The Executive Board of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) approved the establishment of a FIGO Study Group on Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights at its meeting in Cape Town on October 16, 1998. The timing was significant, since the year 1998 marked the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The year 1999 would mark the 20th Anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Furthermore, the 1990 UN International Convention on the Rights of the Child confirmed that the human rights of girls and women are an invaluable and indivisible part of human rights, to be respected and promoted not only in the public sphere but also in the private sphere of the home and family. A number of UN conferences on human rights are relevant to this initiative, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979; the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989; the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994; and the ICPDq5, Beijingq5. The Study Group was constituted under the umbrella of the WHOyFIGO Alliance for Women’s Health (The Alliance includes FIGO, WHO, ICM, IPPF, UNFPA, UNICEF, and World Bank).