An Overview of the Various Dimensions of Abortion in International Human Rights Documents

Abortion is one of the most challenging issues in many societies. Today, abortion is considered a problem of women’s health, the main issues in the realm of public health and quality of health care, and one of the most important issues in the field of reproductive and sexual rights of females. In addition, there is much disagreement on whether the human fetus has the right to life, which in turn has led to differences of opinion on whether or not abortion is permissible. Therefore, this study aimed to review the concept and different dimensions of abortion in international human rights Documents.

The present review study aimed to examine the universal documents by searching the databases of PubMed, Scopus, Magiran, SID, Google Scholar, as well as the international organizations' websites, such as WHO, Center for Reproductive Rights, United Nations IPPF, CRR, and UNFPA. Moreover, related keywords, such as abortion, human rights, women’s rights, and children’s rights were used and abortion-related declarations and conventions were reviewed in this study.

Many international instruments have discussed human rights and the right to life, and illegal abortion has been considered the violation of a fetus’ right to life. These instruments include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the four treaties of Geneva Conventions, the Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, and the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights.

Although most international human rights instruments do not explicitly address the matter of abortion, the fetus’s right to life is mentioned in many international instruments and can be deduced from them.