Rebecca Cook is an internationally renowned legal scholar, known for her ideas and actions in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. With a rare skill that combines strategic litigation and cultural sensitivity, Cook has just released, in partnership with Australian scholar Simone Cusack, the boldest work of her career: Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives. Cook is known among Latin American feminists for her ongoing dialogue with several generations of jurists and social movement activists. As co-director of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program at the University of Toronto, Canada, Latin American researchers specializing in human rights are part of her courses and research. In Latin America, Cook maintains a close dialogue with Argentine, Colombian, and Mexican feminists about cases of abortion, in particular about anencephaly, or about the still nebulous case of femicide in the city of Juárez, Mexico. Her most recent appearance before the Canadian Supreme Court concerned the right to polygamy for religious groups. Cook’s thesis is one of resistance to polygamy as a right of religious communities, understanding it as an expression of inequality imposed on women. This interview was carried out during my sabbatical semester in 2010, when I had the opportunity to follow the debates provoked by the launch of the new book and the course taught by Cook on human rights and sexual and reproductive rights.
