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9 Pace Int'l L. Rev. 259 (1997)
The Utility of International Law for Protecting Women's Health Rights

handle is hein.journals/pacinlwr9 and id is 263 raw text is: THE UTILITY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR PROTECTING WOMEN'S HEALTH RIGHTS Professor Vanessa Mertont In all candidness, I know little about international law, but I do have some sense of how to use the domestic law on women's health issues. I know how to prosecute men who beat and mur- der their wives. I know how to sue companies that profit from pharmaceuticals that have not been properly tested and, there- fore, harm women. I know how to use administrative advocacy to help poor women get prenatal care, to challenge psychiatric misdiagnoses of women patients and to oppose occupational safety regulations that neglect women workers. But when I try to imagine using the body of documents and the group of insti- tutions that make up this elusive and, to me, exotic animal called international law, it is, to quote Rogers and Hammer- stein, a puzzlement.' One level of my puzzlement is the body of law itself: what do these documents mean? For example, Article 3 of the Uni- versal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 guarantees the right to life, liberty and the security of the person.2 Who inter- prets and declares the meaning of this language and in light of whose experience and values? The effectiveness of interna- tional legal institutions is another level of puzzlement. Does anything really change when a nation becomes a state party to a Convention? If it is decided, by whomever, that the State has violated its obligations, what are the real consequences? t Associate Dean for Clinical Education and Charles A. Frueauff Research Professor of Law, Pace University School of Law; A.B., Radcliffe College; J.D., New York University School of Law. I wish to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation, and to offer special thanks to Avril Roberts, Pace Law School J.D. '97, for her outstanding research assistance. 1 Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein, The King and I. 2 UNIvERsAL DECLARATION OF HuMAN RIGHTS [hereinafter DECLARATION], adopted, Dec. 10, 1948, G.A. Res. 217A(111), 3 U.N. GAOR (Resolutions part 1) at 71, U.N. Doc. A/810 (1948). 259