By Isabella Cubillo

Inside HR2W’s Workshop on Menstrual Health and Human Rights

Menstrual health management (MHM) was formally recognised as a human rights issue in 2022. In the years since, legislative activity in this space has moved faster across different nations which is exactly why Human Right 2 Water built a dedicated workshop around it.

Introduction to Menstrual Health Management and Human Rights brought together researchers and practitioners working across law, public health, gender studies, international relations, and human rights to examine the legal and policy frameworks shaping MHM today. The session drew on comparative analysis spanning 30 countries, with a close look at regional and national good practices, benchmarking methodology, and the pace of reform since 2022. The session also opened the space for participants to engage critically with the material and bring their own perspectives into the room.

The Global Picture: Strong Words, Uneven Action

HR2W’s Legal Expert, Kay Windle opened with findings from a 30-country legislative benchmarking study built around core human rights standards: availability, accessibility, quality, accountability, and sustainability. The headline number is sobering — across all 30 countries, only 45% of internationally recognized MHM criteria have made their way into national law.

Kay looked at some of the patterns identified across the research. Accountability mechanisms scored highest worldwide, largely because countries could graft menstrual health provisions onto legal systems that already existed. Sustainability and affordability scored lowest, at roughly 40%, because they require building new infrastructure and environmental policy almost from scratch. Kenya emerged as the most progressive country in the dataset (87%), with a particular strength in product availability and quality assurance. India stood out for accountability, anchored in constitutional equality protections that produced a landmark 2018 Supreme Court ruling. A regional deep dive into Latin America and Spain found similar dynamics, with Colombia leading on the strength of existing oversight mechanisms.

What the Law Doesn’t Capture

The country presentations that followed the presentation showed something benchmarking alone can’t: how legislation is being translated on the ground.

• In Nepal, Preeti Mittal described a constitution that guarantees rights to health, sanitation, and equality, plus a free sanitary pad program reaching girls in grades 7–12. Yet recent survey data shows access still tracks closely with income and education, and that Chhaupadi(the practice of isolating menstruating women) remains illegal but far from eliminated. “Legal prohibition alone is not sufficient to eliminate such a deep-rooted practice,” she noted. Behavior change may take more than one generation.

• In Bangladesh, Fayazuddin Ahmad traced a decade of policy wins: a national MHM platform, a 2021 national strategy, and a national public toilet policy incorporating menstrual infrastructure. But a recent UNICEF survey found conditions in schools and health facilities largely unchanged since 2018. “As far as the policy framework goes, we’re in a very good situation,” he said, “but when it comes to translating that into real practice, there we are struggling.” One detail worth flagging for anyone studying implementation: sustained advocacy secured a multi-year tax exemption on raw materials for locally produced sanitary products – the kind of policy lever that rarely makes headlines but directly shapes what products cost and who can afford them.

• In Liberia, Matthew Dweh’s team found through market research that the real barrier wasn’t access to products but their price which is often increased by import duties and VAT. The response combined training local producers, building MHM-responsive WASH facilities into school design, and getting girls in front of policy makers to tell their own stories. That advocacy has produced a bill now under debate to eliminate taxes on menstrual products and reclassify them as essential goods.

A common thread across these countries: legislation creates the opening, but financing, enforcement, and community-level behaviour change can determine whether that opening closes the gap or just sits on paper.

A Shared Global Agenda

The workshop closed with an update from Jacquelyn Haver on the Shared Agenda for Action on Menstrual Health, a UNICEF – convened, Global Menstrual Collective – backed initiative built on political economy analysis and consultations across 50 countries. A global feedback survey has just launched in six languages, aiming to ensure the agenda reflects realities from the country level up.

Why This Matters in Practice

The discussion after the presentations kept pressing one essential point: human rights-based legislation is necessary but not sufficient. HR2W’s legislative benchmarking methodology is designed to identify the legislation and policy available in order to make it accessible for researchers and policy makers. You can purchase access to our MHM Reports here: LINK

The Introduction to Menstrual Health Management and Human Rights Workshop and other related trainings are one of the benefits of being a HR2W’s full individual and institutional paying members become a member here: LINK