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.
Brazil’s only openly gay MP Jean Wyllys de Matos Santos leads the fight to legalise abortion
Jean Wyllys de Matos Santos does not pick the easy battles, nor does he pick the vote-winning ones. The first openly gay MP in Brazil, Mr Wyllys has always championed the conservative country’s minorities, whether they are gay, black, abused or exploited. But his latest fight concerns everyone. Women’s reproductive rights, including the right to […]
Read moreChina: Release on bail of five women’s rights activists an incomplete step
13 April 2015, 18:28 UTC The Chinese government must drop all charges against each of the five women activists released on bail late on Monday, Amnesty International said today. The five activists – Wei Tingting, Wang Man, Wu Rongrong, Li Tingting and Zheng Churan – arrested and detained on 7 March for planning to mark […]
Read moreVideo: Women, sexuality, and social change in China
The era of market reform has created a burgeoning Chinese middle class that craves not only increased consumption of goods and the freedom of self-expression, but also liberty over sexual life. At the same time, women have strengthened their call for the rights and representation to accompany the responsibility of “holding up half the sky.” […]
Read moreThe LGBTTTI Coalition working at the OAS and the civil society forum at the 7th Summit Of The Americas, Another Day in the Struggle
The Coalition of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Travesti, Transgender, Transsexual and Intersex Organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean (LGBTTTI Coalition) that brings together groups from more than 20 countries was part of the Civil Society and the Youth Forum at the 7th Summit of the Americas that took place in Panama City, Panama, April 8-10, […]
Read moreSex workers unite to defy stigma
The day the military raided Amina Danait’s* village in Muguru na Nyori will forever remain etched in her mind. Soldiers had been deployed to search for alleged illegally held guns in her village in Northern Kenya. But they also found girls like Amina and, as she recounts, they raped them. “The soldiers paraded the men outside […]
Read moreEmerging Powers, Sexuality and Human Rights: The case of Brazil, India and South Africa
The Coalition of African Lesbians, the Gay and Lesbian Archives and the Centre for Indian Studies of the University of Witwatersrand, in partnership with Sexuality Policy Watch invite for the Seminar Emerging Powers, Sexuality and Human Rights: The case of Brazil, India and South Africa The emerging powers Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa [BRICS] will […]
Read moreWhite House Takes Stance Against ‘Reparative Therapy’
Taken from Reality Check A letter posted Wednesday to WhiteHouse.gov thanked visitors for signing a petition in support of banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ young people. So-called conversion therapy, also known as “reparative therapy,” seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It has been found to be psychologically harmful and has been rejected […]
Read moreTaking Feminist Battle to China’s Streets, and Landing in Jail
By ANDREW JACOBS APRIL 5, 2015 BEIJING — The young Chinese feminists shaved their heads to protest inequality in higher education and stormed men’s restrooms to highlight the indignities women face in their prolonged waits at public toilets. To publicize domestic violence, two prominent activists, Li Tingting and Wei Tingting, put on white wedding gowns, […]
Read moreBattle over the unborn: “Anti-abortion protester showed me foetus doll”
BY PATRICIA DEVLIN – 14 MARCH 2015 Followed down the street and told my unborn baby had been ‘christened’ James, an anti-abortion protester pulls out a tiny plastic foetus doll from her pocket and tells me: “This is what your baby looks like”. I was told I would become suicidal, that I would regret […]
Read moreTerror attack at “Vessel” screening in Sweden
Three masked men stormed a screening of SXSW-winning abortion documentary Vessel (pictured) in Sweden on Sunday (December 7), setting off a smoke bomb that sent audience members fleeing in panic. The SXSW award-winning documentary, which focuses on activist Rebecca Gomperts and her pro-choice organization Women on Waves, was being screened at the Abortion Rights Festival […]
Read more7th Africa Conference on Sexual Rights and Health
Dear Colleague, Join more than 1,000 policymakers, activists and practitioners, including young persons, people living with HIV & AIDS, with disabilities, and LGBQTI persons from Africa and around the world at the 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights. The theme of the conference is Realizing Demographic Dividend in Africa: the Critical Importance […]
Read moreCREA’s Sexuality, Gender, and Rights Institute: Exploring Theory and Practice – 20 – 28 June, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey
Applications are due on or before 30 April 2015. Applications will be evaluated and participants will be selected on a weekly basis so you are encouraged to apply as soon as you are able to. To apply online, click here. If you experience difficulty with the online method, download […]
Read moreSexual and reproductive rights global landscape in March 2015
Women’s, feminists and other civil society NGOs from Latin America and the Caribbean launched a statementcriticizing the Political Declaration approved by Members States Monday 9 march in United Nations, in the 59 period of Sessions of the Commission on the Social Status of Women (CSW). In Iran, two new draft laws were tabled. One of […]
Read moreCourt nullifies section outlawing reckless spread of HIV
By Kamau Muthoni Kenya: The High Court has declared unconstitutional a section of the HIV and Aids Prevention and Control Act that sought to criminalise reckless spreading of the disease. A three-judge bench comprising justices Mumbi Ngugi, Isaac Lenaola and George Odunga ruled Section 24, introduced by the State and criminalising the reckless spreading of […]
Read moreSwedish Prostitution Law Targets Buyers, but Some Say It Hurts Sellers
By DAVID CROUCH MARCH 14, 2015 GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Not far from the Sticky Fingers nightclub, three Romanian women were hunched against the cold on a street corner. When a man walked by, the women, in broken Swedish and English, tried to tempt him to buy sex. On this dismal street in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city, […]
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