Human Rights and China's Family Planning Policy : Direct and Indirect Effects on Women

Abstract

The Family Planning Policy of The People's Republic of China exists in stark opposition to declarations of reproductive rights as laid out in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Women (1995). The resultant ongoing repercussions for the human rights of women in China today are discussed in this thesis in terms of both their direct and indirect effects. By in terms of direct effects, I describe the physical violations of rights as experienced by Chinese women of reproductive age, while regarding indirect effects, I refer to the female children and infants who have born the brunt of a socio-economically maintained discrimination against daughters.