Voluntary, Human Rights–Based Family Planning: A Conceptual Framework

TLDR

The 2012 Family Planning Summit pledged to provide services to 120 million more women by 2020, but critics warned that the numeric target could undermine the human‑rights focus of the 1994 ICPD, highlighting the need for coordinated, rights‑based programmatic approaches. The article proposes a new conceptual framework to guide efforts toward the FP2020 target. The framework integrates human‑rights laws and principles into family‑planning and quality‑of‑care models, unifying previously separate lines of thought into a practical construct.

Abstract

At the 2012 Family Planning Summit in London, world leaders committed to providing effective family planning information and services to 120 million additional women and girls by the year 2020. Amid positive response, some expressed concern that the numeric goal could signal a retreat from the human rights-centered approach that underpinned the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Achieving the FP2020 goal will take concerted and coordinated efforts among diverse stakeholders and a new programmatic approach supported by the public health and human rights communities. This article presents a new conceptual framework designed to serve as a path toward fulfilling the FP2020 goal. This new unifying framework, which incorporates human rights laws and principles within family-planning-program and quality-of-care frameworks, brings what have been parallel lines of thought together in one construct to make human rights issues related to family planning practical.