Reproductive rights as human rights: stories from advocates in Brazil, India and South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTStories are central to building and upholding the concept of human rights across cultures. This project uses an advocacy-oriented perspective and original interviews to examine the story-building work of human rights advocates who promote a comparatively new concept in human rights – reproductive rights. These advocates use personal narratives to destigmatize reproductive issues; highlight differences in access to healthcare choices within and across national contexts; and connect reproductive rights to other substantive rights for upholding the dignity of a person, based on the principle of indivisibility of human rights. In these ways, they make transnational human rights networks more accessible to local people and vice versa.