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This paper discusses the complexity of contemporary struggles for collective health in Colombia, by analysing the efforts of different actors to inscribe abortion as a matter of public health and as a human right. In 2006 the Colombian Constitutional Court (Sentence C 355 of 2006) partially decriminalised abortion in specific circumstances. Such a change in regulation was the result of the strategic coordination of international organisations, researchers and women's social movements. These groups produced a powerful network of international regulation and epidemiological data about abortion's mortality and burden of disease in order to move the discussion from the moral field to public health and international law. Despite the significance of the sentence in terms of civil rights, ten years after the regulation there is no clarity about its impact. Conservative sectors within the government have limited the operation of the regulation, through eliciting convoluted rules for hospitals and care providers. On the other hand, data about safe abortions are weak and precarious. Recently groups opposed of abortion have exploited such weakness to undermine the impact of the decriminalisation and to criticise the justification of legalising abortion as a matter of public health.

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Women's Link Worldwide developed a test to determine when an environment is conducive to social change through strategic litigation. We first present our understanding of strategic litigation, and then discuss four conditions for successful and sustainable change using strategic litigation: (1) an existing rights framework; (2) an independent and knowledgeable judiciary; (3) civil society organizations with the capacity to frame social problems as rights violations and to litigate; and (4) a network able to support and leverage the opportunities presented by litigation. Next, we present examples from our work in Colombia that show how analysis of these conditions informed our litigation strategy when confronting a powerful public official who opposes reproductive rights. Two litigation strategies were adopted. The first case was not successful in the courts, but allowed us to introduce our message and build support amongst civil society. The second case built on this momentum and resulted in a victory. Strategic litigation is a powerful tool to advance rights as well as hold governments accountable and ensure compliance with human rights obligations. The strategies developed can be adapted for use in other contexts. We hope they inspire others to protect and promote reproductive rights through strategic litigation when women cannot fully enjoy their rights.

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In Argentina, campaigns for the recognition of sexual and reproductive rights have sparked opposition through litigation in which the dynamics of legal action have come from self-proclaimed "pro-life" NGOs, particularly since 1998, when the conservative NGO Portal de Belén successfully achieved the banning of emergency contraception through the courts. The activities of these groups, acting as a "civil arm" of religion, are focused primarily on obstructing access to legally permissible abortions and bringing about the withdrawal of a number of recognized public policies on sexual and reproductive health, particularly the 2002 National Programme for Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation. This paper analyzes the litigation strategies of these conservative NGOs and how their use of the courts in Argentina has changed over the years. It gives examples of efforts in local courts to block individual young women from accessing legal abortion following rape, despite a ruling by the National Supreme Court of Justice in 2012 that no judicial permission is required. In spite of major advances, the renewed influence of the Catholic hierarchy in the Argentine political scene with the accession of the new Pope poses challenges to the work by feminists and women's movements to extend and consolidate sexual and reproductive rights.

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Esse artigo defende que os esforços para expandir a justiciabilidade dos direitos econômicos, sociais e culturais (ESC), perante tribunais supranacionais, possivelmente não venha a ser sempre a melhor forma para aumentar concretamente o respeito a esses direitos. No Sistema Interamericano, os autores deste artigo afirmam que os advogados de direitos humanos serão mais capazes de promover a justiça social e os direitos ESC quando usarem a litigância supranacional como uma ferramenta subsidiária, destinada a apoiar esforços de mobilização já promovidos por movimentos sociais internos. Esse papel coadjuvante pode com freqüência implicar, como uma medida estratégica, a litigância de casos relacionados a direitos ESC dentro da estrutura própria das violações a direitos civis e políticos.

This article contends that efforts to expand the justiciability of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights before supranational tribunals may not always be the best way to increase respect for these rights on the ground. In the Inter-American System, the authors maintain that human rights lawyers will best advance social justice and ESC rights when they use supranational litigation as a subsidiary tool to support advocacy efforts led by domestic social movements, a role that may often entail litigating ESC claims strategically within the framework of civil and political violations.

Este artículo sostiene que el esfuerzo por expandir la justiciabilidad de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales (DESC) ante tribunales internacionales no siempre puede ser la vía más adecuada para mejorar el respeto efectivo de estos derechos. En el sistema interamericano, según los autores, los abogados de derechos humanos lograrán más avances en materia de justicia social y de DESC cuando utilicen el litigio internacional como una herramienta subsidiaria para apoyar esfuerzos de incidencia sostenidos por movimientos sociales locales, una función que a veces puede requerir plantear violaciones de DESC con la perspectiva de violaciones a derechos civiles y políticos.