Introduction

Abstract

This volume on ‘Women’s Reproductive Rights’ is the outcome of a European funded project on Women’s Rights as Human Rights (NEWR: Network of European Women’s Rights). The project ran for three years (from 2002 to 2005) and considered four themes of particular importance to contemporary women’s rights; namely, trafficking of women, reproductive rights, political participation and social entitlements. This volume is a direct outcome of the second theme of the project, that of reproductive rights, considered from the perspective of women’s rights as human rights. However, although this book is part of the series resulting from the NEWR project it is also intended to stand alone as a useful and informative collection of essays for those interested in reproductive rights from across disciplinary perspectives (from lawyers to philosophers) and for those at all levels (from school pupils wishing to find out information about practices across Europe to university students and research academics addressing the more complex aspects of women’s rights). In addition, the volume, like the project itself, is not meant to speak only to academics, but to be relevant and useful to activists and policy-makers (who were involved at all stages of the project). Consequently, this volume is concerned with the practical and theoretical questions of women’s reproductive rights and their importance to all women (particularly in Europe, but also in the global context).