Can Abortion Rights Be Integrated into the Women, Peace and Security Agenda?

Citation:

Thomson, Jennifer, and Claire Pierson. 2018. "Can Abortion Rights Be Integrated into the Women, Peace and Security Agenda?" International Feminist Journal of Politics 20 (3): 350-65. 

Authors: Jennifer Thomson, Claire Pierson

Abstract:

Reproductive rights are an under-theorised aspect of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, most clearly typified in United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1325 and successive resolutions. Yet reproductive rights are central to women’s security, health and human rights. Although they feature in the 2015 Global Study on 1325, there is less reference to reproductive rights, and to abortion specifically, in the suite of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions themselves, nor in the National Action Plans (NAPs, policy documents created by individual countries to outline their implementation plans for 1325). Through content analysis of all resolutions and NAPs produced to date, this article asks where abortion is in the WPS agenda. It argues that the growing centrality of the WPS agenda to women’s rights in transitioning societies means that a lack of focus on abortion will marginalize the topic and stifle the development of liberal legalization.

Keywords: abortion, UNSCR 1325, WPS agenda, reproductive rights, CEDAW

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Post-Conflict, Rights, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2018