Beyond criminalization

A Feminist Questioning of Criminal Justice Interventions to Address Sexual and Reproductive Rights Violations (executive summary).

The alliance of feminists of the global south,RESURJ (Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice), undertook a desk research project as part of its work of leadership and innovation on the shortcomings and limitations of the criminal system to address violations of sexual and reproductive rights.

RESURJ’s approach to sexual and reproductive rights includes understanding the interactions between our body, health and human rights and other environmental, economic and social crises of our times. This cross-sectional analysis of sexual and reproductive justice additionally requires questioning any intervention through its interaction with the various systems of power, including gender, race, ethnicity and class. This makes apparent the contradictions of resorting to criminal justice as a viable resource to protect rights and, at the same time, acknowledging its historic use as an instrument for domination and marginalization, to silence dissent, lock-up human rights advocates and close public spaces. Once the limitations of criminalization as a solution have been acknowledged, it becomes more difficult to advocate at the national, regional and global levels for states to resort to penal resources and criminalization as the most effective, fair, and necessary response to sexual and reproductive rights violations.

A more effective way to respond to these violations is to opt for a holistic approach that does not only depend on the law to redress and deter future violations.

This approach would address the root causes and structural inequalities that give rise to such violations. It would include available and accessible mechanisms that serve justice, provide relief for survivors, respond to their needs and ensure the participation of the community, as well as means to address more efficiently the economic inequalities, gender inequalities, stereotypes and discrimination, which create a more suitable environment for violations in the first place.

The desk research identified other research work, resources and evidence that explore approaches, responses, mechanisms, and methods to address sexual and reproductive rights violations in an alternative way.

Using examples and evidence of research and resources, the report of this desk research highlights some of the main results to understand the reasons? why criminal law is so hard to apply, the systematic and inherent limitations and problems of the criminal justice system such as discrimination and stigma, the accessibility, impunity and infrastructure of criminal justice including the consequences of imprisonment against its benefits such as rehabilitation and dissuasion, the victim’s concerns, and consent and privacy.

The report explores the ways in which sexual and reproductive rights violations can be addressed and prevented, allowing a more holistic approach that doesn’t focus or rely on criminal law. It also analyzes preventive measures, including those used to address structural causes, the use of an intersectional approach or solution, comprehensive sex education, community mobilization and the activities of advocacy, as well as response measures adopted after the violations have taken place, such as restorative justice.

TO READ THE EXECUTIVE RESUME OF THE REPORT, CLICK HERE.