Global Prescriptions

ROSALIND POLLACK PETCHESKY is Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Co-author of Negotiating Reproductive Rights: Women's Perspectives across Countries and Cultures, she is the founder and past international coordinator of the International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group (IRRRAG) and a MacArthur Fellow. Her recent response to 9.11, Phantom Towers, has had an extraordinary impact, being published in a large number of print and media sites in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and India. Professor Petchesky has long been active in women's, social justice and peace efforts and is a board member of the Women's Environment and Development Organization and the international journal, Reproductive Health Matters.

• List of AcronymsForeword – Thandika Mkandawire, director of UNRISDPreface and Acknowledgements1. Transnationalizing Women’s Health Movements2. The UN Conferences at Sites of Discursive Struggle3. HIV/AIDs and the Human Right to Health4. Managing Health Under Global Capitalism5. Implementing International Norms at the National Level: Women’s Health NGOs in the Firing Line6. Conclusion: Reflections on Global Governance and Transnational Feminist Movements in an Era of Infinite WarBibliographyIndex

'A major contribution to contemporary debates on gender, health, and human rights. Through her analysis of the role of the transnational women's movement in a range of social justice arenas, Petchesky offers important new insights into the complex political forces shaping struggles for reproductive and sexual rights within the context of rapid social and economic globalization. [This] is critical social analysis at its very best.' Richard Parker, Professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University 'Scrupulously researched, Petchesky offers an insightful overview of recent struggles to promote health and human rights. At a time when the global corporate sector appears overpoweringly strong relative to governments, the United Nations and civil society, Petchesky provides an invaluable orientation and realistic multi-pronged agenda for challenging the current global acceptance of profit over people.' Barbara Klugman, Women's Health Project, South Africa A well-known feminist and political theorist, Petchesky does a thorough historical and political review from a feminist perspective of key events and organizations which influence health and human rights today; in her inimitable style, she minces no words in her critique of the limitations of these efforts. Her book makes fascinating reading, is rigorously researched, and carries the author's personal stamp of brilliant scholarship and fearless positioning.' Purnima Mane, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria 'A brilliant, scholarly analysis of the linkages between global policies, socio-political alignments, anti-feminist offensives and dwindling resources in creating barriers to sexual and reproductive health and rights.' Bene E. Madunagu, Chair, Girls' Power Initiative (GPI) Executive Board, Nigeria 'Petchesky navigates with great skill the complex set of issues she has chosen to tackle. Her conclusion is worth reading on its own as a stirring and visionary text by a fine scholar and activist with cogent and convincing arguments. The other five chapters are equally appealing though more complex in nature, and deal with an impressive number of issues and events that indeed show the importance of the interconnections Petchesky sets out to make.' Wendy Harcourt, International Affairs 'Global Prescription defines women's health issues broadly and is therefore a welcome addition to the canon of writing about women and health...Petchesky's work truly edifies the reader and points to what is arguably one of the biggest challenges facing developing nations...Policy-makers, women's NGOs, and feminist theoreticians will surely benefit from this book...the timing of Petchesky's book couldn't be better'. Women's Rev Books