The St. John’s University School of Law

Jamaica, Queens, New York 11439

SUSAN YOSHIHARA

Susan Yoshihara is Executive Vice President of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) and President of the International Organizations Research Group (IORG). C-FAM founded IORG and its white paper series in order to bring high quality scholarship to bear on the most pressing international social policy issues facing UN diplomats today. As head of its New York office, Susan supervises C-FAM’s advocacy work with diplomats, media, and a broad international coalition, advancing the cause of life and family in international institutions.

Susan served on the faculty at the U.S. Naval War College where she taught national security decision making and international relations. Her research interests are related to human rights, humanitarianism and international law, and publications include “Rights by Stealth: The Role of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies in the Campaign for an International Right to Abortion,” National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly Vol.7 No.1 (Spring 2007), “Kosovo,” in Flashpoints in the War on Terrorism, Derek Reveron and Jeffrey Murer, eds. (New York: Routlege, 2006), and “The Trouble with Mixed Motives: Debating the Political, Legal, and Moral Dimensions of Intervention,” Naval War College Review Vol. LVII, No.3/4 (Summer/Autumn 2004).

Serving twenty years as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, Susan held the rank of Commander and led various sea going units in the Pacific theater as well as shore duty service on the Atlantic Fleet staff in Norfolk, VA and in Washington as a White House Fellow. Susan holds a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy, M.A. in National Security Affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. She is married to Toshi Yoshihara of Tokyo, Japan.

Douglas Sylva and Susan Yoshihara

Rights by Stealth: The Role of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies in the Campaign for an International Right to Abortion

In the mid-1990s a group of UN officials and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gathered to set out a strategy to promote a controversial international social policy agenda by reinterpreting existing human rights treaties with new meanings. At the heart of this strategy was a four step process to use the six UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies and an interlocking network of UN agencies, UN officials and NGOs, to create an international right to abortion. In the decade that has followed, UN member nations have allowed the strategy to develop to an extensive degree, despite the fact that it undermines their own laws. This study examines the reasons why the process has been able to advance, and analyzes the way the strategy has undermined the treaty monitoring system and challenged the credibility of the international human rights regime.