Polling About Abortion Is Rarely About Abortion
by Amanda Marcotte At this point, I’ve given up all hope that anyone will ever construct a poll on reproductive rights and access that illuminates the issue instead of distorting it. The latest offender is CNN, which recently polled American voters on their attitudes about Planned Parenthood and abortion. One part of the survey in […]
Read moreBMJ’s dossier Women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health
The year 2015 marks a defining moment for the health of women, children, and adolescents. It is the end point of the United Nations’ millennium development goals, and their transition to the sustainable development goals. It is also the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development’s plan of action and the Beijing […]
Read moreVital new resource on sex work law will help sex workers globally to realise their rights
A new Sex Work Law Map, developed by the Sexuality, Poverty and Law Programme at the Institute of Development Studies, has been launched that provides a global perspective on female sex work by displaying a detailed summary of the laws, regulations and policies in over 75 countries. It is hoped that more accurate and comprehensive […]
Read moreHow Sex Workers’ Rights Made the Mainstream
When law enforcement targets sex workers and the websites they use, mainstream outlets and organizations tend to give them a pass. But with the raid on Rentboy.com, that script has flipped.
Read moreThe Sexual Politics landscape in August 2015 and early September
SPW has the great pleasure to announce the publication of Working Paper nº 11 Emerging Powers, Sexuality and Human Rights: Fumbling around the elephant. Authored by Sonia Corrêa and akshay khanna, the article is part of a series of analyses developed by the project Emerging powers, sexuality and human rights. The other products of this […]
Read moreStruggling for legal abortion in Brazil: The Congress frontline
Image: Barbara Kruger By Sonia Corrêa[1] As previously reported by SPW (here and here) , for some time now, growing obstacles have been impairing any movement forward in the legalization of abortion in Brazil. Yet, despite many regressions and constraints, feminists groups committed to the right to decide continue to bravely resist anti-abortion forces. […]
Read moreWorking paper No. 11- Emerging Powers, Sexuality and Human Rights: Fumbling around the elephant
In 2013, in collaboration with partners, SPW began a new line of work that examines the intersections between geopolitical trends — coalescing around the “emergence” Brazil, China, India and South Africa — and the politics of sexuality and human rights. A package of new products resulting from the project were made available in May 2015. Now, […]
Read moreIt’s Pope Francis Who Should Apologize on Abortion
With his latest comments, Pope Francis has built a shiny new smokescreen to distract from the grave and immoral harms caused by the Vatican’s opposition to abortion and women’s equality.
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 moreNSWP Publishes 14th Issue of Research for Sex Work
The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP ) has announced the publication of the 14th issue of Research for Sex Work, ‘Sex Work is Work’. It is a publication intended for sex workers, activists, health workers, researchers, NGO staff and policymakers. It is published annually by the NSWP and is governed by an Editorial […]
Read moreOn Rentboy, Sex Panics, Feminism, and More
By Yasmin Nair August 25, 2015 We woke up to the news that Rentboy, a popular online male escort service, has been raided by the feds. An NBC report says that the raid was part of a “money laundering and state prostitution investigation.” Newser quotes U.S Attorney Kelly Curie in a statement dripping with puritanical […]
Read moreBeing transgender in the workplace is difficult in Vietnam or anywhere
The White House’s naming of a transgender person as the new outreach and recruitment director at the Office of Personnel, the first openly transgender person to occupy a senior position in the White House, is ground-breaking. The appointment of Raffi Freedman-Gurspan is a sign of the inclusive leadership of the Obama administration. The fact that […]
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 moreIntersectionality of sexuality, inequality and poverty
I recently had the pleasure (and challenge) of being part of a team of Research Assistants working for the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). My two colleagues and I were tasked with coding, analysing and summarising eighteen IDS Sexuality, Poverty and Law programme Evidence Reports under five thematic areas, one of which was ‘Economy, employment […]
Read moreHomophobia and Transphobia in Caribbean Media: A Baseline Study
During the month of July 2014, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and United and Strong, in collaboration with Groundation Grenada, Guyana Rainbow Foundation, J-FLAG, and United Belize Advocacy Movement, conducted the first-ever LGBTI-focused media-monitoring project in the English-speaking region. These groups monitored the media in five countries—Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia. […]
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