Preface Reproduction is an elemental, life-changing common experience for much of humanity. Yet each year more than 120 million couples have an unmet need for contraception, 80 million women have unintended pregnancies (45 million of which end in abortion); more than half a million women are estimated to die from complications associated with pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period and 340 million people acquire new sexually transmitted infections.1 In every part of the world, women and adolescents bear the brunt of sexual and reproductive ill-health. Globally, it is women and girls in developing countries who are at most risk of reproductive related disease, disability and death. One might expect that reproductive rights would have a correspondingly important place in international human rights law and practice. However, this is not the current position. Thus far, reproductive rights have been little discussed and are often poorly understood. Many aspects of reproductive rights remain unsettled and controversial. As a result, reproductive rights have tended to occupy a marginalised position in the international human rights landscape. As a complex and multifaceted package of rights, reproductive rights are also often collapsed into, mistaken for, or overshadowed by more easily identifiable rights such as the right to health and the prohibition of violence against women. National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are now recognized as a major force for protection and promotion of human rights at the domestic level – in many cases helping to lessen the “implementation gap’’ between international rules and standards and the practice of human rights on the ground. NHRIs also appear to be uniquely placed to contribute positively and innovatively to rights protection in areas that are relatively new, sensitive and prone to misunderstanding. This Report acknowledges the unique position and strengths of such institutions in asking how NHRIs in the Asia Pacific region are currently working to protect and promote reproductive rights; what obstacles they have encountered; and how reproductive rights can be more effectively integrated into their important work. The key findings of the Report are based on a comprehensive survey of NHRIs’ views and work practices in the field of reproductive rights, conducted through a detailed written questionnaire and follow-up interviews with fifteen of the seventeen member institutions of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) between July and November 2010. While the information received was necessarily limited, it nevertheless provided an important insight into how NHRIs understand and work with reproductive rights. The findings affirm, for example, that all NHRIs unequivocally recognize a mandate and responsibility to promote and protect reproductive rights in their work. Although significant challenges to reproductive rights exist in the form of limited knowledge and understanding as well as religious and cultural sensitivities, it is clear that NHRIs can play an influential role as experienced and innovative actors in initiating Figures from Glasier et al, Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Matter of Life and Death, The Lancet Sexual and Reproductive Health Series (October 2006). 1 vii