Around the world
Since its launching, in 2006, the Sexuality Policy Watch website has circulated relevant information on sexual politics trends, events and actors around the world. This investment has resulted in a rich archive of global and national sexual politics.
One main feature of this database is that it is not confined to specific areas or issues. It encompasses information on abortion, sexual and reproductive rights, sex work, sexual violence, gender and women’s rights, HIV and AIDs; and emphasizes materials and analysis that contribute to locate these issues in relation to the political economy of sexuality. Since 2013, key facts, events and trends are selected and highlighted in monthly announcements.
Reports from Portugal’s recent changes in abortion law – International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion
PORTUGAL: DIARY OF A PARLIAMENTARY SELL-OUT BY THE RIGHT-WING MAJORITY PARTIES by Duarte Vilar Executive Director, Associação para o Planeamento da Família (APF), Portugal and from two e-reports by Alice Frade Executive Director, P&D Factor – Associação para a Cooperação sobre População e Desenvolvimento, Portugal ************ 18 June 2015 Portuguese Parliament postpones discussion of an […]
Read moreChile’s Health Commission Moves Abortion Bill Forward
08.05.15 – (PRESS RELEASE) This evening the Health Commission of Chile agreed to advance a proposed bill that would allow women access to safe and legal abortion services in cases of life-endangerment, sexual violence, and fatal fetal impairments. The legislation, which was introduced by President Michelle Bachelet in January, will face another vote in the Health Commission […]
Read moreAmnesty International: should sex work be decriminalized?
“We speak to this issue from experience and evidence. Having many years of experience between us of work on sexuality-related human rights, we are seized by a sense of urgency on this issue. A report on sex work and the law in Asia and the Pacific, compiled by the UNAIDS joint programme on HIV/AIDS with the […]
Read moreLoss and gain in recent UN debates on ‘the family’
Since the heyday of preparation for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, Cairo, 1994), UN debates on the family have been contentious. However, since then, as morally conservative views became more vocal and articulate in international arenas, the demise of the Cairo definition on ‘various forms of family’ became one of their main […]
Read more‘I am someone, like everyone else’: A story about a migrant sex worker in Johannesburg, South Africa
The photograph taken by @Confidence — a South African sex worker — guide readers to the article I am someone, like everyone else’: A story about a migrant sex worker in Johannesburg, South Africa co – authored by Vanessa Klass and Elsa Oliveira. Vanessa Klass is the pseudonym of a sex worker and an […]
Read moreSPW compilation of statement, letters and articles on Amnesty International’s proposal for decriminalization of sex work
In English Global Advocates Issue a Call to Amnesty International in Open Letter – Coalition Against Traffickin in Women ICRSE, 1100 organisations and individuals ask Amnesty International to support decriminalisation of sex work – International Comittee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe Hollywood v. Amnesty International: The big battle over sex work – […]
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, […]
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Why Amnesty International Must Hold Firm in Its Support for Sex Worker
by Sebastian Kohn July 28th, 2015 Amnesty International seems poised to support the decriminalization of sex work—a move that would improve the health, rights, and safety of sex workers everywhere. Who could argue with that? One of the world’s leading human rights organizations is on track to do something that could benefit thousands of people across the […]
Read moreLes grandes baigneuses: a fragment
In June, 2015, SPW posted a fragment of the large painting by Paul Cézanne that is housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This choice was not casual. We wanted indeed to call attention to this magnificent art work of the early twenty century. More importantly however, in an era where the visual universes of […]
Read moreHollywood v. Amnesty International: The big battle over sex work
Exclusive: Hollywood stars have taken offence at Amnesty’s latest proposal to decriminalise sex work, but the human rights organisation tells Radhika Sanghani there’s been a big ‘misunderstanding’. Read more on the Telegraph.
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Global feminisms and social justice movements have lost Gigi
With great sadness as SPW we mark the departure of Gigi Francisco – activist, scholar, teacher and for a long time a working partner and wonderful friend of many of us. Gigi’s departure is a major loss for global feminisms and social justice movements.
Read moreInternational Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion’s report on the Human Rights Comittee discussion on “The Right to Life”
Human Rights Committee Open Hearing on Article 6 – The Right to Life to develop a General Comment Geneva, 14 July 2015 HERE ARE SOME OF THE SUBMISSIONS: THE FULL TEXTS CAN BE FOUND AT THE LINKS Joint Statement on behalf of human rights organizations from across the globe presented by Center for Reproductive Rights We […]
Read moreThis Abortion Rights Billboard Got Taken Down Before Obama Could See It
Reproductive health advocates say they were told Kenyan officials insisted on the removal of the billboard criticizing Obama’s position on a controversial abortion rule. posted on Jul. 24, 2015, at 12:33 p.m. Jina Moore BuzzFeed News World Correspondent A billboard protesting Obama’s strict interpretation of the anti-abortion Helms Amendment was taken down on July 10, […]
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 moreMaster of Public Health’s call for applications
The Master of Public Health (MPH/James P Grant School of Public Health) is calling for applications for the academic year of 2016-17. In January 2005, James P Grant School of Public Health initiated its MPH programme with the aim of developing public health leaders. MPH is a veritable “global classroom” with over half of its […]
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