TAG: Africa

African Commission Calls on Uganda to Ensure The Right to Legal Abortion and Access to Reproductive Health Services

The government of Uganda should stop impeding access to medical abortion and reproductive health services, according to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights—a regional body charged with ensuring African states comply with their human rights obligations under regional and international human rights treaties.

RESURJ – monthly bulletin on sexual and reproductive, environmental and economic justice worldwide

Every month RESURJ – a global alliance of feminists – members share and reflect on some news highlights affecting sexual and reproductive, environmental and economic justice from the different regions and countries we work in. Click here to access its February bulletin which brings views from countries like Egypt – Honduras – India – Nigeria – […]

SA Minister of Justice calls on Africa to respect LGBTI people

South Africa’s Minister of Justice has called on African nations to accept the human rights of LGBTI people and to change their attitudes towards sexual orientation and gender identity. On Thursday, delegates from across the continent opened the “Africa Regional Seminar on Finding Practical Solutions for Addressing Violence and Discrimination Against Persons Based on Sexual […]

New report maps West African LGBTQ organizing

Though funding for LGBTQ activism in West Africa has historically focused on gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM), the scan shows that more broad-based LGBTQ organizations are emerging. Several of these nascent groups are led by queer-identified women and gender non-conforming people.

The sexual politics in February 2016

In February, there were good news to report from both Haiti and Europe. In the case of Haiti, the Penal Code reform is underway and the draft document approved by a committee of juridical experts includes a provision that legalizes abortion on the basis of public health concerns and freedom of women. Although this is […]

Walking the Tightrope: Poetry and Prose by LGBTQ Writers from Africa

Among the first of its kind, this book is composed of works by writers from different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, including first and second generation Africans in the diaspora. With this anthology, the editors seek to challenge and engage individuals and institutions that consider homosexuality immoral. In many African countries, homosexuals are subject to corporal […]

The Incidence of Abortion in Nigeria

Because of Nigeria’s low contraceptive prevalence, a substantial number of women have unintended pregnancies, many of which are resolved through clandestine abortion, despite the country’s restrictive abortion law. Up-to-date estimates of abortion incidence are needed.

Victory in Tunisia: Activist group Shams wins in court

Shams, the Tunisian group pushing for the decriminalization of homosexuality, has won its legal challenge against a government order that it suspend operations. “Shams can resume normal activities, thanks to the decision of the court,” the organization announced on Facebook today. The trial dealt with a legal notification Shams received Jan. 4, ordering the suspension […]

Is the world finally waking up to intersex rights?

A landmark directive in Chile last month said doctors should stop ‘normalisation’ surgery, but tackling the global systematic, societal and cultural abuse against intersex people is an uphill battle When a baby is born the first question is usually about its sex. But for one in 2,000 people binary notions of male and female are […]

Sexual Politics in January 2016

The global epidemics fueled by the mosquito-born Zika virus, its potential correlation with microcephaly and the connection with abortion rights is one main headline in the sexual politics scenario of January 2016. And Brazil is at center of this crisis. To delve in the subject read Sonia Corrêa’s article. Then good news in relation to […]

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights launches campaign to decriminalize abortion

On Jan. 18, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) launched a continental campaign for the decriminalization of abortion in Africa to bring attention to unsafe abortion which significantly threatens women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Mozambique’s Double Speak on LGBT Rights

When Mozambique’s human rights record was reviewed before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, the government’s inconsistency on homosexuality was in full view.