Where human rights begin: Health, sexuality, and women in the new millennium

More than a decade ago, three landmark world conferences placed human rights of women on international agenda. The first, in Vienna, officially extended definition of human rights to include a woman's right to self-determination and equality. A year later, in Cairo, this concept was elaborated to deal explicitly with issues of sexuality and procreation. Subsequently, at a conference in Beijing, international community committed to a wide range of practical interventions to advance women's sexual, social, political, and economic rights. Despite these accomplishments, we find ourselves at an ever more difficult juncture in struggle to fully realize women's rights as human rights. Complications, such as terrorism and the war against it, HIV/AIDS pandemic, incursion of religious fundamentalism into governments, and U.S. government's retreat from international agenda on sexual and reproductive rights have raised questions about direction of policy implementations and have prevented straightforward progress. This timely collection brings together eight wide-reaching and provocative essays that examine practical and theoretical issues of sexual and reproductive health policy and implementation. Wendy Chavkin is a professor of clinical public health and obstretics/gynecology at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Ellen Chesler is a senior fellow at Open Society Institute, international foundation supported by George Soros. OSI sponsored fellowship program that made this project possible.