ABSTRACT
A central tenet of the Reproductive Justice framework is the right to parent the children one already has in a safe and healthy environment. This principle is based on the idea that parenting is a human right, as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This chapter begins by exploring the idea of the right to parent as rooted in human rights discourse and demonstrates the ways in which the right to parent is directly related to the health and safety of one's communities. This chapter traces the formation of the right to parent as a human right through the platforms for action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the 1995 Fourth U.N. World Conference on Women and addresses what it might take to realize an individual's right to parent. The second half of this chapter provides three short case studies of organizations working to stop family separation and reimagine notions of family, community, and care. Case studies include Families Belong Together, an organization that works to permanently end family separation and detention and seek accountability for the harm that has been done, Movement for Family Power, an organization focused on divestment from the foster system and reinvestment in community, and upEND, an organization working on abolition of the foster care system.
