While international and regional human rights instruments have recognized female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women and girls, in many African states FGM/C is a deeply entrenched cultural practice. There is a consensus against FGM, as...

High maternal mortality ratios (MMR) serve as objective indicators of the poor condition of women's health in any country and point to violations of human rights that are entrenched in national, regional and global laws. For over a decade, Nigeria has consistently been in the top 5 listed...

The February 2016 WHO declaration that congenital Zika syndrome [CZS] constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern reacted to the outbreak of CZS in Brazil. Public health emergencies can justify a spectrum of human rights responses, but in Brazil the emergency exposed...

To realize adolescents’ right to sexual health, state parties’ implementation of the obligations stipulated under Article 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa should reflect the key principles of the rights of the child,...

International migration puts people's sexual and reproductive health (SRH), particularly those of women and children, at increased risk. However, many international migrants are denied access to timely and adequate SRH information, goods, and services by governments and/or service providers....

Individuals' reproductive choices are private matters, but sexual conduct and pregnancy impose significant public health burdens. Ethical principles of public health are distinguishable from principles applied in modern bioethics. Bioethical principles have been developed at the clinical or...

Adolescents, defined as between 10 and 19 years old, present a growing challenge to reproductive health. Adolescent sexual intercourse contributes to worldwide burdens of unplanned pregnancy, abortion, spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, and maternal mortality and...

The United States' promise to establish equality for all has been challenged by post-operative transsexuals seeking recognition in their acquired sex. The birth certificate is the legal gateway to changing other legal documents; but the process for changing the birth certificate varies widely...

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health Standards of Care is widely adopted by medical and scientific organizations as medical consensus on gender confirming care. Despite the consensus within the medical and scientific community, the legal, political, and policy environments...

Patients in the United States are routinely undertreated for pain. This problem has been widely recognized and documented in medical literature. In a seminal medical study of end-of-life care, researchers found that 50% of all patients who died during hospitalization quot;experienced moderate or...