Nationalist Revivals and Reproductive Rights in Post-Transitional Societies

This article reviews the literature on the intersection of democratic transitions, nationalist revivals, and reproductive rights in three post-transitional regions: East-Central Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. After discussing studies on global contestations of human rights, the article identifies four thematic clusters in the literature: the double bind of gender and democracy, the projection of internal tensions within the human rights framework onto transitional societies, the rise of new biopolitical regimes, and the phenomenon of human rights capture and hijacking. These themes provide a structured framework for understanding how the renewed prominence of nationhood in post-transitional contexts has shaped the contested realization and protection of reproductive rights, drawing significant political and scholarly attention. The conclusion examines the internal dynamics of the threefold concept of justice, exploring how reproductive, transitional, and historical justice contribute to the contestations of human rights in post-transitional nationalist revivals.