On April 17, 2025, Sierra Erdem (JD 2025) and Fransheska Companioni-Daroch (JD 2026), two of the students of the International Human Rights Center, and Megan Mars (JD 2023), a recent alumna of LLS, presented to the Committee against Torture a parallel report to Turkmenistan. The report was jointly prepared by the IHRC, Science for Democracy, a Brussels-based NGO focusing on the promotion of the right to benefit from progress in science and technology, and Turkmen Progres.
The report focused on the country’s criminalization of abortion, limited access to family planning and contraceptives, and the violation of rights through virginity testing in schools. These issues come under the purview of the Convention against Torture in Articles 1, 2.1, and 4. Their presentation highlighted the repercussions of abortion criminalization, including women attempting their own unsafe abortions or undergoing teenage pregnancy. They recommended repealing the law criminalizing abortion and taking steps to educate young women about their sexual and reproductive bodily autonomy.
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