TAG: human rights
Joint Statement for the Human Rights Committee’s Day of Discussion on the Right to Life
Distinguished Committee Members: I wish to thank the Committee for the opportunity to deliver this brief statement on behalf of over fifty human rights organizations from across the globe. We welcome the Committee’s decision to draft this general comment and believe that it presents a critical opportunity for the Committee to elaborate on states’ obligations […]
Read moreBrazilian academic institutions and CSO’ submissions to the OCHR’s resolution on the protection of the family
The Brazilian academic institution and civil society organizations listed below offered a contribution to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Report on the impact of the implementation by States of their obligations under relevant provisions of international human rights law with regard to the protection of the family, as requested by Resolution 29/22 of […]
Read more“Sexual health, human rights, and law” from the Lancet
The article Sexual health, human rights, and law, authored by Rajat Khosla, Lale Say, Marleen Temmerman was published at The Lancet, Volume 386, No. 9995. It concisely transcribes the core analyses and main recommendations of the WHO Report with the same title that was launched in July , 2015. Read the summary below. Sexuality and […]
Read moreThe UN Security Council debates gays and ISIS: Why this is a bad idea
By Scott Long I. Questions On August 18, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL or by its Arabic acronym, Da’ish) assaulted history. They beheaded an 82 year-old archaeologist, the resident expert on the ruins in the occupied city of Palmyra. Two days earlier, on August 16, Syrian government warplanes assaulted daily life; Assad’s pilots bombed a crowded […]
Read moreThe sexual politics landscape in July 2015
In July the hottest topic to be reported on is, undoubtedly, the global controversy that emerged when Amnesty International made public a draft policy defining a new line of work aimed at the protection of the human rights of sex workers, to be approved by the forthcoming meeting of its International Council (beginning on August […]
Read more‘I am someone, like everyone else’: A story about a migrant sex worker in Johannesburg, South Africa
Photo: Elsa Oliveira, taken at were Sisonke Sex Worker March, held on March 7, 2013, In Johannesburg A story told by Vanessa Klass1 to Elsa Oliveira It was after I gave birth to my daughter in 1999 that I began to work as a sex worker in Hillbrow 2, an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg. I […]
Read moreSex work and human rights: Under the shadows of (de) regulation
Michelle Agnoletti [1] In July 2015 a heated controversy around sex work and human rights erupted globally. A campaign was launched by international organizations that advocate for the abolition of prostitution to eradicate the trafficking of persons against a new policy, announced by Amnesty International, to support the human rights of people involved in sex […]
Read moreUN Committee on Human Rights discusses the right to life
The UN Committee on Human Rights is developing a new General Comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that addresses the right to life. The last General Comment on the topic, adopted in 1982, centered on violations of the right to life resulting from war, acts of mass violence, […]
Read moreUnpacking Malawi Special Law Commission final review’ findings and recommendations on abortion law
The current position of the law is that abortion is illegal in Malawi except where it is performed to save the life of the pregnant woman through a surgical operation. The Special Law Commission (SLC) resolved and agreed that abortion law in Malawi should be liberalized (that is, conditional relaxation of the restrictions) as opposed […]
Read moreColonizing African Values: How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa
Uganda’s infamous 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would institute the death penalty for a new and surreal category of offenses dubbed “aggravated homosexuality,” captured international headlines for months. The human rights community and the Obama administration responded forcefully, the bill was tabled, and the story largely receded from U.S. headlines. But as the Rev. Dr. Kapya […]
Read moreMauro Cabral’s speech at Bob Hepple Equality Award
London, July 16th 2015 Dear friends, I am very honored to receive this award, which I accept understanding it as a great acknowledgement of collective achievements in collective struggles. And by collective I have specially in mind those human rights activists in many Global South countries, those who everyday challenge and change the world beyond […]
Read moreUN Human Rights Council adopts text on the protection of the family
In early July, UN Human Rights Council adopted the resolution concerning the protection of the family, whose text points that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. Sexual Rights Initiative condemned the approval. The resolution also sparked concerns on four UN Special […]
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