproductive rights. Starting from the middle of the twentieth century, reproductive human rights, taking into account the rapid pace of development of medical science and genetics, are sky-rocketing. The effectiveness of modern international law depends directly on how quickly does it respond to the development of human rights (including reproductive rights). Therefore, international law shall take into account the achievements of medical sciences in the field of reproductive rights in course of its development and respond to them through the adoption of relevant international acts. Actuality of the issues of international affirmation of reproductive rights for Ukraine is associated with a rapid decrease in the population in our state. According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the total population today is 42.54 million people. This means that during the period of independence the population of Ukraine has decreased by as much as 10 million. All this indicates a significan decline in the birth rate in Ukraine. Therefore, the Ukrainian legislator, when adopting legislation on reproductive rights, shall, first of all, to take into account the provisions of international law in this area. The article researches the specifics of international legal acts on reproductive rights. It points to the relevancy of the topic by stating that the efficiency of modern international law depends on the responses to the changes in human rights (which include reproductive rights,) since the adoption of certain legislative acts in a country requires consideration of the international legal norms. The reproductive rights regulation topic is of significant importance considering the population decline. The objective of the article is to analyze the peculiarities of the reproductive rights genesis and development, as well as to define the criteria for their classification. The author suggests classifying the international acts on the topic by validity into two groups: 1) international treaties; 2) recommendatory acts which unlike international treaties do not undergo ratification procedures. The international treaties are further divided into global and regional. It is indicated that most of the international acts on reproductive rights are recommendatory. Furthermore, several other criteria for classifying international acts on reproductive rights are also established. In particular, it is concluded that it is expedient to divide these acts by the nature of impact they have on the regulation of reproductive rights into the following types: 1) general acts that do not specifically mention reproductive rights; 2) special acts that directly regulate the specifics of reproductive rights. Finally, the article provides the characteristics of the content of these international legal acts and defines their role in the development of reproductive rights regulation. It is proceeded to analyze the general acts. Among the latter, the article describes the specifics of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The author states that these documents do not contain the reproductive rights themselves, but have become the foundation for their establishment, since they declare the most basic human rights. In continuation, the author describes characteristics of special acts on reproductive rights. The article explores the Final Act of Human Rights Conference, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Disposition on in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation, the last of which focuses on assisted reproductive technologies and gives recommendations on the moral and ethical aspects of such medical procedures. Further, the specifics of the International Conference on Population and Development and its dispositions about the reproductive rights, sexual freedom and reproductive health have been studied. The article analyzes the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity, which is the first obligatory juridical document in health protection and is targeted at the protection of basic rights linked with the misuse of new biological methods and procedures. The article describes the dispositions as being progressive as well as scientifically expedient, since the latter even regulates the choice of sex, genome interventions and embryo creation. It is also attended to the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine which is the only obligatory international document regarding human cloning. The article provides an exhausting outlook on the dispositions of the document and explains that the latter states the main principles that have become the ethical base for biology and medicine development. In addition, There is a short overlook of the United Nations Millennium Declaration which regulates the politics of lowering the maternal deaths rate, the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, which provides for regulation of reproductive health, the African Women's Rights Protocol, which guarantees the women’s right for fertile control and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations that among others include the annihilation of gender discrimination, all forms of violence and harmful practices such as early or forced marriages. In conclusion, the article states that reproductive rights, which can be today defined as internationally accepted rights, have become internationally regarded just recently. It states that the analyzed documents are mostly recommendatory, so each country might have its own interpretations of the regulations. It is suggested that the further development of reproductive rights will depend on the intensity of the scientific progress in reproductive technology. Thus, reproductive human rights, which in our time can be attributed to universally recognized human rights, have begun to be recognized internationally only in the second half of the twentieth century. In general, the preconditions for the adoption of these acts can be divided into positive (scientific achievements in the reproductive sphere) and negative (reduction of population on individual continents of the Earth, high maternal mortality). Nowadays, an extensive system of international acts in the field of reproductive rights has been formed. At the same time, it should be noted that most of the above-analyzed documents are of a purely advisory nature and therefore, their provisions are not always taken into account by the legislator of a particular country. The further development of international legal regulation of reproductive rights will continue to depend on the intensity of the scientific development of reproductive technologies.