The United Nations Treaty Bodies, established to monitor the implementation of the respective treaties and offer authoritative interpretations of their provisions, have recognized reproductive rights as legally binding and have in that respect addressed the various elements of reproductive rights as presented in Chapter 4 below and further documented in Annex 1. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Human Rights Committee (that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and, to a lesser extent, the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have all made statements on various aspects of reproductive rights. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights have recognized reproductive rights as human rights. In addition, the European Court of Human Rights has made various decisions on matters relating to reproductive rights, including finding that the right to private life incorporates the right to respect for the decisions both to become and not to become a parent.1 Finally, United Nations member states have adopted by consensus a number of 1 Judgment by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice, Evans vs. the UK 6339/05, (10 April 2007), para. 71. documents on reproductive rights as human rights. The most important such document, the 1994 ICPD, mentioned above, was adopted by consensus, albeit with a number of reservations, and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.2 Another important document, also adopted by consensus and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly,3 is the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women. Furthermore, the 2005 World Summit Outcome, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005,4 and the commitment to both sexual and reproductive health in the outcome document of the 2010 United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010,5 further confirmed the commitment to reproductive health. In June 2012, the United Nations reaffirmed its commitment to reproductive rights in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20.6 2 United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/49/128. 3 United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/50/203. 4 United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/1. 5 United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/65/1. 6 UN Doc. A/CONF.216/16. EXAMPLES OF KEY PRACTICAL ELEMENTS OF R ­ EPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS The aforementioned definition of reproductive rights in paragraph 7.3 of the ICPD Programme of Action establishes three 22 main elements. The first guarantees all couples and individuals the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing