Shobha Shukla's "Justice unbound" :: Book Review

Bobby Ramakant *

Shobha Shukla's "Justice unbound"

Justice unbound: Shobha Shukla’s urgent warning against the global rollback of gender and health rights

In a powerful intervention timed for the eve of critical global diplomacy, Eliva Press today (12th August 2026) released "Justice Unbound: Feminist Voices on Gender Equality, Health Rights, and Inclusive Futures," an exclusive compilation of 14 hard-hitting reports by veteran feminist, health and development justice advocate Shobha Shukla. Written between January and June 2026, the book documents the “nefarious pushbacks” against gender equality and the human right to health across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. With only about 53 months remaining to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Shukla’s work arrives as a stark warning and a call to action.

Its publication comes just weeks before world leaders gather in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The timing gives the book a significance beyond its launch. It arrives as a challenge to governments: will global leaders continue to merely make commitments on equality and health, or finally build the accountability, financing and political will required to deliver them?

A feminist record of a world pushing back

The 72-page book's 14 reports range from patriarchal resistance in Africa and the value of women's unpaid care work to menstrual justice, the rights of older persons, female genital mutilation/cutting, access to justice, antimicrobial resistance under gender lens, and the effectiveness of UN accountability mechanisms.

Across these diverse subjects runs a common argument: gender equality and the human right to health cannot be treated as optional development objectives. They are human rights, and governments have responsibilities to make those rights real.

Shukla's central concern is the widening gap between promises and lived reality. Her book notes that the world is already slipping behind on the Sustainable Development Goals, while anti-rights and anti-gender movements seek to reverse progress made for girls, women and gender-diverse communities.

That warning is particularly stark with 2030 approaching.

“Gender equality” cannot mean merely the presence of women in policy documents or conference halls. It must mean equality in law, access to healthcare, bodily autonomy, economic opportunity, political participation, safety, dignity and justice.

From Africa's pushbacks to a global warning

One of the book's opening reports examines a controversial and regressive draft African Charter on 'Family', 'Sovereignty' and 'Values,' which supposedly got support by 20 African countries at an inter-parliamentary conference in Ghana in June 2026.

The report warns that the proposed framework could undermine established rights protections by privileging narrow definitions of family, sovereignty and tradition over equality, bodily autonomy and accountability. It also raises concern about attempts to weaken commitments such as the legally binding Maputo Protocol, which protects women's rights and reproductive and health rights across Africa.

The broader warning is global: a rollback in one region can become a precedent elsewhere.

The book cites feminist and human rights voices arguing that gender equality and the right to health are not negotiable or reversible. As the doctrine of non-retrogression states, under international human rights law and constitutional jurisprudence, once a government grants, recognises, or improves healthcare and gender rights protections, it is legally barred from rolling back or reducing those established human rights standards.

Shukla's book also highlights the need for international solidarity because human dignity cannot be selectively protected according to geography, culture or political convenience. For world leaders, that should be a warning ahead of the UN General Assembly: rights once weakened are difficult to restore.

Justice must recognise the work women have always done

The book also records a striking development from India's Supreme Court, which in June 2026 substantially increased compensation in a case concerning the death of homemaker Reshma, recognising the economic value of unpaid domestic and caregiving work. The Court established that the loss of unpaid domestic care is a distinct economic loss and set ₹30,000 (approximately USD 313) per month as a minimum stand-in for a homemaker's domestic contribution when calculating compensation.

Shukla uses the judgment to expose a larger contradiction: women routinely perform essential care work while that labour remains economically and socially undervalued.

The lesson for governments is straightforward. Gender equality cannot be achieved without confronting the unequal distribution and valuation of care.

The same principle applies to health. Women and girls frequently carry the burden of caring for families and communities while encountering barriers to healthcare themselves. The book's discussion of antimicrobial resistance (AMR - which is threatening health and food security, environment and our economies) shows how gender inequality, gender-based violence, gender stereotypes and harmful social norms, stigma and unequal access to health services can influence health outcomes.

A health system that relies on women's unpaid labour while denying women equal access to care is not equitable.

The right to health must include everyone

The book repeatedly challenges governments to move beyond symbolic commitments toward inclusive, rights-based public health systems.

It calls for healthcare that is non-discriminatory and accessible to people in all their diversities, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights services and gender-affirming care. It also stresses the need to protect women and LGBTQIA+ human rights defenders facing legal and judicial harassment.

The message is particularly urgent as political debates increasingly seek to narrow the meaning of gender, sexuality and bodily autonomy.

The book also highlights a landmark January 2026 judgment by India's Supreme Court recognising menstrual health as an integral component of fundamental rights and linking it to the constitutional right to life, dignity, health and self-respect.

Such developments show what rights-based governance can achieve. But a judgment, law or treaty has little value if implementation stops on paper.

That is why the book repeatedly returns to accountability.

UN accountability cannot remain a promise

One of Justice Unbound's most direct messages is that international commitments require mechanisms capable of following governments from promise to performance.

The book highlights the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) as an important accountability mechanism through which all 193 UN Member States are periodically reviewed against human rights obligations. It argues that UPR recommendations are public and can create a pathway linking international commitments to national policies, budgets and service delivery.

That message should resonate strongly in New York next month.

The 81st UN General Assembly should not become just another summit where governments repeat familiar language about equality, inclusion and health before returning home to business as usual.

Instead, leaders should use the session to establish measurable commitments, timelines and accountability for delivering SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG 3 on health and wellbeing.

As Shukla's book puts it, governments need to be pushed to deliver on promises already made at the global level.

FGM/C shows the cost of promises without delivery

Few examples demonstrate the consequences of implementation failure more starkly than female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

The book notes that world leaders promised in 2015 to end FGM/C by 2030 under SDG target 5.3. Yet Shukla reports that the number of girls and women affected increased from about 200 million in 2016 to more than 230 million in 2024 — a 15% increase over eight years.

The book argues that FGM/C cannot be isolated from wider gender-based violence and systems controlling women's and girls' bodies. It calls for community-led solutions, stronger protection systems and accountability.

The principle is powerful: ending FGM/C is not charity; it is justice.

The same principle applies to healthcare, education, freedom from violence, bodily autonomy and equal participation in public life.

A message for the leaders of the 81st UN General Assembly

When presidents, prime ministers and ministers arrive in New York next month, Justice Unbound offers them a simple but urgent test.

* Deliver.
* Deliver on gender equality.
* Deliver on the human right to health.
* Deliver on bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
* Deliver on protection from gender-based violence and harmful practices.
* Deliver on equal justice.
* Deliver on inclusive public healthcare.
* Deliver on the rights of older persons, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and gender-diverse communities.
* And above all, deliver on the promise to leave no one behind.

The book argues that feminist movements and human rights defenders should be recognised as rights holders, and not treated merely as petitioners asking governments for favours. Young feminist movements, in particular, need meaningful participation in decision-making and protection from reprisals.

That should become a defining principle of the 81st General Assembly.

World leaders should listen not only to governments but to the women, girls, health workers, indigenous communities, survivors, older persons, human rights defenders and gender-diverse people whose lived realities reveal whether international commitments are working.

From declarations to justice

The launch of Justice Unbound therefore comes at a critical moment.

Its title is both a description and a demand: justice must not remain bound by patriarchy, political expediency, narrow definitions of family, discriminatory laws, stigma or unequal access to power.

The book's concluding call is uncompromising. Gender equality and the right to health are fundamental human rights, yet the world remains far from achieving them despite decades of effort. Stronger accountability mechanisms are needed to ensure that governments deliver on their global commitments.

The 81st UN General Assembly now has an opportunity to turn that call into action.

The leaders meeting in September should leave New York with more than speeches. They should leave with funded plans, measurable targets, stronger accountability, protection for human rights defenders and a renewed commitment to universal human rights.

Because the question facing the world is no longer whether gender equality and the right to health are worthy aspirations. The question is whether governments will finally treat them as what they are: rights owed to every human being.

And, as Justice Unbound makes clear, rights delayed, denied or rolled back are not merely policy failures. They are failures of justice.

Justice Unbound, published by Eliva Press, is both a record of resistance and a roadmap for the action required. The question now is whether leaders at UNGA 81 will listen—and deliver.