Thematic Areas of the Platform

DEFINITION AND USE
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES
PERINATAL MENTAL HEALH
TRAINING
LAWS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Laws and Human Rights

Law and human rights play a central role in recognising obstetric violence as a form of gender-based violence and a violation of fundamental rights. This section brings together legal analyses, jurisprudence, and collective reflections that examine how obstetric violence is being understood and addressed within international, regional, and national legal frameworks. It engages with emerging human rights standards articulated by courts, treaty bodies, and legal advocacy initiatives, highlighting both their transformative potential and their limitations.
 
Through interdisciplinary dialogue and comparative legal analysis, this section contributes to developing clearer legal principles, strengthening accountability, and supporting efforts toward law reform, litigation, and legal advocacy. It also forms part of a broader collective project to articulate an updated human rights framework on obstetric violence grounded in contemporary jurisprudence and informed by feminist, decolonial, and cross-cultural perspectives. In doing so, it seeks to ensure that law can serve not only as a mechanism of redress, but also as a tool for structural transformation and the realisation of dignity, autonomy, and justice in childbirth.

Camilla Pickles

Durham University
Associate Professor in Biolaw in the Durham Law School | Associate Professor in Biolaw in the Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences)
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Romina Gallardo

Romina Gallardo

Universidad de la República

Adjunct Professor at the Equity and Gender Commission of the Faculty of Dentistry and Assistant at the Faculty of Law.

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Emerging Human Rights Standards on Obstetric Violence

This three-part series introduces IPOV’s roundtable process on emerging human rights standards on obstetric violence. Across the three articles, Camilla Pickles, Romina Gallardo and Veronica Garcia de Cortazar examine how international and regional human rights bodies are progressively recognising obstetric violence as a violation of fundamental rights, clarifying State obligations, and contributing to the development of the future IPOV Charter on Human Rights in Childbirth.

  • May 28, 2026

    1. Introducing the roundtable series on Emerging Human Rights Standards on Obstetric Violence

    PART ONE: Introducing IPOV’s roundtable series on emerging human rights standards on obstetric violence: an international process that will contribute to the development of the IPOV Charter on Human Rights in Childbirth, grounded in the latest developments in international and regional human rights law.

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  • May 28, 2026

    2. Obstetric violence in Inter-American human rights jurisprudence

    PART TWO: How the Inter-American human rights system has shaped the legal understanding of obstetric violence, from early case law on informed consent and gender stereotypes to recent rulings that define it as both a form of gender-based violence and a violation of human rights.

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  • May 28, 2026

    3. Obstetric violence: the CEDAW Committee’s response

    PART THREE: How the CEDAW Committee has progressively recognised obstetric violence as a human rights issue, from maternal health cases involving preventable harm and discrimination to recent decisions that define obstetric violence, clarify State obligations, and confirm that States remain responsible for preventing and responding to violations in both public and private healthcare settings.

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Project IPOV RESPECTFULCARE has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON-MSCA-2022-Staff Exchange programme. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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