How gains for SRHR in the UN have remained possible in a changing political climate

Abstract

As right-wing populist movements make electoral gains around the world, one might expect that resultant policy and legislative reversals against sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) would be mirrored by a similar backlash in United Nations (UN) human rights negotiations. Yet the past five years have seen unprecedented advances for SRHR within the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), treaty bodies, and special procedures. In this article, we provide an overview of SRHR gains and setbacks within the HRC and analyse their broader significance, particularly as socially conservative nation states and non-governmental organisations seek to challenge them. We analyse how states have advanced SRHR in the HRC and examine efforts that states which oppose SRHR have undertaken to limit these advances. In an increasingly hostile political climate, the inter-related legal, technical, and political mechanisms through which human rights are advanced within the UN has helped to mitigate the effects of rapid political reversals. Additionally, the HRC's emphasis on previously agreed language helps dampen significant changes in resolutions on SRHR.