Forced sterilizations: addressing limitations of international rights adjudication through an intersectional approach

Involuntary and coerced sterilizations are now clearly recognised as events that breach a number of different international, regional and national rights protections. Despite the fact that the legal basis for forced and involuntary sterilizations have largely been eradicated at a national level, many instances continue to take place. The WHO found that forced and involuntary sterilizations affect women as a group disproportionally , but to look at these claims only in the context of the individual affected or to treat these as ‘women’s rights’ breaches without considering what women are being affected and why, is to address these rights breaches only in a partial way. This chapter examines cases brought by women to the Inter-American Commission, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Committee for the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It analyses the absence of an intersectional understanding of the claims in all three forums and argues that this gap harms effective standard setting and reduces the meaningfulness and influence of recommendations from these important forums.