The petitioner brought an tutela action (appeal for legal protection) against SALUDVIDA E.P.S., a health insurance company, for violation of her right to surgical abortion, seeking legal protection of her right to psychological and physical integrity and permission to have an abortion. The petitioner claimed that during the fifth month of her pregnancy, her fetus had …Read more

Paulina del Carmen Ramírez Jacinto, a minor child, filed a complaint against the United Mexican States for violating her human rights of when she allegedly became pregnant as a result of a rape when she was fourteen years old and was prevented by the state authorities from exercising her right to terminate that pregnancy as …Read more

The Forum for Women, Law and Development, the Petitioner, was an organization working with vulnerable communities such as women, children and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIVA). Although the right to privacy was guaranteed under Article 28 of the Interim Constitution, 2007, there were no legal provisions safeguarding the privacy of women, children, or PLHIVA (the …Read more

The author of the communication was the wife of the alleged victim, a Cameroon citizen. The author alleged that a group of police officers broke into her house without a warrant, claiming to be looking for a gun,  and began beating her husband (as well as battering the author, who was in an advanced state …Read more

While giving birth to her second son, the Respondent lost a large amount of blood and needed a blood transfusion. Her relatives bought erythrocyte mass and karyoplasms from the Kutaisi Regional Blood Bank.  After the transfusion, the Respondent and her son became sick and doctors ultimately concluded that the Respondent and her son was HIV …Read more

This case has been affirmed on appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation. The Plaintiff was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998. As part of her treatment, she was prescribed hormone medication and received a mastectomy. At one point, she was prescribed Zoladex, which which causes temporary cessation of ovarian function. . Although prescribed this medication, …Read more

Applicant alleged a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the Convention when she had been refused a therapeutic abortion considered legal under the Family Planning Act of Poland–when the pregnancy is thought to endanger the mother’s life, as was the case here. Applicant suffered from severe myopia and …Read more

The applicant was registered as female at birth in 1978 but regarded himself as a male from an early age. In 1997 he sought medical advice and was diagnosed as transgendered. Lithuania adopted Article 2.27 § 2 of the Civil Code, which provided that unmarried adults had the right to undergo medically endorsed gender reassignment …Read more

On August 28, 2009, Mrs. Y, a pregnant woman of Roma ethnic origin, went to Targu Neamt Hospital Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, a public hospital, for a check-up.  Dr. X performed the check-up and sent her home, telling her there was nothing wrong with her and making certain derogatory statements about gypsies. When Mrs. Y …Read more

On August 2006, the Director of the Voivodeship Branch of the National Health Fund rejected the application of the plaintiffs for the reimbursement of the costs incurred during the plaintiff’s in vitro fertilization procedure. The plaintiffs had neither obtained a physician’s referral for the in vitro treatment nor filed an application with the Director of …Read more

The applicant, an Icelandic national was born physically and mentally handicapped at the National and University Hospital (NUH). Linking the cause to possible mistakes on the part of the hospital staff, the applicant’s parents brought judicial proceedings on her behalf against the State of Iceland. The District Court found that the State was liable and …Read more

Applicant had her eggs extracted for the purposes of in vitro fertilization in 2001. Her ovaries were thereafter removed due to the presence of tumors. Six embryos were created using her eggs and the sperm of her partner ‘J.’. Schedule 3 of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990 allowed for the withdrawal of …Read more

The applicants met and married while both were incarcerated via a pen-pal program. The applicants wished to conceive a child. However, given Ms. Dickson’s age at the time of Mr. Dickson’s earliest release date, it was unlikely they would be able to have a child without the use of artificial insemination facilities. As such, the …Read more

The petitioner was challenging an order of detention for allegedly engaging in trafficking of women and girls. The grounds of the order were that petitioner was an “immoral traffic offender” which is “a person who habitually commits or abets the commission of any offence under the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, …Read more

This case is a class action against the Quebec government aimed at obtaining a reimbursement for voluntary terminations of pregnancy services obtained in private clinics. After the 1988 landmark case of R v Morgentaler found a right to elective abortion, the Ministry of Health had been slow in developing ministerial guidance on family planning. At …Read more

In January 2000, Mrs. X went to the Royal Women’s Hospital (“the Hospital”). She was 32 weeks pregnant, and, after a multiple ultrasounds, it was confirmed that her baby had skeletal dysplasia (“dwarfism”). In February, a fetal reduction procedure was done and the baby was born by stillbirth. After termination, the fetus was found to …Read more

This report addresses the admissibility of a petition that alleged Canada failed to fulfill its obligations under the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (the Declaration), including protection of the right to life, the right of special protection of women during pregnancy and the freedom of expression and dissemination of ideas. Anti-abortion …Read more

The House of Lords tried two asylum appeals together in this case: Secretary of State for the Home Department v. K (FC), and Fornah (FC) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department. The second case involved Fornah, a 15-year old girl from Sierra Leone who sought asylum in the United Kingdom on the grounds …Read more

The Applicant, Sue Axon, alleged that the Family Planning Association violated the rights of parents under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (right to respect for private and family life). The Association provided confidential advice and treatment regarding contraception, sexually transmitted infections and abortion to persons under the age of sixteen …Read more

Falcon María Liliana filed anguarantee of protection of individual constitutional rights (amparo protection) against a hospital in Argentina for refusing to perform a sterilization procedure during the birth of her seventh child. The plaintiff had requested doctors to perform a ligation of her Fallopian tubes, and/or any other necessary procedure, during a planned caesarean section …Read more

Women petitioners brought a tutela action (appeal for legal protection) requesting that the Court declare unconstitutional particular provisions of the Penal Code (Articles 122 (criminalized abortion), 123 (criminalized abortion without consent), and 124 (mitigating circumstances)) that criminalized abortion, claiming that, first, the doctrine of res judicata did not apply to them with regards to previous decisions …Read more

In 2001, Peru’s Department of Health approved the emergency oral contraceptive and resolved to provide it at no charge throughout the nation. Following cases of repeated noncompliance with this resolution, plaintiffs initiated this legal action to enforce compliance. Specifically, the petitioners asserted that the mandates whose compliance they were demanding were: (1) To ensure a …Read more

During the conflict between armed groups and government forces that lasted from the 1980s until 2000, the government of Alberto Fujimori issued a law decree on April 6, 1992, ordering “the reorganization of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) and put[ting] the National Police of Peru in charge of the control of security at the penitentiaries.” …Read more

According to the Benefit Entitlement Act (“BEA”), health care providers who offer medically necessary care to illegal immigrants must be compensated for their expenses. To achieve this, the BEA increased the budget of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports (“the Ministry”). Instead of managing the compensation fund itself, the Ministry appointed the Foundation Koppeling …Read more

T.D.Z. suffered from cancer and was prescribed an active treatment in 1998, which obtained good results. In 2002, T.D.Z. required chemical injections in order to induce binding menopause after which she was required to take hormone replacements. The Ministry of Health, however, was unable to provide T.D.Z. with the injections (Zodalex®) for April and May …Read more

Rosaria Mashita Katakwe, a 13-year-old girl, was raped by her teacher Edward Hakasenke. She developed a sexually transmitted infection as a result of the rape and tested for HIV/AIDS. The Headmaster of the school had been warned before with respect to a prior relationship of the teacher with another girl in the school. The defendant …Read more

A.S., a Hungarian-Roma woman in labor, was taken to a public hospital in shock and bleeding heavily. Because the fetus was dead, attending personnel informed her that a caesarean section was needed to remove the fetus. While on the operating table, she was asked to sign a statement of consent, including a hand-written note requesting …Read more

Applicant, a Polish national, claimed violations of Articles 2 (right to life) and 6 (timely investigation) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) when he was unable to convince authorities to investigate potential mistreatment of his wife, who fell into a coma and died during labor after receiving an epidural. Following the wife’s death, …Read more

The author was a resident of the Netherlands who was employed in a part-time salaried position and was also simultaneously self-employed, working with her husband at his business. She was insured under the Sickness Benefits Act (“ZW”) in relation to her salaried position and under the Invalidity Insurance (Self-Employed Persons) Act (“WAZ”) in relation to …Read more

RM’s mother was living with, but not married to, RM’s father at the time of her birth. Although RM’s father paid hospital expenses for her birth, shortly thereafter, RM’s father ceased contact with RM’s mother and provided no parental support. Under section 24(3) of the Children Act (the “Act”), only parents that were married had …Read more