{"id":26497,"date":"2023-03-02T19:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T19:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globaljusticecenter.net\/?post_type=press&p=26497"},"modified":"2023-06-22T19:32:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T19:32:53","slug":"190-organizations-urge-un-special-rapporteurs-to-act-on-dobbs-v-jackson-supreme-court-decision","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.globaljusticecenter.net\/press\/190-organizations-urge-un-special-rapporteurs-to-act-on-dobbs-v-jackson-supreme-court-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"190+ Organizations Urge UN Special Rapporteurs to Act on Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
More than 190 organizations and individuals, including health practitioners and human rights experts, today sent a letter to United Nations experts in response to the United States Supreme Court decision that repealed the constitutional right to abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter documents how abortion restrictions imposed in the wake of the court\u2019s ruling<\/a> in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization have deprived women, girls, and persons capable of pregnancy of their human rights to life, health, privacy, liberty, freedom from torture, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It goes on to argue that the Dobbs ruling puts the United States in breach of obligations under several legally-binding international treaties it has ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention against Torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to its call to action, the letter includes original research as well as testimony from physicians around the country. The full letter and list of signatories is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Christine Ryan<\/strong><\/a>, Legal Director at the Global Justice Center, <\/strong>issued the following <\/strong>statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe protections of Roe had long eroded before the court\u2019s ruling, but Dobbs put to rest any doubt of the United States\u2019 failure to meet its human rights obligations. Decades of binding treaties have firmly established abortion as a human right. Now that the violation of this right is clear to all, the international community has a responsibility to act to hold the U.S. accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina Hioureas<\/strong><\/a>, Partner at Foley Hoag and Chair of the firm\u2019s United Nations Practice Group, the law firm acting for the coalition, <\/strong>issued the following statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDobbs is the nail in the coffin on reproductive freedom in the United States. The consequences of Dobbs is that women, girls and persons capable of pregnancy across the United States are being deprived of critical access to health care and autonomy over their bodies and their lives. Simply put, women and girls will die as a result of this decision. The criminalization of access to reproductive health implicates the United States\u2019 obligations under international law and is, thus, a matter of grave concern for the international community as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Payal Shah<\/strong><\/a>, Director of the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones at Physicians for Human Rights, <\/strong>issued the following statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Dobbs decision has placed a target on the backs of pregnant patients and health care providers. The criminalization of abortion in many U.S. states has resulted in health care workers being mandated to act in complicity with violations of their patients\u2019 rights, or to face imprisonment, professional sanction, fines, or harassment. As clinicians in this letter and around the country have shared, laws criminalizing abortion care will increase health disparities and impact the provision of health care across many specializations, from emergency medical care to family medicine to oncology and rheumatology. These harms will be most profoundly felt by Black, Indigenous, and low-income women. The international community, including UN Special Rapporteurs, must condemn this egregious rollback of human rights and affirm the U.S.\u2019 obligation to ensure abortion rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n