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This is our second and latest bulletin of 2025. It offers a broad overview of events and trends in gender, sexuality, and abortion policy throughout the year to complement the analysis developed in July that addressed the policies implemented by the Trump’s second administration and the US landscape.

The Diálogos Pendientes y Emergentes (Pending and Emerging Dialogues) space is a joint initiative of five organizations working on gender, sexuality, and reproductive justice issues in Latin America: the Sexuality and Politics Watch (SPW), Akahatá, Promsex, Puentes, and Synergia.

On June 17th, SPW hosted, as part of the Pending and Emerging Dialogues project, the debate The new world disorder: meanings and impacts of Trump 2.0, with the participation of Heidi Beirich (GPAHE – focus on Project 2025) and Paisley Currah (Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, expert on trans rights).

by Sonia Corrêa [1] Anti-gender politics: Why the name and how to define it today? In September 2025, there is little doubt that the relentless

In June 2019, we published a special issue on the first 180 days of the Bolsonaro administration. Six years later, we take on the challenge

Analysis The Constitutional Crisis Is Here – Atlantic How Trump’s immigration policies compare to those of America’s past – Berkeley News We Study Repression in

Analysis The Anti-Trans Executive Orders – Signs Journal The Human Toll of Trump’s Anti-Trans Crusade – American Civil Liberties Union Trump on DEI And Anti-Discrimination

In 2024, more than 60 countries will have elections at different levels of government. The contests will not only be electoral, but also about the

Introduction Once again, our newsletter brings you news and analysis about the current times, which are more somber than bright: authoritarian trends, the continued expansion

English One map to visualize one year of destruction in the Gaza Strip – Le Monde Gaza in Ruins After a Year of War –

>> Read in PDF << Part 2 – Continuing anti-gender offensives Gender politics: good news Inevitably, the political situation described in part 1 of this

>> Read in PDF << Part 1 – Democracies in dispute Introduction As we have pointed out in previous editions, in recent years sexual politics

‘A.N.C. Has Been Humbled’: a Couple’s Vote Explains Why – NY Times South Africa’s ANC wants a national unity government: What is it? – AlJazeera

English Post-election A Non-BJP Government Will Be Unstable, But It is Our Only Hope to Save the Constitution – The Wire To Deal With His

EnglishModi’s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More – NY Times Simultaneous Elections Will Be a Blow to India’s Popular Sovereignty

Senegal elections: President-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye to lead with ‘humility’ – BBC Senegal election: Voters choose new president after political crisis – BBC Election Delay

We, Latin American and Caribbean feminists gathered at the 15th EFLAC, in El Salvador,  reaffirm our solidarity with our Nicaraguan comrades who,  for the last

Published at Review of International Studies (RIS). Download it here.

>> Download and read in PDF << First Words This edition of the SPW newsletter covers the main events in sexual politics since July, roughly

Feminist Voices at #SDGSummit2030 on “Speak out against anti-gender and anti-rights narratives and actions to achieve the 2030 Agenda” with Sonia Correa, Co-Coordinator, Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW),

>>> Read/download in PDF <<< Opening Words This newsletter describes and seeks to contextualize the developments in sexual politics since February 2023. In times of

>> Read in PDF << First words In 2022, we adjusted our perspective for monitoring and analyzing sexual politics. In the previous two years, our

In early July, we issued the Spanish version of our sexual politics bulletin, published in Portuguese and English in early June.  More complete and updated,

See our playlist featuring SPW co-chair Sonia Corrêa dedicated to analysing the roots, meanings and effects from the overturning of the constitutional right to abortion

By Nana Soares The International Swimming Federation (FINA) announced at the World Championship, held in June in Budapest, a new technical-medical rule to regulate the

As predicted since December, when a public hearing on the Dobbs case took place, on June 24th 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court, overturned the right

>>> Read in PDF  First Words Since April 2020, SPW newsletters have been tracking and analyzing sexual politics in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philippines: Elections point to ominous moment for human rights – Amnesty International The Philippine election is the latest example of illiberalism’s popularity – Vox How

Sri Lanka In Sri Lanka, a people’s uprising for system change – Global Voices Thugs attacked peaceful protesters, Sri Lanka in turmoil – Global Voices

>>> Download the PDF version here. First Thoughts The last 2020 SPW special hypothesized that during 2021, because of vaccines, Covid-19 would no longer be

Since July, when we published our last Special Edition, as you will see in this issue, a lot has happened in the pandemic and in the field of sexual politics. Once again, the pages that follow are quite dense, but we remind you that the sections are relatively autonomous.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the face of the world as we knew it. The lives of whole societies were put on hold, almost all

First Words  In the last 2020 edition of Sexual Politics in Times of Pandemic Special of 2020, we hypothesized that throughout 2021, with the arrival

Preliminary comment In 2020, in order to adjust our lenses to COVID-19 world conditions, we suspended our regular monthly announcements and started a series of

With the contribution and/or endorsement of 100 academics from universities such as Harvard, Brown and Columbia, and of organizations such as Greenpeace USA, Amazon Watch,

ANTI-GENDER POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA Country Case Studies Summaries ABSTRACTS (Download here: https://sxpolitics.org/GPAL/ )   “Gender Ideology”, Catholic Neointegrismo, and Evangelical Fundamentalism: The Anti-Democratic Vocation

Journal Social Science & Medicine Volume 270, February 2021 by Clare Wenhama, Camila Abagarob, Amaral Arévaloc, Ernestina Coasta, Sonia Corrêad, Katherine Cuéllare, Tiziana Leonea, Sandra

Go to the conference website

Argentinian MP Ofelia Fernandez: ‘Being a feminist means being on the side of history’ – France 24 Argentina moves closer to historic abortion legalization –

In the Battle Over Abortion, Polish Feminists with Disabilities Are Claiming Their Rights – Ms. Magazine “They’re uncompromising”: How the young transformed Poland’s abortion protests

Biopolitics mainstreamed Meet the Philosopher Who Is Trying to Explain the Pandemic – NY Times Power and perversity – The Telegraph India COVID 19: A

Editors’ Note We apologize to our readers and partners for the delay in making our last Special Issue on Sexual Politics in the Pandemic available.

The SPW is pleased to offer the part-time report produced by civil society regarding the country’s assessment in the UN Universal Periodic Review 2017. The

SPW dearly congratulates our friend and Steering Committee member, Rosalind Petchesky, for receiving the New Political Science Charles A. McCoy Career Achievement Award, a more

  Global Public Health Special Issue: (Re)imagining Research, Activism, and Rights at the Intersections of Sexuality, Health, and Social Justice Guest Editors: Debolina Dutta, Laura Murray,

Since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020, SPW has been reporting on the events, trends and dynamics triggred by Sars-Cov-2. In order to

Since January, when the Chinese government adopted extreme confinement measures in Wuhan,  the pandemic sparked the worldwide spread of questionable war semantics.  It also provided

The global scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed since April, but the crisis is still far from over. Only eight countries are listed as

EUROPE Crisis and Resistance at the Periphery: Bosnian responses to COVID -19 –  Critical Legal Thinking Coronavirus: Hungary bid to end emergency powers ‘an optical

The SPW Announcement for May and early June 2020 will have the same format adopted in March-April 2020, it will organize the newly compiled information

On 5 June 2020, the Interim Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, dismissed Flávia Andrade Nunes Fialho, Coordinator of Women’s Health, and Danilo Campos da

 GENDER UNDER ATTACK Europe Romania International Call Against the Teaching of Gender Ban in Romania – The Gender International Controversies Over Law Banning Any Reference

US stocks surge as NYSE trading floor reopens – Al Jazeera Latin America’s Virus Villains: Corrupt Officials Collude With Price Gougers for Body Bags and

As Brazil has been rising the tops of global coronavirus dissemination curve and Bolsonaro’s popularity hits a new low, his most radical support base has

Indonesia Indonesia’s Intelligence Service is Coming Out to Counter COVID-19 – The Diplomat Myanmar In Myanmar, the Coronavirus Gives Nationalists an Opening – Foreign Policy

MAY / JUNE  Domestic violence It is ‘all men’, to varying degrees: men’s violence against women is a systemic crisis – The Guardian Can domestic

March and early April 2020 It has been very challenging to prepare the  SPW announcement for March/April 2020 due to the abnormality, risks, and losses

By Sonia Corrêa[1] But, people die, don’t they? Yes, indeed. However, the current naturalization of death erases thinking – Santiago López Petit In the first week of

The Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) expresses deep concern regarding President Jair Bolsonaro’s latest changes in the Ministry of Health and regarding his active support

Preamble 1. We, the undersigning individuals and organizations, have gathered from all over Latin America in joint work to accompany people and communities of faith

MAY / JUNE Global report: South Africa records biggest jump in Covid-19 cases since pandemic hit – The Guardian African countries are struggling to keep

Gaza/Palestine Domestic Violence in COVID-19 Lockdown: Palestinian Women Are Dying at an Alarming Rate – Egyptian Streets COVID-19 in Palestine: Living between hope and fear

MAY / JUNE Hospital’s COVID-19 Policy Separated Native American Mothers From Their Newborns – Truthout Denied beds, pain relief and contact with their babies: the

English Trump, Bannon y Cañizares: los lobbies ultrarreligiosos alimentan la teoría de la conspiración abortista del coronavirus – el diario The Coronavirus Is Cutting Off

English Securing Data and Labor Rights in the Post-Covid Digital Era – Bot Populi Big Tech Is Using the Pandemic to Push Dangerous New Forms

The Agamben Debates Giorgio Agamben: Contagion – Enough 14 Philosophy and Pandemic in the Postdigital Era: Foucault, Agamben, Žižek –  Post Digital Science and Education

Use of UAPA Against Journalists is Last Nail in Coffin for Press Freedom in Kashmir – The Wire ‘Third World Region of a Third World

Delhi Progrom Victims Getting No Treatment Due to COVID-19 – National Herald FIR against Scroll’s Supriya Sharma for story on Varanasi woman’s lockdown ‘misery’ –

Hungary Hungary rolls back legal protections, puts trans and intersex people at risk – Ilga Europe Hungary votes to end legal recognition of trans people

“Amor en los tiempos del covid-19” march, organized by the government. Photo: EFE. Nicaragua and the dance of horrors in the struggle against COVID 19

March – April The fragile existence of sex workers during the pandemic – New Yorker Can the world’s oldest profession survive the age of social

MAY / JUNE Contesting science and misinformation Ofcom: Christian TV network aired Covid-19 conspiracies – The Guardian Nigerian pastor spread covid-19 conspiracies and disinformation –

MAY / JUNE Hunger, infection and repression: Venezuela’s coronavirus calamity – New Yorker Contact-Tracing Apps: No Substitute for Public Healthcare Interventions – Bot Populi Spread

MAY / JUNE LGBTQ Inequality and Vulnerability in the Pandemic – HRW LGBT: Covid-19 forced me back home where I’m ‘unwanted’ – BBC LGBT Nonprofits

Politics in the Time of Corona: Anti-Asian Racism: A Feature of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Hosted by Jadaliyya Co-Editors Noura Erakat and Bassam Haddad) – Jadaliyya

Navigating the Heteronormative Household: Rabenmutter, Racism and Covid-19 – Feminist Review ‘Calamitous’: domestic violence set to soar by 20% during global lockdown – The Guardian

HIV/Aids What Lessons Does the AIDS Crisis Offer for the Coronavirus Pandemic? – Masha Gessen – The New Yorker Larry Kramer had the courage to

MAY / JUNE English Information warfare: COVID-19’s other battleground in the Middle East – Global Voices Nearly half of all tweets on coronavirus likely came

MAY / JUNE Precarity in Times of Pandemic:Covid-19 and the crisis in India’s informal labor markets – Bot Populi Pandemic Meets Precarity: The Case of

For some time now, many Polish municipalities, provinces and regions have been approving a series of resolutions which, more or less explicitly, aim to target

Abortion Your Questions About Reproductive Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Answered – Rewire Abortion and COVID-19: why we need to support women’s right to abortion

Anti- gender politics in Latin America – SPW is pleased to announce the collection Anti-gender Politics in Latin America, which encompasses  nine case studies from

International Women’s Day – a spotlight on gender and development – IDS Why I’ll be striking for International Women’s Day – OpenDemocracy In Kazakhstan, women

Special Issue Intersex & Sexuality Education Intersex variations comprise atypical sex characteristics: be these chromosomal, hormonal or anatomical. They represent a challenge to traditional binary

This Smart Person’s Guide is a tool to support sex workers and their allies in advocating for the recognition of sex workers’ expertise. Sex workers’

“The violence unleashed against Muslims in Delhi by armed Hindu mobs during President Donald Trump’s visit to India is a portent and a lesson. […] More than an echo of the past, the recent violence in Delhi is a lesson”. Read SPW’s compilation.

The year of 2019 has finished and, as traditionally, SPW offers our readers and followers a compilation of the main facts, trends, setbacks and victories

‘Criminalizar não é solução’, escreve Jean Wyllys sobre homofobia – O Globo A HOMOFOBIA PODE VIRAR CRIME. E ISSO É UM TIRO NO PÉ. –

Angola Decriminalizes Same-Sex Conduct – Human Rigths Watch As Angola decriminalizes homosexuality, where does the African continent stand? – DW Angola: Decriminalising same sex relations

India’s protests against citizenship law – Al Jazeera Why are so many Indians protesting against the citizenship law? – Al Jazeera As Protests Rage on

Editorial Moving the ICPD agenda forward: challenging the backlash Gita Sen, Eszter Kismödi, Anneka Knutsson Commentaries  The battle for sexual and reproductive health and rights

HIGHLIGHTS Latin America: Politics in Trance In the period covered by this newsletter, Latin America has been the scene of three simultaneous elections – in

“I am delighted to let you know that as part of our Human Rights Day celebrations, we have just published the December 2019 issue of

Due to a historically progressive human-rights based approach to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, Brazil has globally been deemed an important standard-bearer of the HIV/AIDS response

September 28 – “Abortion is a Health Issue” was the theme of this year’s International Safe Abortion Day, widely celebrated around the world (see compilation).

Historic Second Annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom – US Department of State Pence Praises Alliance Defending Freedom for Being with Trump ‘Every Step of

We start this announcement recalling that, before May 2019, two major antigender events have taken place that are worth revisiting because of their potential subsequent

Damares in Wonderland – Folha de São Paulo Civil society criticizes gap of government human rights report to UN – Câmara dos Deputados

Text by Pedro Calvi, originally published at Comissão de Direitos Humanos, Minorias e Igualdade Racial, Câmara dos Deputados. In September, Brazil is due to submit

#StopTheBans – Thousands of demonstrators marched in more than 500 cities across the US on May, 21th to protect abortion rights after Alabama state house passed,

By Rajnia de Vito and Marco Aurélio Prado In a political scene that is thoroughly saturated with sex and gender tropes and memes, Damares Alves,

Lena Lavinas is an economist and full professor at the Economics Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, she published the

By Fábio Grotz With regards to the trajectory of the policy response to HIV and reproductive health in Brazil — which, between 1980 and the

The right to education is a fundamental right of citizens in all countries. Educational institutions play an essential role in shaping the attitudes of individuals

Buenos Aires, July 31th, 2019 Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, and good afternoon to all. We very much celebrate this space and hail the

Rio de Janeiro, May 27th, 2019 Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) After the justifications given by the Ministry of Health for the establishment of the

Brazil’s national AIDS movement – comprised of networks, collectives, CSOs and activists signed below – repudiates Decree N. 9795 (read in Portuguese), released on May

Highlights Algeria and Sudan: A revived Arab Spring? –  Almost six years after the Arab Spring waned under the shadows of the Sissi regime, political

Access all e-books and working papers of this project at: https://sxpolitics.org/trendsandtensions/ Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) would like to re-launch the fourth publication of its most

The Christchurch attack In Christchurch, New Zealand, a solitary white male Australian sniper killed fifty people who were praying in two mosques. Prime Minister Jacinda

Christian right summit in Verona draws massive protest – The Guardian Women cross borders to confront the far right in Italy – openDemocracy International anti-LGBT,

We Can’t Let the Trump Administration Dismantle Women’s Rights Around the World – Rewire Trump Administration Fails to Roll Back Support for Landmark Women’s Rights

It has come to our attention that the facilitator of Agreed Conclusions for the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW),

On Friday 8 March, millions of people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day, paying tribute to women’s achievements in the ongoing fight for equality.

On February 25th, Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders has delivered his report on the situation of human rights defenders. The

This map brings together information on laws which affect sex workers through the criminalisation of the sale and purchase of sexual services, and the facilitation, management or organisation of sex work, as well as other laws used to regulate sex work such as mandatory health checks and travel restrictions

In this special issue of Signs, the contributors address the complex and powerful relationship between gender and the rise of the global Right. This discussion demonstrates how, in transnational terms, the Right has become a significant player in gender politics.

Supreme Court Allows Challenges to Trump’s Transgender Military Ban to Continue in Lower Courts – National Center for Lesbian Rights Supreme Court Declines Transgender Military

SPW has the pleasure of promoting the Global Public Health Journal call for papers for the Special Issue — The Contested Global Politics of Pleasure

Thousands march in Taiwan gay pride parade for referendum vote – Al Jazeera Anti-gay marriage groups win Taiwan referendum battle – Yahoo Same-sex marriage advocates

The Brazilian perfect storm We apologize for the delay in the circulation of SPW’s October 2018 monthly announcement due to the stormy process and result

September is the key moment of the year in the global struggle for abortion rights, as the 28th marks the International Safe Abortion Day. In

Global Philanthropy Project and Funders for LGBTQ Issues are pleased to present the 2015-2016 Global Resources Report: Philanthropic & Government Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,

By Marco Aurélio Máximo Prado “I contend that these values all derive from important Jewish sources, which is not to say that they are only

22nd International AIDS Conference:  On July 22, Pedro Villardi, from GTPI-ABIA, participated in the  Challenging Criminalization Globally Pre-Conference, one of the more important satellites events

Supreme Court judgement – Supreme Court of India Supreme Court Refuses to Delay Section 377 Hearing – The Wire Indian Supreme Court Considers Decriminalizing Homosexuality

The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, introduced in 2016 by the Minister for Women and Child Development and approved in February 2018 by

Main global trends  ICD Reform – On June 18, the Working Group set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) released the final version of

Three Argentinean partners who work on gender, sexuality and abortion matters generously share their views on key undercurrents of the process leading to the partial

The World Health Organization has just announced the completion of the ICD-11 and released the official online version. The announcement does not mark the end

New York’s Sex Workers rally to take back International Whores Day: ‘Let us survive’ – The Daily Beast Puta Dei in NYC and New Jersey

Several hundred people danced, marched and raised slogans on the Chennai 10th Rainbow Pride March with banners and flags celebrating the date on June 24.

New Global Health Guidelines a Victory for Transgender People – Human Rights Watch

On the eve of the 2018 International AIDS Conference that takes place in Amsterdam (Netherlands) in July, the Global Public Health Journal, one of the

Watch Sonia Corrêa’s speech ‘Gender Ideology: tracking its origins and meanings in current gender politics’ at the Gender Threat(ened) conference in Rio de Janeiro’s State

Nicaragua:  SPW calls attention to the violent political crisis sweeping through this small Central American country and expresses its solidarity with the Nicaraguan society that

IDAHO Event Country Map Charter – DayAgainstHomophobia.org Brazil Establishes National Pact Against LGBT Violence on IDAHOTB eve Same-sex couples tie the knot in Cambodia in a

Español Articles in the news Informe preliminar CIDH, documenta el uso desproporcionado de la fuerza durante las manifestaciones de abril 2018, en Nicaragua – Iniciativa Mesoamericana

By Sonia Corrêa In the first week of November 2017, Judith Butler was viciously attacked in Brazil by a heterogeneous group of actors who define themselves as

I once asked a Guatemalan public defender how she knew when a woman’s murder was the result of gender-based violence and not a simple homicide.

By Victoria Pedrido On March 20, five draft bills to pass the Voluntary Pregnancy Termination law were debated by Commissions in Parliament. Of those, one

Can a subaltern speak? No, is the response of the feminist philosopher Gayatri Spivak, when she realizes that to “have the right to a voice” the place of the subaltern must be subverted.

Brazilian civil society, in particular, the black and feminist movements, as well as human rights defenders, have already expressed their indignation and repudiation regarding the

On March 8, the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) promoted its publication entitled Intersectional Activism Toolkit for Sex Workers and

Main global trends Another mass shooting in Parkland (Florida) shocked the US and the world. Research findings that gained visibility after the tragedy reveal that

By Sonia Corrêa Brazilian abortion and sexual politics continue ensnarled by the uncertainties of the overall political environment. On February 16th, a presidential decree determined

Authors: Gabriela Arguedas Ramírez and Lynn M. Morgan Reference: Feminist Studies 43, no. 2. 2017 by Feminist Studies, Inc. Download the article here.

“Reject RKUHP that Criminalizes Women, Children, Indigenous Peoples and Marginalized Groups”  We are women, housewives, workers, students, students, activists, and survivors of sexual violence who

From the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans people (REDLACTRANS) we reject the transphobic violent attack suffered by the national coordinator of Barbados, Alexa

LETTER TO THE READERS Since beginning to prepare the 26th edition of the Sur International Journal on Human Rights, which Conectas is grateful to have

In January of 2018, a fierce transnational feminist controversy erupted on the question of sexual harassment. In the same week of the Golden Globes Award

In the occasion of a workshop promoted by The Center for Emerging Worlds in Beijing, China, we gladly the share the conference outcome in the form

By Magaly Marques Los Angeles, January 21st, 2018 The best part of a protest or demonstration is to witness the creativity with which people express

Montevideo (Uruguay) was the stage of the 14th Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Gathering (EFLAC in Spanish), where women gathered from the 23 to 25 of

Turkey introduced a draft bill allowing religious leaders to perform civil marriage ceremonies. Women’s rights activists claim it will only make it harder to monitor the ceremonies

By Peggy Antrobus On 21 October 2017 Today is the 43rd anniversary of the murders of my two younger sisters, Jenny and June. They were

October began with the International Day of the Girl on the 11th when the media attention was towards highlighting how access to education, especially in some

By Rajnia de Vito and Angela de Freitas In order to properly situate sexual politics in Brazil (while paying special attention to abortion), we must

The IE SOGI mandate was created through UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/32/2 in June of last year and was confirmed through six separate votes

Below you will find the summary for the report of the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,

Table of Contents Special Section: Abortion and Human Rights GUEST EDITORS Alicia Ely Yamin, Paola Bergallo, and Marge Berer EDITORIAL Narratives of Essentialism and Exceptionalism:

The Trans Health Survey is the result of the work of Transgender Europe (TGEU) and its partner organisations Women’s Initiative Supportive Group (WISG), Trans-Fuzja, Daniela

By Vik Muniz In Brazil, evangelical politicians and a conservative press are working to suppress art by forcing museums to shut down or reject shows,

As SPW readers know, for some years now Brazil has been undergoing regressions in gender and sexual politics and, since last year, a full conservative

September is the key moment of the year in regard to abortion rights, as the 28th marks the International Safe Abortion Day worldwide.  As informed

Update: 7 arrested for ‘promoting sexual deviancy’ after raising rainbow flag at Mashrou’ Leila gig – Mada Masr – September, 26 At least 22 arrested

Joint Statement on Access to Safe and Legal abortion globally – HRC36: General Debate Item 8 September 28, 2017 Theme: Resist & Persist! Our Bodies, Our Abortions, Our Rights

The Brazilian civil society organizations attending the process of the Universal Periodic Revision of Brazil at the United Nations (UN) want to manifest their position

The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) invites its members, partners, allies, friends and fellow feminists to participate in a conversation on Abortion & Autonomy: Demanding full

September 28 has been a regional campaign for the decriminalization of abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean for over twenty years before being taken

MANUAL ON PROVISION OF MEDICAL AND SOCIAL CARE FOR TRANSGENDER, TRANSSEXUAL AND GENDER NONCONFORMING PEOPLE FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS OF ALL LEVELS OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC

Originally published at Pan Africa ILGA – International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The right to freedom of association under threat: 20 arrested

The new report for the UN General Assembly on fundamentalism, extremism and the cultural rights of women by the Special Rapporteur Karima Bennoune is now out in all language versions.

This information sheet has been prepared for parents and families of children born with intersex variations. The tendency to categorize all people as either ‘female’

This information sheet provides some helpful tips for people wanting to communicate in constructive ways about marriage equality and related issues like gender diversity, sexual

The report of the APF-UNDP Conference on Yogyakarta Principles: What have we learnt and where to now? held in Bangkok from 25-26 April 2017 has been launched.

Two outstandingly positive news are to be reported in sexual politics worldwide in August 2017. In India, the Supreme Court issued a groundbreaking decision on

According to ABIA, the withdrawal of Law Provision 198 that would legally define the transmission of HIV as a heinous crime, is a victory for

NHRI Guidelines for Mainstreaming Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics Work: APF resource sets out the practical steps NHRIs can take to ensure there

By Carla Batista and Sonia Corrêa* In November 2016, the first bench of the Brazilian Supreme Court, in a judgment of a habeas corpus of

The Supreme Court decision expanded the interpretation of the right to privacy to also address cultural diversity, plurality and more importantly, to recognize it as

Montevideo, Uruguay ─ Fifty experts from 20 countries in Africa, the Americas and Europe, gathered at the first international convening on conscientious objection to abortion have concluded

By Arnika Fuhrmann Through an examination of post-1997 Thai cinema and video art Arnika Fuhrmann shows how vernacular Buddhist tenets, stories, and images combine with sexual politics

The 26th issue of Sexuality, Health and Society – Latin American Journal, organized by the Latin American Center of Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM/IMS/UERJ) is out

Gendered, racist, classist, homophobic, and transphobic violence haunts the world of sex work. Sex workers speak. Who listens? addresses that violence, but it does so from the

The law on violence against women, including domestic violence, approved by the Tunisian parliament on July 26, 2017, is a landmark step for women’s rights,

In July, once again, contradictory trends were registered in the abortion frontline. In Chile, the processing of a bill aimed at legalizing abortion in three cases

Brazil: New Amnesty campaign will fight back as Congress considers legal changes that flagrantly attack human rights Amnesty International defending rights at risk in Brazil

The report “They said that I’m not a human, that I am nothing. That I should rather be a terrorist, than a fagot” is based on

by Seona Smiles. Barbara Hau’ofa was a quiet, modest person who nonetheless justifiably stood out in a crowd. For a start she was extremely tall and slim. As her short chubby friend who was seen constantly in her company on the University of the South Pacific campus, I believe we were nicknamed ‘Bat and Ball’.

Patrick Alley, Global Witness Guest Editor Oliver Hudson, Sur Journal Managing Editor Source: Conectas Five years ago, on 26 April 2012, Chut Wutty, a courageous

The research found that LGBTIQ people are often represented in the news media inaccurately, stereotypically, or without a clear understanding of SOGIE. The study recommends that a professional code of conduct on reporting SOGIESC issues be developed. The study was developed in partnership between the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Burapha University and UNDP.

A global coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions launched last weeek at the United Nations in New York the report “Spotlight on Sustainable

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) has launched its first report, Rights at Risk. The report maps a complex global anti-rights lobby targeting

June is LGBTIQ Pride month worldwide. This SPW brief highlights events around the world, prioritizing parades and other demonstrations that are not captured by mainstream radars. In that regard, we also recommend the readers who read Spanish to peruse the new blog Orgullos Críticos which examines trends and traps implied in the growing normalization and pinkwashing of pride parades

By María Amelia Viteri and Gabriel Ocampo. Homosexuality was criminalized in Ecuador until November, 1997[1]. As a result, until then, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons were considered criminals, could face imprisonment and were often tortured and even killed.

By Matthew Waites. The Queer Asia conference has emerged as one of the most fresh and ground breaking conference events in global queer studies. The event is held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, yet the organising team nevertheless managed to bring together presentations

By João Manuel de Oliveira. The legend says that Portugal is a conservative country with a supposedly glorious past, whenever colonization and its engagement with the slave traffic eliminated from the equation. It is also described as a profoundly religious country, deeply marked by the influence of endemic Catholicism. Sociologists, using an equation

German Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriage – New York Times At long last, Germany’s bells are ringing for same-sex marriage – The Guardian All of Germany’s

How Cardinal Pell Rose to Power, Trailed by a Cloud of Scandal – New York Times Australian Cardinal and Aide to Pope Is Charged With

Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, the Independent Expert Human Rights in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity the first report of the mandate to the Human Rights

WHO/HRP and the Population Division of the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs launched the Global Abortion Policies Database this morning at the 30th

The world is seeing a resurgence of religious extremism at national, regional, and global levels, which renews the threat to many of the rights that

This paper examines the translation of human rights norms into discourses on abortion in Northern Ireland, a region where abortion is highly restricted, with extensive contemporary public debate into potential liberalization of abortion law. This paper emanates from research examining political debates on abortion in Northern Ireland and contrasts findings with recent civil society developments, identifying competing narratives of human rights with regard to abortion at the macro- and micro-political level.

Text by Josh Jackman originally published at Pink News on May 05, 2017. Available here. Same-sex marriage is now permitted in Bermuda after a gay

Taiwan’s constitutional court this week paved the way for marriage equality in the country by striking down the legal definition of marriage as “between a man and a woman.”

In April and May, Brazilian crisis has deepened further more, prompting colossal political chaos which reverberated in sexual politics. Sonia Corrêa, SPW co-chair, assess the deep connections within the crisis regarding threats to abortion rights. Celebrations and good news came from around the world. In Bangkok, researchers and activists gathered

Pan Africa ILGA will be conducting a training for African LGBTI Activists on Human Rights Mechanisms from the 27th – 29th July 2017 in Accra,

An advance edited version of the 1st report (A/HRC/35/36) by the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

How do we create new men in Africa? A process of consciousness raising, or the journey of men increasing their self-awareness of patriarchy or male domination, is required. The new man should be able to experience empathy, to care for others, show compassion and to discuss their emotions openly.

Summerschool on Health Law and Ethics 2017 28 June – 7 July 2017 The Erasmus Observatory on Health Law / Institute of Health Policy &

Resource for Teaching & Learning about anti-Muslim Racism in the United States Home #IslamophobiaIsRacism Syllabus Race, Empire, Islam The Production and Reproduction of Anti-Muslim Racism

Sex workers and their allies face significant obstacles in the fight to improve the health and wellbeing of sex workers globally. In the Smart Sex

In March and early April, two grave cases of crackdowns against women’s rights activists have been registered worldwide. In Jamaica, activist Latoya Nugent was detained

In February, in Curitiba,  a woman was arrested when searching for care for incomplete abortion in an Evangelical hospital. In early March, in Pauí, a

In March and early April, the abortion frontline in Latin America has been remarkably eventful,  in positive ways. In Bolivia, the proposed revision of abortion

The Nigerian feminist and writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was plunged into a noisy row after remarks that distinguish experiences of transgender women from those who are

The criminalization of abortion by the 1940 Brazilian Penal Code is incompatible with women’s fundamental rights enshrined in the 1988 Federal Constitution. This premise grounds the petition presented to the Supreme Court (STF), on March 7th 2017

What is the state of activism in Africa today? How effective is activism in bringing about the transformations that are needed to improve the lives

There are many events to be reported in regard to abortion rights in February and early March 2017. The most important comes from  Brazil where

In 2016, membership of the Campaign increased by 25% to 1,132 members in 113 countries. We coordinated and promoted the biggest and most influential International

by Gloria Careaga* Differently from other Mexican states, Mexico City, the Federal District of the Republic, did not have its own Constitution until February 5th,

Text by Essar Batool [1] published at AWID, on Feb 22, 2017. Available here. In 2016, the Indian-occupied state of Kashmir once again erupted in

The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima

This article presents the first sustained social analysis of the Kaleidoscope Trust, the UK’s leading social movement organization on LGBTI issues internationally, and its engagement

Despite legalization of abortion and expansion of services in Nepal, unsafe abortion is still common and exacts a heavy toll on women. Programs and policies to reduce rates of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion, increase access to high-quality contraceptive care and expand safe abortion services are warranted.

Submit by March 15, 2017. We recognize that the entrenched practice of organizing the world into the sex binary and gender binary has alarming and

Article authored by Rebekah Thomas, Frank Pega, Rajat Khosla, Annette Verster, Tommy Hanaa & Lale Sayc. Published at Bull World Health Organ. Click here to

Originally posted at TGEU, on Feb 8, 2017. Available here. This is a review of some of the European editions of the National Geographic Special

Originally posted at Guttmacher Institute Feb 14, 2017. Available here. An estimated 314,300 Ugandan women had abortions in 2013, according to a new study conducted

Six countries in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) have established a national human rights institution (NHRI), all of which include

Originally published at Institute of Development Studies (IDS) by Priliantina Bebasari, on February 6, 2017. Available here.  I attended an event by UN Women Indonesia

In January, the first and foremost events to be reported are avalanche of draconian and regressive policy measures adopted in the chaotic first two weeks

When it comes to Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who was sentenced to prison after leaking a trove of classified government data to

SC allows abortion of 24-week foetus, but why should women go to court in the first place? The Supreme Court on Monday permitted a woman

The International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS) opens the Call for Applications for its XI Biennual Conference, to be held

As 2017 begins, SPW highlights the main events and trends as well as tensions and challenges traversing sexual politics worldwide. January In January, the Zika

The preparation of this report was led by Sarah Gammage and Lisa McGowan.  They are sincerely grateful to the other drafting committee members, Vanessa Pillay,

The 24th issue of Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad marks its eighth year of systematic publication and presents an expressive illustration of its central themes and objectives.

Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) and the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) strongly support the All in for #Decrim campaign as part of the global activism surrounding the International Day Against Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17th.

Text by Nadje Al-Ali, Zahra Ali and Isabel Marler, originally published by Jadaliyya, on Dec 9, 2016. Avaliable here. After a long delay, the United

November began with a resounding shift in global politics: Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. As the reactions flooded through the world

At a time in which electoral processes are undermining democracy not only in Brazil, but also in many other countries, electoral results can give in sight to many questions regarding the foundations of the democratic process.

It’s been 26 years since abortion was decriminalised in Belgium on medical grounds up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. It was an enormous breakthrough, allowing women the autonomy to decide their life course. But 26 years later, abortion remains in the penal code as a crime against family order and public morals. Because it continues to be a criminal offence, the stigma remains, affecting the approaches a woman needs to make to obtain an abortion,

A close vote on November 21, 2016, by a United Nations General Assembly committee affirming that the newly appointed UN expert to address violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity should continue his work is a victory for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.

Originally published at Human Rights Watch on Oct 10, 2016. Available here: Human Rights Watch (Banjul) – Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013 (SSMPA)

This timely book, authored by Hakan Seckinelgin (London School of Economics and Political Science), looks critically at the policy response to AIDS and its institutionalization over

The session examined how the geopolitical shifts implied in the articulation of these global South countries in new blocs, especially the BRICS, has generated expectations that this emergence of “powers from the South” would eventually open up space for new platforms for the political work on sexuality, gender and human rights, that would not be caught by overlapping North-South tensions (or post-colonial effects) that perennially cross these fields of debate.

The study findings point to the need for a nuanced understanding of gender among medical educators and students. The introduction of gender could pave the way for an opening up of medicine to delve deeper into how signifiers such as class, caste, gender etc. have a bearing on health. The medical curriculum and training must undergo fundamental changes to integrate gender so as to ensure the creation of a gender-sensitive and socially-relevant medical force in the country.

Visioning Feminist Futures: Opening Plenary at the 13th AWID Forum – Awid Building Alliances to End Gender-Based Violence at Work – Awid Glass ceilings and

The defining event of the 32nd Session of the Human Rights Council was the passing of the resolution appointing an Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

In August, the Rio Olympic Games provided a privileged stage for the critical observing of gender and sexuality performances. Several SPW partners positively and generously

Guest-edited by Tactical Tech, the 2016 AFC bulletin includes contributions from 16 sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and tech activists, researchers, and writers, who explore the relationships and interdependencies influencing the promises of being online: voice, visibility, and power; and look at the possibilities offered by technologies to SRHR work, amidst challenges related to access, the corporatisation of the internet, collusion between governments and technology companies, censorship, violations of privacy, sexism, and violence, amongst others.

As the women’s 800m approaches, headlines about Caster Semenya proliferate — once again, seven years after she won the World Championship in the 800m and became a news headline, we have been saturated with “debates” about her presence on the track. This year, these stories unfold in striking contrast with those celebrating other athletes who dominate their events.

Although sexual and reproductive health services have become more available in humanitarian settings over the last decade, safe abortion services are still rarely provided. The authors’ observations suggest that four reasons are typically given for this gap: ‘There’s no need’; ‘Abortion is too complicated to provide in crises’; ‘Donors don’t fund abortion services’; and ‘Abortion is illegal’.

Please note that this post contains distressing images. It intersperses quotations about intersex infants and children with quotations about the bodies of public figures. Body

UN agencies supporting women’s rights have been asked today to send “a strong signal” to governments around the world by passing a resolution at this year’s UN General Assembly in September to make International Safe Abortion Day an official UN day. An Open Letter was sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of UN Women, UN Development Programme, World Health Organization, UN Population Fund, UN Children’s Fund, UNAIDS, and UNESCO today.

Originally by Human Rights Watch, posted on 10/08/2016. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/11/indonesia-lgbt-crisis-exposed-official-bias (Jakarta) – The Indonesian government stoked an unprecedented attack on the security and rights

Originally by Human Rights Watch, posted on 15/08/2016. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/15/sri-lanka-challenging-gender-norms-brings-abuse  (New York) – Transgender people and others who do not conform to social expectations about

The IACHR just launched the English version of the report “Violence Against LGBTI Persons”.  In this Report, the Commission focuses on violence against LGBT persons

A law in Belize criminalizing same-sex intimacy was ruled unconstitutional by the country’s Supreme Court. The challenge to Section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code, which banned “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and disproportionately affected gay men, was brought by Caleb Orozco

This book sets out the ethical arguments for a woman’s right to choose. Drawing on the traditions of sociological thinking and moral philosophy, it maintains that there is a strong moral case for recognizing autonomy in personal decision-making about reproductive intentions. More than this, it argues that to prevent a woman from making her own choice to continue or end her pregnancy is to undermine the essence of her humanity.

The Women’s Legal Centre has published their report on Police Abuse of Sex Workers in South Africa. Their report shows that 414 sex workers reported various types of violence perpetrated by police between 2011 and 2015. Of those, 13 were sexually assaulted, 71 were physically assaulted, 152 were verbally assaulted, 192 were harassed, and 254 experienced some other form of abuse.

Ending AIDS by 2030 is redundant rhetoric. It is meaningless without investment in community participation. Code red for action.

The “Save the Women” Civic Committee has tabled a draft law in the Sejm, lower house of the Polish parliament, liberalizing the anti-abortion legislation in force in Poland since 1993. The draft law allows abortion on request until the 12th week of pregnancy, and improves access to contraception and sexuality education, After that abortion would be permissible along the same rules as those in effect today.

Trans organisations signing this letter, and the activist networks they represent, celebrate the Resolution [on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and

France is the 1st ever country to be reprimanded for IGM by 3 different UN treaty bodies, having previously been reprimanded by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in February 2016, and by the Committee against Torture (CAT) in May.

There’s a global push to remove “gender identity disorder” from the list of mental illnesses. But many transgender people in Japan aren’t on board with the idea. J. Lester Feder reports from Osaka.

The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) is the national umbrella body for SOGIE organizations representing various lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex voices

A Pride event in Uganda has been broken up by police as at least two LGBT+ activists are arrested. Pride Uganda tweeted that the small gathering in Kampala had been raided by police, as prominent LGBT+ activist Frank Mugisha also tweeted that he had been arrested.

From the start of the coup attempt by military officials on Friday through to the government’s crackdown in response, women’s voices have been almost entirely absent. Images

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice has launched the report We Are Real: The Growing Movement Advancing the Human Rights of Intersex People.  Available in English,

  Between July 12th and 15th, right before the Durban International AIDS Conference, SPW organized a seminar in Umhlanga, the Northern District of the City.

Originally posted by Susana T. Freid at Open Demoracy on 22/07/2016. Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/crosstalk-linking-across-areas-of-criminalization/  In a moment of global attacks on civil society, an intersectional

The on-going political conservative trends that has brought us the Brazilian “soft coup”, BREXIT and the candidacy of Donald Trump has also resulted in an increase in reactionary politics across the political spectrum, even among “radicals” and “progressives”. In Brazil, this has been recently manifest in attacks against

 by Sonia Corrêa “The discourses that legitimize punitive power, as established in the middle Ages, are in full force. This is when criminology was born

The problem is ‘criminal law’ by Sonia Corrêa Using media and legal services for the defense of LGBT rights in Mexico   by Alejandro Brito Crosstalk:

Gabriel Hoosain Khan, an LGBT activist from South Africa muses about the distance of UN bodies in Geneva from the realities of the world that we (or at least some of us) live in or know about. He says – “In Geneva it might be possible

Originally posted by at the Youth Coalition’s website. Available at: https://www.youthcoalition.org/abortion-rights/call-for-submissions-global-day-of-action-for-access-to-safe-and-legal-abortion-watchdog/  Recognizing 28 September as the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and

CHANGE has released its brand new report “All Women, All Rights, Sex Workers Included: U.S. Foreign Assistance and the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

In discussions around why young Syrian men join armed groups (such as ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra) in Syria, it often boils down to two main theories: that of sectarianism, the ancient, seemingly perpetual divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims, or that of Islam being a ‘religion of violence’.

Originally posted at the OAS’ website on 25/07/2016. Available at: https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2016/097.asp  Washington, D.C. — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) welcomes the recent creation

The June 2017 issue of Health and Human Rights includes a special section on the intersections between abortion and human rights, and in particular the use of legal mobilization

Gates, who is worth $80 billion, specialises in top-down technicist quick-fixes, which often backfire on the economic shooting range of extreme corporate influence and neoliberal policies. On Sunday, Gates will get even richer, in terms of the moral legitimacy bestowed by the Mandela Lecture.

“The Road to Partnerships” was commissioned by GPP in fulfillment of a commitment made during the Conference to Advance the Human Rights of and Promote Inclusive

The proposal launched in May by the LAC 5 countries for the creation of a Special Mandate on Human Rights and Sexual Orientation and Gender

On June 30th the Human Rights Council, after a complex and difficult negotiation has voted a resolution that establishes the mandate of and Independent Expert

In what was described as a dramatic milestone by human rights activists working on the promotion and protection of human rights on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, members of the United Nations at the 32 session of the Human Rights Council voted a resolution that provides a new mandate for an independent expert that will be responsible for reporting violence suffered by people on the grounds of their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, globally.

Originally posted at GATE’s website on 04/07/20216. Available at: http://gate.ngo/gate-statement-on-the-un-sogi-mandate/  On June 30, 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council approved a historic resolution creating

Originally posted at https://lgbt-ep.eu/press-releases/un-body-votes-for-independent-expert-on-lgbt-discrimination/ In a 23 against 18 vote (6 abstentions)*, the United Nations Human Rights council voted in favour of a resolution condemning

Utilizing data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which includes representative state-level surveys, Williams Institute scholars provide up-to-date estimates of the percentage and number of adults who identify as transgender in the United States. Approximately 0.6% of adults in the United States, or 1.4 million individuals, identify as transgender.

A Development Agenda for Sexual and Gender Minorities, by Andrew Park, International Program Director, The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law is grounded in current research literature regarding important development outcomes for sexual and gender minorities, such as health, employment, family formation, education and civil participation.

The past three decades brought important developments to the area of women’s access to abortion, especially with the advent of medical abortion methods. However, the

With Assisted Reproductive Technologies, science has managed to use technology to prise apart previous associations between reproduction and sex. With gender, class and queer theory, the social sciences have prised apart previous associations between gender and sex. We have found that knowledge through science, like knowledge of sexuality, can’t be pinned down to absolutes. “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know,” said Aristotle. While science may value the systematic and objective, it cannot escape the baffling convolutions of lived experience. How does life influence knowledge, and knowledge influence life?

In a defining vote, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on “Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, and gender identity”, to mandate the appointment of an Independent Expert on the subject.

The person appointed to this new role will be responsible for monitoring “violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

In this issue, we are proud to feature a collection of innovative and rigorous contributions. Two exceptional articles tackle archives as a historical and conceptual

The Supreme Court Wednesday declined to examine all over again a plea filed against validity of IPC Section 377, which makes homosexuality a criminal offence punishable with a sentence up to life term. The joint petition has been filed by some prominent gay personalities — celebrity chef and restaurateur Ritu Dalmia, hotelier Aman Nath and dancer N S Johar, among others.

This issue of East Asia Forum Quarterly brings together prominent scholars of gender studies from various countries and disciplines to explore the diversity and complexity of issues of gender and sexuality in contemporary Asia. The essays touch on major developments that have caused shifts in gender relations. They illustrate the tensions between structural violence against women and women’s own agency in coping with male-dominant social arrangements.

“Do you live with your husband, too?” the second-year medical student asked, innocently enough. It was our first visit with this patient, a healthy middle-aged African American woman. We were just chatting, trying to get to know her, and I had picked up on little clues in our conversation that had already led me to conclude that there was no husband in the picture. The medical student, though, didn’t seem to have picked up on this and, I thought, was trying to get at her sexual history by asking, instead, about her husband.

A Major Victory for Abortion Rights – New York Times The Facts Win Out on Abortion – Linda Greenhouse – New York Times The Supreme

The Passport Administration at Cairo International Airport banned this morning feminist activist and woman human rights defender (WHRD) Mozn Hassan from traveling during completion of her departure procedures from Cairo to Beirut, and she was informed verbally that the travel ban had been issued by the Egyptian General Prosecutor based on the request of the investigative judge.

GPP and Funders for LGBTQ Issues have partnered to release a new Global LGBTI Resources Report, the most comprehensive report to date on the state

As we all know, the news is filled with discussions regarding the Zika virus, microcephaly, access to abortion, and women’s sexual and reproductive rights—sometimes from

The Master of Public Health (MPH) is calling for international application for the academic year of 2017-18. In January 2005, James P Grant School of Public

We are delighted to request your help in developing a ‘story’ about your movement – the story of its history, vision, strategies, and achievements for

On 13 June over 150 feminist activists mourned the murder and erasure of artist Ana Mendieta. We were there for our sisters who did not survive.

Solidarity with the LGBTQI community – Frida Mourning Orlando’s Loss from Kabul – Open Society India vigils in memory of Orlando shooting victims – Orinam

Early reports suggest that Mateen pledged allegiance to “Islamic State” while launching his shooting spree. We will know more in the days to come. I am grateful to those who are righteously rushing in to defend Muslims from the inevitable backlash and deplorable discrimination in the shell-shocked wake of this massacre. However, I would also ask them not to do so by downplaying the harsh realities of Islamist political ideology and the way it purveys hatred against many groups, including gays.

The mass shooting at the Pulse, the nightclub in Orlando, took over the media screens and pages on the third week of June 2016.  The

By Orinam Jun 13 2016 A makeshift memorial with flowers and handprints rests in a parking lot near the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. source:

This is a late chronicle for several reasons. The obvious one is that it has already been more than 10 days since May 17, the International Day against Transphobia (and other wrongly called ‘phobias’ as they have nothing to do with personal pathologies but rather are social devices to preserve privileges).

As the Brazilian crisis continues unfolding it gets increasingly intricate with gender and sexuality politics. Read Sonia Corrêa and Fábio Grotz report on what happened

At the UN Human Rights Council the LAC Group 5 – formed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay – announced the decision to submit

Originally posted at the SRI’s website on 2016. Available at: https://www.sexualrightsinitative.org/2016/hrc/sri-calls-for-political-and-legal-framing-that-recognizes-full-range-of-sexual-rights/  The Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) is a coalition of organizations from Canada, Poland, India,

It is not exactly to keep track of the Brazilian political development these days. On May 11th, the Brazilian Senate confirmed the admissibility of the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, which had been approved by the House on April 17th.

Two different protests, two different countries, but the same continent and the same cause: violence against women in “macho” Latin America.

New double issue of Brasiliana, edited by Paul Amar, is out. It addresses the politics of violence and securitization in Rio de Janeiro. Click here

To the development community on International Day of Action for Women’s Health: don’t curtail our rights by legitimising conservative religious ideologies.

Nauru’s government has updated its archaic criminal code, striking same-sex relations and suicide off the list of crimes.

Mainstream activism engaging with the politics of gender and sexual-identity tends more often than not to be labelled LGBT, homosexual, gay or queer activism. This

Amnesty International has published its policy on protecting sex workers from human rights violations and abuses, along with four research reports on these issues in Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Norway and Argentina.

In June 2011, the South African government, with support from Brazil and Norway, led in the adoption of a historic resolution on sexual orientation and

This essay looks at the complex relationship between the personal and the political in queer/LGBTIA+ organizing in Africa. It considers how current modes of organizing impact the connection between professional activism and grassroots participation and explores some of the consequences of these two intersecting factors for activist praxis.

DAWN is happy to make available these Regional Advocacy Tools on sexual and reproductive health and rights that have been part of our contribution to feminist mobilization for the 20th year review of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). We engaged in this important review process at regional and global levels, through analysis and advocacy, and working with partners and colleagues in civil society and governments.

Originally from the OAS’s website. Posted on 23/05/2016. Available at: https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2016/069.asp Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is going through a

On the eve of the giant annual anti-abortion protest on Parliament Hill, the Justin Trudeau government has quietly removed a restriction that prevented federal foreign aid dollars being used for abortion services in other countries.

Jack Drescher and colleagues (March, 2016)1 highlight two controversies surrounding gender incongruent children below puberty. One controversy concerns how one helps these children.

Originally from TGEU’s website, posted on 17/05/2016. Available at: https://tgeu.org/idahot2016statement/ On this International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) [1], with a special focus on

The Sex Worker Zine Project features work that was produced by 24 men, women and transgender participants who live and sell sex in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. The project involved collaboration with the Sisonke Sex Worker Movement and the MoVE Project.

In this interview with STATUS/الوضع host Katty Alhayek, journalist and author Rafia Zakaria discusses her articles on ISIS and women, and the challenges that she faces when sharing her perspective on these issues with a wider audience.

This anthology is the first time that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) migrants and refugees in South Africa have shared their stories and

Originally posted on 13/05/2016 on the INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR WOMEN’S RIGHT TO SAFE ABORTION’s website. Available at: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/news/ansirh-in-their-own-words-experiences-of-women-denied-abortions/  Even in countries with legal abortion, many

Malta is for now the EU’s last country where abortion is banned in all cases. While some are beginning to call for a public debate on women’s reproductive rights, the topic of abortion remains a highly sensitive issue in the archipelago.

As the world federation of LGBTI organisations, we strongly believe that gender diversity is not – and should never be – a pathology.

A new wave of deadly attacks against human rights and secular activists is at play in Bangladesh. In final April, two LGBT activists were hacked

Belén’s troubling abortion case in Tucumán, Argentina, demonstrates how institutions meant to care for and protect us instead regularly violate our rights—including the right to health, confidentiality, and due process.

Since our reports of early 2015, SPW has always linked developments in the abortion debate to the on-going Brazilian political and economic crisis. On April 17th, 2016, this crisis reached an initial point of culmination when the House of Representatives voted for and approved the admissibility of the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

Luana Barbosa dos Reis Santos was brutally killed by Brazilian cops in the city of Ribeirão Preto (São Paulo) in early April. She was taking

SPW shares an unnamed letter written by  Bangladesh activist after the murders of LGBT activists in the Asian country in the past weeks. The letter

Originally from: https://lgbt-ep.eu/press-releases/european-parliament-speaks-out-against-online-homo-and-transphobic-hate-speech/ In a report adopted yesterday, the European Parliament expresses its concern over online homo- and transphobic hate speech, and calls for strong

The stories in this book are based upon the writings of intersex participants at the First Intersex National Meeting in Nepal, held on 8-9 February 2016 in Kathmandu. The meeting took place with support from the UNDP as part of the “Being LGBTI in Asia” program.

Brazil has one of the most restrictive legislations in the world on abortion. Since 1940, abortion is only allowed in Brazil in cases involving either risk to the woman’s life or rape, and in cases of fetal anencephaly. Yet abortion is common despite these legal restrictions.

In Bangladesh, two LGBT rights activists, including the editor of Roopbaan, the country’s first LGBT magazine, were hacked to death this morning in a flat in the country’s capital, Dhaka.

rganization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM), a leading international non-profit organization devoted to advocating on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers, has released a first-of-its-kind glossary of terminology to assist humanitarian professionals to communicate with people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.

Source: http://endabortionstigma.org/en/Blog/2016/March/QualitativeSynthesis.aspx We are excited to share “Abortion Stigma Around the Globe”: A Qualitative Synthesis. After a review of literature and available resources, we discovered

This guide is a resource for advocates, trainers, project managers and technical advisors who design programs and workshops to engage police on abortion issues. Drawing

In an interview a few years back, Canadian feminist and pro-choice activist Joyce Arthur drew a convincing parallel between the movement for women’s right to access safe and legal abortion and sex workers’ movements for their rights and decriminalisation of sex work.

The Sexual Rights Initiative is delighted to announce that the National Sexual Rights Law and Policy Database is now live. The database is designed as a dynamic tool regularly updated by our team of researchers and validated by experts in-country. Help us keep the information up-to-date by contacting us when a law or policy has changed, volunteer to be a validator of baseline data or refer our team to an expert in your country that can help.

Police in Dhaka, Bangladesh, today arrested four LGBT rights activists taking part in a traditional procession to celebrate the Bengali New Year.

A YEAR AFTER RETURNING from exile, Honduran gay rights activist Donny Reyes still fears a murderous attack at any minute.

The longstanding provider-patient confidentiality relationship is quietly eroding as an alarming number of medical staff across Latin America are reporting women and girls to the

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) aims to monitor, analyze, and share information on initiatives that misuse religion, culture, and tradition to undermine

Across the globe, religion plays a critical role in shaping attitudes about gender norms and sexuality, which in turn have a profound effect on people’s everyday lives. A new Faith, Gender & Sexuality Toolkit launched today seeks to build knowledge and provide crucial support for faith communities and leaders working to promote social justice in relation to gender and sexuality.

During 2015, as previously reported by SPW, Brazilian abortion politics continued to evolve under pressures created by the unsettled intersection of regressive policy trends (which have been gaining strength since the mid 2000’s) and the macro-political crisis which has overtaken the Brazilian res publica.

This tool contains practical advice on implementing HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) programmes with transgender people. It is based on recommendations in the Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations, published in 2014 by the World Health Organization.

Arabic media training position is a 12- month, part-time staff position, with the possibility of renewal of contract for another year and/or increase in work hours. The position is responsible for leading OutRight’s Arabic media sensitivity program, which aims at reaching out to Arabic media outlets and journalists to provide them with a better understanding around sexual orientation, gender identity, and LGBTI rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Today the Equal Rights Trust has published volume sixteen of its biannual Equal Rights Review, an interdisciplinary journal offering analysis, insight and ideas to those promoting equality. This issue has a special focus on intersectionality.

To fight Zika we must fight poverty and powerlessness and ensure that women enjoy their rights.

Originally posted on 31/03/2016 at GATE. Available at: http://gate.ngo/2016/03/31/gate-statement-on-the-international-trans-day-of-visibility-2016/ Today, March 31st, Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE) calls for collective and critical reflection as

Queer Wars explores the growing international polarization over sexual rights, and the creative responses from social movements and activists, some of whom face murder, imprisonment or rape because of their perceived sexuality or gender expression.

Originally published by Amnesty International on 18/03/2016. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2016/03/norway-historic-breakthrough-for-transgender-rights/ Key legal reforms proposed by the Norwegian Ministry of Health today mark an important breakthrough

In recent weeks, the Egyptian authorities have summoned human rights workers for questioning, banned them from travel and attempted to freeze their personal funds and

It’s not just young girls and big bad wolves. Lies and misconceptions about sex work can hurt women and keep negative stereotypes alive.

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is proud to announce a new call for proposals for the second cycle of the Intersex Human Rights Fund,

Every month RESURJ – a global alliance of feminists – members share and reflect on some news highlights affecting sexual and reproductive, environmental and economic

When I think about LGBT rights in Lebanon, a swinging pendulum comes to mind. Slow progress met with backlash and arbitrary detention. Article 534 of the penal code, a remnant from French colonization, criminalizes same-sex relationship; similar laws of indecency also criminalize transgender populations.

The State has a responsibility for protecting the LGBTI community from violence, a UN expert said on Wednesday, adding that he hopes that the Supreme Court of India makes an “enlightened” and “progressive” decision on the matter.

Article available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296683386_Gender_incongruence_of_childhood_in_the_ICD-11_Controversies_proposal_and_rationale As part of the development of the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), WHO appointed a Working Group

Originally published on Mamba online on 03/03/2016. Available at: https://www.mambaonline.com/2016/03/03/sa-minister-justice-calls-africa-accept-lgbti-people/ South Africa’s Minister of Justice has called on African nations to accept the human rights

Indonesian Psychiatrists Classify LGBT People As Mentally Ill In Order To ‘Treat’ Them – Think Progress The Next Big LGBT “Propaganda” Ban Is Being Written

The present report, by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 29/22.

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.

This article asks if and why sexual orientation and gender identity-related rights should connect to a human rights framework. To answer that question it begins by addressing how we understand what makes human rights resonate or not resonate and if addressing a contentious issue such as sexual orientation or gender identity from within a human rights frame advances or detracts from such resonance.

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

In July 2015, during the 29th Session of the Human Rights Council, as reported by SPW and many other sources, a Resolution on the Protection

The human rights of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) people have reached centre stage. Curative petitions have been referred to a Constitution Bench with observations by Chief Justice of India (CJI) T.S. Thakur that “the issues sought to be raised are of considerable importance and public interest …”.

In late November, 2015, the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IFCS/UFRJ) hosted a one week course

Retrieved from: http://www.lgbt-ep.eu/press-releases/strasbourg-court-family-reunification-rights-also-count-for-same-sex-couples/ Yesterday, the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that refusing same-sex couples residence permits with the purpose of family reunification

Originally published on Catholics for Choice. Available at: https://www.catholicsforchoice.org/news/pr/2016/PopeandPatriarchMisrepresent.asp On his way to Mexico, Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic church, met with Russian

South Dakota has moved one step closer to becoming the first US state to bar transgender youth from the bathrooms where they are safe and comfortable.

The article examines the issue of gender inequity in the exercise of the right of access to information by exploring the legislative framework underpinning the right for women, detailing the value of information for women, describing the principal obstacles that propagate information asymmetries, and exploring potential responses to advance a more universal right to information.

Originally published on IDS’s website. Available at: https://www.ids.ac.uk/news/new-ids-research-reveals-impact-of-militarism-on-violence-against-women-in-gaza This year’s 16 Days Against Gender-based Violence campaign focuses specifically on the relationship between militarism and the

Originally published in The Guardian on 10/02/2016. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/feb/10/intersex-human-rights-lgbti-chile-argentina-uganda-costa-rica A landmark directive in Chile last month said doctors should stop ‘normalisation’ surgery, but tackling

 Employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people is a prevalent but silent issue in Thailand, said experts at a national level meeting to discuss issues related to discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression (SOGIE) or intersex status.

Conservative estimates would place us at 2% of any population. In India that’s a delightful 2.5 crores who are potentially criminal for indulging in sexual intercourse with other adults of the same sex, as per the perverse Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

Sex is complex. Humans are simultaneously more similar in their sex development, and more diverse, than is commonly appreciated or understood. Females and males are

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 country’s Ministry of Health recommended last week that women should avoid becoming pregnant until 2018. But local feminist groups say this guidance doesn’t reflect the needs of Salvadoran women, especially where reproductive health is concerned.

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.

A new report indicates transgender women in Central America remain particularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence.

The Zika Virus Could Force Women To Have Unsafe Abortions – Huffington Post El Salvador’s Advice on Zika Virus: Don’t Have Babies – New York

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.

This article is based on some of the research that I have conducted over the past two years on women’s activism in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, from independence until the Arab uprisings. I collected over one hundred personal narratives from middle class women activists of different generations.

Women were at the forefront of the pro-democracy protests in Libya in 2011, which, after escalating into civil war, culminated in the ousting of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. But in the years that have followed, as state institutions have crumbled and insecurity prevails, women have struggled to have their voices heard.

Are you a women’s human rights defender?  Do you want to increase your understanding of women’s human rights, and learn how to use the UN

A new report published by the Equal Rights Trust exposes the extent of discrimination and inequality experienced by groups including women; persons with disabilities; lesbian, gay and bisexual persons; and persons living with HIV in Solomon Islands.

The issue 46 of Reproductive Health Matters focuses on the theme “Sexuality, sexual rights and sexual politics” and brings articles offering “a wide range of

Horrifying images posted on social media for all the world to see show men accused of homosexuality thrown off high buildings, stoned to death, or shot in the head by extremist groups, including the Islamic State (known as ISIS) in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The Chilean Ministry of Health has issued instructions to its national health sector to stop “normalising” medical interventions on intersex infants and children. This guidance is a global first: the first time that a health ministry has shown leadership in taking this step without legislation or legal action.

Originally published by the UN on 18/01/2016. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2016/01/peru-compensates-woman-historic-un-human-rights-abortion-case In 2001, a 17-year-old Peruvian girl, named K.L., was 14 weeks pregnant when doctors at

The Organisation Soleterre – Strategie di Pace ONLUS, in collaboration with East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP), has produced a publication

In the last several months, there have been a number of rape allegations involving sex workers in the news. Most recently, a number of sex workers accused porn star James Deen of rape. Several websites have since dropped Deen, including Kink.com. Also, Jonathan “War Machine” Koppenhaver is facing 34 counts of rape, kidnapping, and attempted murder (among others) against his ex-girlfriend and porn star Christy Mack, which reportedly left her with 18 broken bones and a ruptured liver, and her friend, Corey Thomas.

As the year heads toward its end, SPW recollects main trends and facts in sexual politics worldwide. January Pope Francis drew global attention after urging

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights today is publishing a regional report on the violence perpetrated against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex (LGBTI) persons or those perceived as LGBTI.

As we were finalizing the compilation of sexual politics related events that make the headlines in November the screens were taken over by the armed

Originally from: https://morgancarpenter.com/intersex-rights-freedoms/ Published in the UNSW Law Society journal “Court of Conscience” issue 9, 2015, on “rights and freedoms”, this paper considers what it

This Orchid image drawn by Brigitte Ritcher was used in the materials of Inter Visibilidad, Visibilidad Intersex Forum, held at the Human Rights Commission of the

In 2014, Rihanna, a 22 year-old transgender woman living in Kampala, Uganda was arrested and jailed under Section 145 of the Ugandan Penal Code Act for having “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” — or simply put, for being LGBTQ.

Originally published by TGEU at http://tgeu.org/how-many-trans-people-need-to-die-for-europe-to-take-action/ Every year on November 20, the trans community remembers and mourns those trans people who lost their lives to

In this article I ask why leading institutions of global capitalism have begun to take activist stances against homophobia, and why they have done so now. I want to understand the terms on which the figure of the queer has come to be adopted as an object of concern for the development industry.

AWID, as IM-Defensoras Steering Group member, has launched the Second Regional Report on the Situation of WHRDs in Mexico and Central America, which includes and compares

Check the main facts in October 2015. We highlight the Stop Trans Pathologization Campaign 2015; the Synod on the Family’s final statement; Brazilian feminists protests against partially approved legislation that criminalizes providing information and assistance in regard to abortion; and the Indonesian regressive law against sexual freedom.

Originally published by IDS on 22/10/2015. Available at: https://www.ids.ac.uk/news/crucial-new-insights-on-sexuality-and-the-sustainable-development-goals 22 October 2015 If the global commitment to eradicate inequality for all people is truly unequivocal,

Originally published on: http://www.rhmjournal.org.uk/journal/call-papers/ Reproductive Rights Matters – volume 24   number 47   may/june 2016  In this issue of the journal, we are hoping to

Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) met with Dainius Pūras, the United Nations  Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the

Originally published on Equal Rights Trust on 2015. Available at: http://www.equalrightstrust.org/news/call-papers-16th-equal-rights-review-special-focus-intersectionality-promoting-equality The Equal Rights Trust is accepting papers for the sixteenth edition of its Equal

This Amnesty International’s collection of twelve essays explores the differences and similarities between social justice and human rights, providing divergent perspectives on whether and how

Sexual Rights Initiative presents an overview from the 30th session of the UN Human Rights Council. It includes resolutions, panels and discussions, statements and parallel

The Research Report for Transilience Project on Violence against Transgender Women 2014 offers relevant qualitative data to understand the discrimination and violence faced by transgender community in different parts of South African society.

Edited by David Paternotte, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and Manon Tremblay, Université d’Ottawa, Canada The Ashgate Research Companion to Lesbian and Gay Activism provides

Pope Francis’s meeting with Kim Davis disappointed the liberals he courted – The Guardian Vatican: Pope Francis Barely Knew Who Kim Davis Was When He

On 29 September 2015, 12 UN entities (ILO, OHCHR, UNAIDS Secretariat, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNODC, UN Women, WFP and WHO) released an unprecedented

Stonewall Acceptance without Exception has launched the “Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality” Guide, which contains 20 stories from LGBT Christians and allies for LGBT

Join the Youth Health and Rights Coalition and Evidence to Action on Monday, September 28th from 9 am – 10:30 am EDT for a webinar, “Putting

The SDG Series on SDGs and the right to health on the Health and Human Rights Journal is avaialable online. Click below to read the articles.

Originally published on The BMJ. Available at: http://www.bmj.com/content/women%E2%80%99s-children%E2%80%99s-and-adolescents%E2%80%99-health-0 The year 2015 marks a defining moment for the health of women, children, and adolescents. It is

Research and Policy Associate Location: Global | Organization: AIDS-Free World | Deadline: 11 September 2015 You will be responsible for producing written materials on pertinent

In 2013, in collaboration with partners, SPW began a new line of work that examines the intersections between geopolitical trends — coalescing around the  “emergence”

After prompting a major flare of global controversies, Amnesty International’s draft policy supporting the decriminalization of sex work was voted and approved at organization’s International

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

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

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.

Originally published no Paper Bird on 23/08/2015. Available at: http://paper-bird.net/2015/08/23/the-un-security-council-terrible-idea/ By Scott Long   I. Questions On August 18, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is preparing a report of practical recommendations on how to create and maintain the space for civil society

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

Written by Fábio Grotz (in collaboration with Sonia Corrêa) Since the heyday of preparation for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, Cairo, 1994),

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

Sonia Corrêa The UN Committee on Human Rights is developing a new General Comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political

by Sebastian Kohn July 28th, 2015, published originally at Open Society.  Amnesty International seems poised to support the decriminalization of sex work—a move that would improve

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

Of course I cried. I cried because these nine antiquarian arbiters in funeral garb – five of them anyway, each looking about as forward-thinking and progressive as a constipated grandparent – informed me at last that I am part of this Great Community they help to govern.

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

Originally posted on Maravipost in 2015. Available at: http://www.maravipost.com/national/malawi-news/law-and-order/9316-unpacking-malawi-special-law-commission-final-review%E2%80%99-findings-and-recommendations-on-abortion-law.html The current position of the law is that abortion is illegal in Malawi except where it

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

Retrieved from www.transactivists.org in 2015. London, July 16th 2015 Dear friends, I am very honored to receive this award, which I accept understanding it as

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

The Poland “abortion drone” is causing a splash in the media and excited buzz in the reproductive rights community, but it has also become a source of misinformation and anxiety.

  The WHO Human Reproduction Program has made public this week (June 15-19th, 2015) a new groundbreaking report  titled Sexual Health, Human Rights and Law. 

After living in the shadows, thousands of Nicaraguan sex workers have broken their silence, won support from state institutions and gained new respect for their rights.

Paraguay denies respect to older persons in the Americas The 45th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the Inter-American Convention on

In Sexuality, Health and Human Rights (Corrêa, Parker and Petchesky, 2008) we have examined the early 2000’s French controversies, which  led to the banning of

June 3rd marked International Sex Workers Day. In Brazil the date was commemorated in many places. In Belém do Pará it also marked the anniversary

This week General Muhammadu Buhari will be inaugurated as Nigerian’s president, a position he won by campaigning on a platform of change. But will that change include the people on the fringe of society, like lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals?

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has launched the report Discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The new design responds to what readers, writers and the team identified as necessary and desired changes in the look and feel. The primary objective

After rounding up the interview, I turned off my voice recorder, thanked Li Yinhe, and asked her what she has been up to since retiring in 2012. She smiles, and without hesitation tells me she is working on some S&M novels. “Do you know what that is?” she asks.

This article shares ideas discussed in the project first round of conversation, which was held in Rio in July 2013, and includes an analysis – originally presented at a panel at Conectas’ 13th International Human Rights Colloquium, held in São Paulo in the same year – on the way rising powers, since their emergence, have behaved in multilateral debates around human rights, gender and sexuality. It has been originally published in the 10th Anniversary commemorative edition of SUR Journal (Edition V.11-N.20- Jun/2014)

TGEU, together with ARC International, would like to invite you to participate in a 3-day UN training, which will take place in Geneva, in the

In early May, SPW re-launched its website. Its new architecture allows an easier access to our products, publications and other contents. In particular, we call

This policy brief summarizes the impact of intimate partner and family violence on the HIV vulnerability of men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender

Originally published on Rewire on 28/05/2015. Available at: http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/05/28/taking-action-combat-state-sanctioned-violence-women-worldwide/ by Leila Hessini, Ipas / Global Fund for Women and Beatriz Galli May 28, 2015 –

Taken from: http://labrys.kg/en/news/full/686.html [VIDEO]: https://www.facebook.com/LabrysKG/videos/vb.45614646315/10152771652191316/?type=1&theater May 17, 2015 in Bishkek, representative of the movement “Kalys” and “Kyrk Choro” illegally broke into the event of the LGBT organization

Written by Fernando D’Elio of Akahata (with input from Neha Sood of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights) as part of the 2015 ILGA

In Biopolitics at the Crossroads of Sexuality and Disaster: The Case of Haiti, Rosalind Petchesky begins her reflections by sharing a definition of intersectionality: “An

_______________________________________________________ Relevant meetings The V Conference of ILGA-LAC was held in Curitiba, Brazil, from January 26th to 30th, 2010. Regional highlights > Read these information

Read the article Women’s Funding Network’s Sex-Trafficking Study Is Junk Science, by Nick Pinto, on study regarding sex trafficking.

By Caribbean News Now. Link to original: http://bit.ly/lJJ2lt The Bahamas supports the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution passed last week that affirms equal rights

SPW presents its Working paper n. 9, in which Justin Perez (Univesity of California, Irvine) procedes to a critical understanding of lesbian and gay tourism,

On April 24th, 2015, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights granted the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) formal observer status. There are many

by the SPW team In the statement, that appraises the decision of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights in granting observer status the

Originally Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015. Available at: http://www.dawn.com/news/1178106/sabeen-mahmud-a-profile Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui — Published Apr 25, 2015 06:41am   KARACHI: Peace activist and founder of

In collaboration with Arc International and Action Canada for Population and Development (ACPD) SPW has organized an international consultation involving LGBT activists, from all over

A comment from GATE on the Maltese Act on Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics. Available at GATE’s website.  In April, 2015 Malta passed

The Norwegian Ministry of Health’s Expert Committee on legal gender recognition presented its conclusions and recommendations in Oslo today. The report proposes legislation based on

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

Originally published on Key Correspondents   The day the military raided Amina Danait’s* village in Muguru na Nyori will forever remain etched in her mind. Soldiers

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

Originally from NYT, published on 15/03/2015. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/world/swedish-prostitution-law-targets-buyers-but-some-say-it-hurts-sellers.html By DAVID CROUCH MARCH 14, 2015 GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Not far from the Sticky Fingers nightclub, three Romanian

A new study finds that residents in 90% of all surveyed countries have become more accepting of homosexuality over the past 20 years. The study examines

Originally posted on Rewire on 11/03/2015. Available at:  http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/03/11/im-disturbed-screening-intersex-traits-utero/ by Claudia Astorino March 11, 2015 – 1:20 pm As an avid proponent of reproductive rights,

In response to An Urgent Calling for Global Action: Protest in Front of Chinese Embassies for Detained Chinese Feminists, we are going to launch a

Organizations of the International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition (ISRRC) launched a statement highlighting that, despite progress achieved toward gender equality and the realization of

Originally published on NYT on 20/01/2015. Available at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/opinion/canadas-flawed-sex-trade-law.html By JULIE KAYE JAN. 20, 2015   Photo   CreditMark Blinch/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press EDMONTON,

Originally published on Paper Bird on 09/01/2015. Available at: http://paper-bird.net/2015/01/09/why-i-am-not-charlie/ There is no “but” about what happened at Charlie Hebdo yesterday. Some people published some cartoons, and some

April – In a landmark decision, Indian Supreme Court allowed transgender people to identify as a third gender and directed the central and state governments

The SPW partner in the “Emerging Powers, Sexuality and Human Rights Project’, the India researcher and activist akshay khanna participated in two events organized by

DECEMBER 4, 2014 tags: Against Capital Punishment in India, Death Penalty, Nithari Case,Surinder Koli by Shuddhabrata Sengupta Taken from: http://kafila.org/2014/12/04/appeal-to-stay-the-execution-of-surinder-koli-concerned-women-individuals-and-groups/ Guest Post by Concerned Women, Womens’

Originally published on Rewire on 02/12/2014. Available at: http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/12/02/activists-must-address-hiv-advocacy-using-reproductive-justice-framework/ by Melanie Medalle and Nerissa Irizarry December 2, 2014 – 1:33 pm In the United States,

The report The Role of Global-Level Advocacy in Addressing HIV among Key Population, published by Global Network of People living with HIV, examines the role

SPW recommends Transnational LGBT Activism, by Ryan Thoreson, in which the author discusses how the idea of LGBT human rights is defined by international activists

In October the 10th anniversary of SUR Journal  – International Journal on Human Right was marked by the publication of its 20th issue that comprises

The meeting report for the Orientations and Identities: Sexuality and Human Rights on the Global Stage Conference, that took place in May, Los Angeles, has

First published on AWID. Available at http://www.awid.org/eng/News-Analysis/Friday-Files/The-Right-To-Autonomy-Over-Our-Bodies-And-Loves-The-Resolution-On-Human-Rights-Sexual-Orientation-And-Gender-Identity-Furthers-Dialogue#.VEGnWpTCCW0.facebook FRIDAY FILE – AWID spoke to Dawn Cavanagh* of the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) in South Africa and Sexual

STP, International Campaign Stop Trans Pathologization The International Day of Action for Trans Depathologization 2014, convened by STP, International Campaign Stop Trans Pathologization1, took place

The new issue of SUR – International Journal on Human Rights celebrates its 10th anniversary with 55 articles on the challenges and sucesses of the

One main highlight of the period concerns the politics of abortion in Brazil. Despite the tragic deaths of two women caused by illegal and unsafe

The ABC on LGBT rights was developed by the Insight public organization with the support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. The publication is a part

Human rights groups are calling for a protest on 18 October 2014 in front of every Egyptian embassy around the world to protest against human

Every year, the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs awards the Human Rights Tulip to a human rights defender who promotes and supports human rights in

Equal Rights Trust published the Volume Thirteen of The Equal Rights Review (ERR), an interdisciplinary biannual journal intended as a forum for the exchange of legal,

The Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) has published a report called: Lessons From the First Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review: From Commitment to Action on Sexual

By Suzanne Trimel* The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) today applauded the United Nations’ top human rights body for approving a resolution

SPW recommends the report written by activists and funders aimed at supporting better coordination and collaboration on trans and intersex funding. Download it here.

The Observatory of Prostitution has published a report revealing the impacts on prostitution and sex trade arising from Brazilian World Cup during June and July.

In August, the Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) published the outcomes from the three Regional Dialogues organized in Asia (2009), Latin America (2009) and Africa (2010)

BRIDGE – development and gender has launched the guide Supporting social movements to advance women’s rights and gender justice – an approach for donors. Read

In 2013, Sexuality Policy Watch began a new line of work aimed at critically examining how sexuality, gender and human rights  can be located in

In 2013, Sexuality Policy Watch began a new line of work aimed at critically examining how sexuality, gender and human rights are located in the

At the VI Summit of President of BRICS We, the networks and the feminist movements of the global South, that gathered in Fortaleza, 14-16 July

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has produced a guide to adress the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming employees. It settles some important issues

Press Release 24th July 2014 For Immediate Release Transgender Group in Kenya wins Historic Court Battle Nairobi, Kenya, 24 July, 2014. – In a historic

Prostitutes are subject to repression, violence and abuse – even at the hands of law enforcement, research shows Prof Chris Beyrer speaks at the International

Sonia Corrêa and SPW partners in the “Emerging Powers, Sexuality and Human Rights Project” — akshay khana, Cai Yiping, Laura Waisbich — – attended the

Read interteview Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon about South Asian-American queer activism. Here.

The SPW report, “Bracting Sexuality: Human Rights and Sexual Orientation”, written by Ignacio Saiz, analyzes the recognition of rights relating to sexual orientation within the

Amnesty International launched a public statement on the resolution presented by a group of countries at the UN Human Rights Council  aimet at “protecting the

Sonia Corrêa and Rosalind Petchesky, members of SPW Steering Committee participated at the Orientations and Identities: Sexuality and Human Rights on the Global Stage Conference organized by

Brazil In May and early June the Brazilian sexual politics scenario has winessed setbacks and authoritarian measures, particularly with regard to women’s rights. At the

Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites, from Institute of Commonwealth Studies (University of London), are the editors of the free online book Human Rights, Sexual Orientation

LGBTTTI Coalition celebrates tha approval of the seventh resolution on human rigths, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression at the OAS 44th General Assembly.

In an article published by New York Times, Laurie Shrage writes about discrimination against people living with HIV. Read it.

The Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association vehemently repudiates the grave human rights violations committed on May 23rd by civil police against more than 200 sex workers

On May 28th, Sonia Corrêa, SPW co-chair, spoke at the panel on Human Rights at the Global Stage, organized by the City of West Hollywood.

Read Helen Clark (UNDP) statement highlighting LGBT rights as matter of concern to all working on human development. Click here.

Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) has launched a new manual for rights activists facing religious fundamentalist opposition to their work. Click here to

The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University has launched the 5th Edition of the Health and Human Rights Resource Guide. The

According to World Health Organization, every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. From this total, 99% of the

S.H.E social, health and empowerment feminist collective of Transgender and Intersex Women of Africa has launched its first newsletter, which brings news about trans activism

Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre has published ICPD Beyond 2014 Global Report, which is the culmination of a landmark UN review of progress, gaps, challenges and emerging

Sexual and reproductive rights global landscape in March and early April 2014 During March and early April, Brazil was under the spotlight in terms of

Read the final publication of the EROTICS: sex, rights and the Internet project here.

Privacy tips for sex subversives: Ways to protect your information and yourself Read Scott Long’s article about privacy of human rights activists. Click here.

SPW gathered news, results and assessments from the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD). Below, some of them released by now. RESURJ

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of India allowed a transgender people to identify as a third gender and directed the central and state

A manual prepared by FIFA and distributed to public school teachers working in schools of the cities hosting the World Cup games this year was

Sexual Rights Initiative has gathered news from the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council that took place from March 3 – 28 2014.

Reproductive health and human rights advocates testified today in Washington, D.C. on women’s rights issues, including discrimination, violence and reproductive rights violations in the Dominican

Dear friends, Around the World During January and February 2014, SPW has watched the development of anti-homosexuality bills in Nigeria and Uganda, as well as

The LGBTTTI Coalition Working at the OAS highlighted the advances achieved in 2013, such as the approval of the Inter-American Conventions Against Racism and Against

Read “Decoding India’s Proposed Online Porn Ban – I”, that reportes the day-long “Connect Your Rights!” meeting held in Mumbai in November 2013. The meeting

The Program on Global Health & Human Rights, from Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California, has launched the Health and Human

Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion in El Salvador, the Feminist Collective for Local Development, CEJIL (Center for Justice and International Law) and Ipas

November was marked by two relevant facts in the sexual and reproductive rights landscape: the financing of Human Rights Campaign to promote LGBT rights and

In an article published at Journal of the International AIDS Society, Chris Beyrer and Monica Malta highlight setbacks on the Brazilian political and financial commitment

Read article from Buzzfeed about Russia government tactics against LGBT activism. Officials acuse human rights activists of being part of part “Western ‘Homosexualist Invasion’”. Click

Equador faces a double pattern in adressing reproductive and sexual rights: while Presidente Rafael Corrêa makes pression against abortion legalization, his Public Health Ministry leads

In article, New York Times discusses aspects of Rio de Janeiro policy on the organization of Olympic Games: brothles are being captured by an atmosphere

A report on the Situation of Afro-Brazilian Trans Women was presented during a thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last week in

The death of Gabriela Leite, on October 10, meant a great loss for the struggle for the rights of prostitutes, and sexual rights brodaly speaking,

Read Zillah Eisenstein’s article about Putin’s homophobic nationalism. The author says that “right-wing rhetoric, demonizing homosexuals and feminists is an attempt to stimulate his waning

Anti-sex work group, Equality Now, recently launched an attack on the UN over recommendations to decriminalise sex work in two reports on HIV and Sex

Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights brough interviews with scholars (Sealing Cheng and Thaddeus Blanchette) working on the connections between love, prostitution and

The Constitutional Court of South Africa decided that two sections of the Criminal Law Amendment Act are unconstitutional. The measeures were intended to criminalise consensual

At the award ceremony in Nuremberg Opera House on 29 September, 2013 Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, LGBTI activist from Uganda, received the award from Lord Mayor

The 6th Asia Pacific Population Conference (APPC) took place at the end of September in Bangkok. The final document brings recommendations on  gender equality and

Read the report of the 24th session of the Human Rights Council which concluded last week. Among the issues discussed, gender integration was one of

DAWN’s new website is now accessible. It brings a better search engine and a new media section. Click here to access it.

Read about a New Delhi community organization that offers care and counseling, but also empowers gay, lesbian and transgender people. Here.

SPW deeply laments the departure of our dear friend and collaborator, Sunila Abeysekera, a leading feminist and human rights activist from Sri Lanka whose legacies

The Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean ended on August 15, 2013 after country delegates agreed upon a groundbreaking

Read the new IDS Working Paper The Changing Faces of Citizen Action: A Mapping Study through an ‘Unruly’ Lens, which speaks of Brazilian contemporary experience of citizenship struggles.

Argentina: GLSEN – the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network – and UNESCO host meeting  to create Global Network of Researchers, Advocates Working on LGBT Issues in Education. Read more.

Around 1.8 billion young people worldwide are at risk of having their sexual and reproductive rights ignored in the next round of ICPD review. Amnesty International calls on you to tell world leaders: protect sexual and reproductive rights now and for the next generation! Support My Body, My Rights campaign.

El Salvador: Following an Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ determination, Salvadoran woman who sought abortion delivers baby after a C-section. Read more.

El Salvador: Supreme Court has denied a sick woman an immediate abortion, despite warnings from doctors that her life is at risk and the foetus is likely to survive only a few hours after birth. Read more.

Check out the new issue of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, available for purchase at the Online Library.

Brazil: The Commission for Human Rights and Minorities in Brazil’s lower house of parliament elected an evangelical pastor from the Christian Social party to be the president. The Congressman Marco Feliciano is accused of homophobia and racism and outcries has spread to street around the country. Read more.

SPW Newsletter No.12 aims to analyze how sexuality matters are debated in international human rights bodies, specifically within the recently reformed Inter-American Human Rights System and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC). In the case of UN HRC, this issue of the SPW Newsletter looks closely at the second round of Universal Periodical Review (UPR) of India and Brazil, held in May 2012. Our main goal was to explore how two of the so-called emerging powers have responded to the UPR process, if sexual and reproductive rights issues have or have not been addressed in these reviews, and how the Indian and Brazilian states have or have not reacted to recommendations made in relation to these topics. These brief analytical exercises provide interesting insights on the merits and limits of the UPR processes, as well the challenges implied in engaging with and monitoring these reviews.

Read “INTRODUCTION: Sexual and reproductive rights at the 2012 Universal Periodic Review of Brazil”, written for the SPW Newsletter N. 12, based on analysis of Magaly Pazello, from EMERGE-Communication and Emergence Research Centre and Women’s Networking Support Programme of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).

For the Newsletter N. 12, SPW interviewed Camila Asano, Coordinator of Foreign Policy and Human Rights at Conectas Human Rights, who participated of the second round of the Universal Periodical Review (UPR) of Brazil, at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), in Geneva, in May 2012. In this interview, Ms. Asano analyzed this mechanism for the human rights, explaining how this process works and highlighting recommendations to Brazil, challenges and perspectives. Read more.

Read “The Inter-American Human Rights System is under threat: Implications for the Sexuality and Human Rights Agenda”, written by Marcelo Ferreyra, Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator at Global Initiative for Sexuality and Human Rights – Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, for the SPW Newsletter N. 12.

Scott Long published at the blog A paper bird the article Resources for the unbelievers, on aid conditionality and LGBT rights. A series of contents regarding aid conditionality and LGBT rights is presented in this article, including some contents produced by some partners for the SPW Newsletter n.11. Read more.

Global: Gender equality and women’s human rights have continuously been a challenge and sexual and reproductive rights were not included in the Rio+20 document, which was a giant leap backwards. Read a series of contents on this issue.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) will take place in, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 20-22 June 2012. Check more information on the agenda regarding the women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health at the Rio+20 Summit.

Endorse the statement “Rights must be at the Centre of the Family Planning Summit”, prepared by Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), DAWN, the International Women’s Health Coalition and RESURJ regarding the new global family planning initiative led by Gates and DFID, which will be held in London on 11 July 2012. Read more.

Brazil: ABIA and SPW supported the Brazilian UPR Pre-session, which took place on April 2nd, in Geneva, presenting a short video and recommendations aiming to contextualize some recent aspects of human rights in the country.

Read the interview with Malu S. Marin, Executive Director of ACHIEVE – Action for Health Initiatives, in the Philippines. Ms. Marin talked on the work that she has been doing on HIV, health and migration issues for more than 11 years. She is also involved in the LGBT movement in the Philippines, mainly promoting representation of LGBTs in the political arena through her involvement in Ladlad Partylist, a political party for LGBTs founded in 2003.

Global: On March 7, 2012 the Human Rights Council in Geneva held the first-ever formal UN inter-governmental debate on violence and discrimination against LGBT people. 

The panel was moderated by the Ambassador of South Africa and featured panelists from Brazil, Pakistan, Sweden and the USA. Read more.

Endorse the “Our Rights, Our Lives: Women’s Call to Action toward the 20-year review of the Cairo conference in 2014”. It was developed by an inter-generational group of over 30 feminists convened by Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ), International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). Read the call.

The Brazilian Association of Studies on Homoculture (ABEH) released the first version of the schedule, the menu of group themes, and the composition of the scientific commission of the VI International Conference of Studies on Sexual and Gender Diversity that is going to take place at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, on August 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 2012.

Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) and the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) were involved in the production of reports on the status of human rights in Brazil for the second Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council, which will be held in June 2012. Read the reports.

In the The Equal Rights Review (Volume Seven), it is debated human rights violations. Some people are at higher risk of having their rights violated. When the higher risk is associated with more or less stable personal characteristics such as gender, religion, race, disability, sexual orientation, etc., and materialises in a less favourable treatment or a particular disadvantage, the result may amount to discrimination: a violation of the fundamental right to equality.

Syria: Authorities arrested Syrian blogger, feminist, and activist for free expression Razan Ghazzawi on December 4th, 2011. Read the statement written by human rights activists and defenders.

December 1st is the World AIDS Day. Despite recent advances on treatment and prevention projects, women are still missing in policies to fight and prevent

More than just talk: the framing of transactional sex and its implications for vulnerability to HIV in Lesotho, Madagascar and South Africa is a cross-country publication generated by the HIV, Globalization and Economic Flows Collaboration, funded by HEARD and IDRC. The publication contributes to better understanding the meaning of transactional sex by focusing on everyday ‘talk’ about transactional sex for both transactional sex participants and observers in three countries-Lesotho, Madagascar and South Africa.

In the Volume Six of The Equal Rights Review, The Equal Rights Trust searches for answers to questions like: If equality is understood as a fundamental human right and a basic principle of social justice (this is how it is described in the ERT mission statement), what does it mean in respect to health? How is health equality thinkable? While there is a wealth of literature in political theory, health care policy, economics, social medicine and medical law addressing the central issues of relevance to health equality, an equality and human rights law approach is underdeveloped.

The Sexuality Policy Watch is hosting the Inter-Regional Dialogue on Sexuality and Politics prior to its Advisory Group regular meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 26-29, 2011.

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Justice: A Comparative Law Casebook, by the International Commission of Jurists is the first book of its kind. It collects and analyzes judicial decisions from more than 100 courts around the world. The Casebook showcases the role of international and comparative law in litigation seeking to vindicate the human rights of LGBT individuals. It is organized into fourteen chapters, each consisting of an introduction to the main legal issues and arguments followed by detailed case summaries.

A number of factors hampered our ability to deliver the 10th SPW Newsletter in early 2011, as planned. On the one hand, we regret and apologize for this delay. On the other, it is rather striking to note that how, in such a relatively short period of time, the world scenario has been swept by a sequence of outstanding events and trends, whose meaning and effects can not yet be fully grasped. So, in this issue you can find information on the cycle of “Regional Dialogues on Sexuality and Geopolitics”, that is finalyzing in late September 2011, with an inter-regional meeting which will take place in Rio de Janeiro to share and process the outcomes of the three dialogues and to prepare the foundation for a global publication, planned for 2012. In the section “Around the world”, you can read reflections on how sexual politics intersect with a shifting landscape, as well as on the relevants global meetings in terms of the intersections between sexuality and politics. Find also the sections “Advocacy: keep an eye”, “Sexuality in Art”, “Check it out” and “We Recommend”, with suggestions of publications, resources, papers, articles, and relevant links.

APC launches the final reports of the EroTICs: Sexuality and the Internet – an exploratory research, with the full research findings from Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa and United States, that delve into the complexities of policy and legislative trends on internet content regulation, map key actors and processes, and document how sexuality figures as a central theme in this debate. Read more.

Read Claiming Rosa Parks: Strategic Secularism and Human Rights in Latin America, a paper by Prof. Lynn M. Morgan about Rosa Parks Prize delivered to anti-choice Argentine senator Liliana Negre de Alonso in 2009. Download PDF.

Global: Read the article published by ARC International on the 17th session of the Human Rights Council (May 30 to June 17 2011).

The EroTICs: Sexuality and the Internet – an exploratory research, lauched by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), looks at how the internet plays host to critical information about sex education, health, fighting sex discrimination and defining one’s own sexuality. It debunks the commonly-held view that sexuality online is just about pornography. The EroTICs project took place between June 2008 and June 2011 and was funded by The Ford Foundation. Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) and the Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM) developed the Brazilian EroTICs research.

From May 30 to June 17, 2011, the “17th session of the UN Human Rights Council” took place in Geneva, Switzerland. Invited by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Marina Maria, SPW’s communication and project assistant, participated in the panel Internet rights are human rights, organized by APC on June 3, to present some outcomes from the research “EroTICs: Sex, rights and the internet – An exploratory research study”.

GENERAL REMARKS BY BRAZIL, L.9/Rev.1 Human Rights Council 17th Regular Session Agenda Item 8 Decisions L.9/Rev.1 Geneva, 17 June 2011 GENERAL REMARKS BY BRAZIL Thank you

The following is a rough English translation of the statement read in Arabic by the Saudi Arabia representative at the HRC session in Geneva: Your

> UN endorses gay, transgender rights, Boston.com > Bahamas backs UN resolution on gay rights, Caribbean News Today > Nigeria oppose UN gay rights resolution, Next.com > U.N. rights

United Nations: Human Rights Council passes first-ever Resolution on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in a historic decision. Read more.

Lesbian Group Kontra and Iskorak – Group for Promotion and Protection of Different Sexual Orientations have just released the 2010 Annual Report on the Status of Human Rights and Gender Minorities in Croatia. Read the publication.

In October 2010, Institut Pelangi Perempuan, the Indonesian Youth Lesbian Center, launched the Yogyakarta Principles comic strip. Read the comic version and an interview published at ILGA’s website with Kamilia, a young feminist and lesbian activist currently the Executive Director of the organization.

Global: Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights has received $1 million over five years from the Community-University Research Alliances program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Read more.

USA: Read the statement by the White House’s Press Secretary on Ending Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

Watch the series of interviews made by Rachel Maddow with David Bahati, the parliamentarian who proposed the so called “kill the gays” bill in Uganda.

UN – Joint statement on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation & gender identity 1. We recall the

Global: Read and follow up on the joint declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity, read by Colombia on behalf of 85 member countries during the UN Human Rights Council 16th session.

SPW has contacted Serra Sippel, director of CHANGE: Center for Health and Gender Equity, and asked her what are the practical implications of the positive

USA: After the United Nations evaluation of the United States’ human rights record, the U.S. released a report to the U.N. affirming that “no one should face violence or discrimination in access to public services based on sexual orientation or their status as a person in prostitution.”

Read the short report “The Body and the State: How the State Controls and Protects the Body”, written by Rafael de la Dehesa about the 23rd Social Research Conference, held on February 10-12, 2011 at the New School University, New York City. The text brings a brief description of some of the speeches and presentations at the Conference.

Read “Repoliticizing sexual and reproductive health and rights – Report of a global meeting” held in Langkawi, Malaysia, in August 3-6, 2010.

Egypt: In the recent mobilizations for freedom and democracy in the country, the force of organisations consisting of women and youth was decisive. Read the articles Why Egypt’s progressives win, by Paul Amar, Imperial Feminism, Islamophobia, and the Egyptian Revolution, by Nadine Naber, analyzing this Egyptian context, and more.

Read Laura Agustin’s article Sex, Lies and Videotaping, about BBC World Debate programme on Human Trafficking, at the Naked Anthropologist on Migration, Trafficking and Sex blog.

Mexico: Susana Chavez, a human rights activist best known for her poetry and actions to help raise awareness of the violence towards women, was murdered in Ciudad Juarez, a gritty border metropolis that has become Mexico’s most violent city. Read more.

Brazil: Brazilian Human Rights and gender equality activists send a manifesto against the way abortion was treated during the last election period in Brazil to the President Dilma Rousseff and Ministers. Read more.

Read The extraordinary life and death of David Burgess, on the death of a brilliant immigration lawyer. Burgess also was Sonia and died under a London tube train in October 2010. In this article, Burgess’s family and friends tell the complicated story of the loving father, brilliant colleague, sensitive woman and courageous person they knew.

Read the article Putting the “Universal” Back in the Universal Declaration, written by John Fisher, Co-Director of ARC International. This short article focuses on the recent developments at the UN, with an overview of both progress and challenges on LGBT issues in the international arena.

Read the article “Operating logic”, written by Mauro Ï Cabral, on medical interventions or mutilation in intersex people.

Brazil: On December 1st, 2010 was celebrated the World AIDS Day and, to mark this date, representatives of Brazilian NGOs, including the SPW’s Co-chairs Richard Parker and Sonia Corrêa, participated in a meeting with an UNAIDS mission that visited Brazil. Read more on it and other HIV/AIDS issues.

Brazil: On November 29th, representatives of Brazilian NGOs, including the SPW’s Co-chairs Richard Parker and Sonia Corrêa, participated in a meeting with an UNAIDS mission that visited Brazil. The visit occured in the week of December 1st that marks the International Day of Fight against AIDS, therefore we also offer more information on HIV/AIDS.

The issue Struggle for Equality – Sexual orientation, gender identity and human rights in Africa of the publication Perspectives – Political analysis and commentary from Africa, supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, gathers articles that despite the myriad of challenges and hostile environmen, show that there is an ongoing engagement and growing movement towards equality for LGBTI people throughout the continent. Read the publication.

Cuba: Read the statement of SOCUMES and CENESEX on the Cuban vote at the Third Committee of UN General Assembly in support of the amendment which removed the explicitly mention of “sexual orientation” at the periodic resolution condemning the extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary executions.

Africa: The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights denied observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL). CAL and other lesbian feminist activists rapidly reacted. Read more.

Jamaica: A recently produced public service announcement focuses attention on the need to respect LGBT individuals and features prominent Jamaicans requesting tolerance of the Jamaican LGBT community. Read more and watch the video.

Regulating Sexuality: Legal Consciousness in Lesbian and Gay Lives, by Rosie Harding, explores the impact that recent seismic shifts in the legal landscape have had for lesbians and gay men. In this study of the interaction between law and society in social justice movements, the author interweaves insights from the new legal pluralism with legal consciousness studies to present a rich and nuanced exploration of the contemporary regulation of sexuality. Read more.

Global: For 79 votes for and 70 votes against the amendment proposed, and 17 countries abstaining, governments remove sexual orientation from UN Resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

ARC International (www.arc-international.net) is releasing an “Activist’s Guide to The Yogyakarta Principles”, a tool for those who are working to create change and build on the momentum that has already begun around the Yogyakarta Principles.

Global: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced in September, 14th that former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet will head UN Women, an agency formed in July to pull together four existing U.N. bodies dealing with the advancement and welfare of women.

Global: The United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously on July, 2nd to create a new entity to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide, establishing the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — the new gender equality entity at the UN.

The UN Special Rapporteur to health, Anand Grover, has dedicated his thematic report at the 14th session of the UN Human Rights Council to issues

Brazil: On May 13th, 2010, President Lula finally signed a new decree altering the text of III National Program for Human Rights (PNDH3), in which the Catholic Church and other conservative voices’ prevailed. Read “The III Brazilian Human Rights Program: a last chapter?”, an analisis by Jandira Queiroz and Sonia Corrêa, members of the SPW team.

IDAHO: The International Day Against Homophobia, held on May 17 every year, is a rallying event offering an opportunity for people to get together and reach out to one another. Fondation Émergence promotes the International Day Against Homophobia and encourages organisations and individuals to highlight this event in their environment. Get involved.

Check out The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) AKIMBO blog. IWHC leads global and local actions to secure every woman’s right to a just and healthy life. The blog Akimbo is where IWHC publishes perspectives on world events and policies affecting women’s health and rights. Visit it now!

Europe: The Secretary General of the Council of Europe welcomes the decision of the Committee of Ministers on Wednesday 31 March, 2010 to adopt a recommendation to member states on measures to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Guatemala: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover, visited Guatemala City on March 22 and 23 to participate in the civil society consultation for Central America, Mexico and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean.

During the 54th UN Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York, in March, 2010, Ipas, IPPF and the Government of The Netherlands

CONTENTS I. SPW ACTIVITIES / EDITORIAL Since late September 2009, the SPW executive team has been engaged in a wide variety of activities. First and

See news on the Human Rights Council.

2.8 The abortion front lines In the struggle for legal abortion, as well, good news is often accompanied by bad news. As we were finalizing

2.6 Human Rights violations Turkey: Multiple Murders of transgender people highlight inadequate state protection Jamaica: British Honorary Consul John Terry murdered in his bedroom. The

2.3 Global and regional relevant events > The Panel Discussion on Opposing grave Human Rights Violations on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The EroTICS Brazilian case study: A short article synthesizing the findings of this first level of investigation was written by SPW and Clam and will soon published by Gender IT.

From 1-12 March 2010, the Commission on the Status of Women undertook a fifteen-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. Member States, representatives of non-governmental organizations and of UN entities participated in the session. A series of parallel events provided additional opportunities for information exchange and networking. See below a complete converge.

Read the article “Abortion and Human Rights: the current Brazilian controversy”, by Sonia Corrêa, on the important setbacks in regard to abortion that Brazil has been experiencing in recent years.

Planned preparatory meetings on the 26th and 27th of January 2010, preceded the main event, with themes directly related to the defence of LGBT rights.

As well as examples of achievements regarding public policy and LGBTI citizenship in Latin America, the conference also promoted the exchange of experiences about different

There were several government representatives present at the opening ceremony, including: Human Rights Minister, Paulo Vanucchi and from within the same department, the national co-ordinator

Brazil: 5th ILGA-LAC Conference brings together more than 400 LGBT activists in Curitiba, Brazil.

MANIFESTE LA TRANSEXUALITÉ N’EST PAS UNE MALADIE! POUR LA SUPPRESSION DE LA TRANSEXUALITÉ DU DSM ET DU CID! Nous, participants du Dialogue Latino-américain sur Sexualité

In this issue, you find information on what SPW has been involved since October, 2009. First and foremost, we made further progress on preparation for the Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics and the African Regional Dialogue will held in the last week September, 2010. Following the recommendation of the Latin American Regional Dialogue, we have added our voices to a global campaign that has been underway since May 2009 by developing, together with partners, a statement calling for the de-pathologization of transexuality. In the session “Around the world”, we highlight on the one hand the regressive legislation proposed in Uganda, which aims to further criminalize “homosexual” behavior, and on the other hand you find information on the same sex marriage legislation recently approved in the Federal District of Mexico. Read also about other regional highlights, and recent sexuality/sexual rights advocacy, like the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). See what projects and events connect art and sexuality and browse listings of upcoming events, scholarships, job opportunities and publications.

By Mauro ï Cabral (1) 1. Each year, during this week, I write a text that can be short or long, as well as more

France: In February 2010, France became the first country in the world to remove transsexuality from its official list of mental disorders.

Transexuality is not a disease Calling for the elimination of transexuality from the DSM and ICD We, as participants of the Latin American Regional Dialogue

Chile: The SPW team is shocked with the disaster that devastated Chile on February 27, 2010, the hundreds of deaths and the many risks that may ensue the disaster that has been catastrophic for every sector of society, including Chile’s feminist and LGBTI communities.

Haiti: The SPW team is shocked with the disaster that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, the thousands of deaths and the many risks that may ensue the disaster that has been catastrophic for every sector of society, including Haiti’s feminist and LGBTI communities.

Mexico: In 2009, December 21, the Mexican capital became the first in Latin America to allow same-sex marriage with a groundbreaking law which could set a precedent for gay rights across the region.

USA: Even with Obama, the prostitution pledge remains on place in the case of PEPFAR, the US Funding for HIV/AIDS.

USA: Grave human rights violations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity were the focus of a panel discussion organised on Human Rights Day 2009 on December 10, in the United Nations, in New York , defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Available on Facebook Immoral, and a threat to the youth. When the 2nd Division of the Commission on Elections rejected Ang Ladlad’s application for accreditation

Uganda: The draft “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” introduced on October 14, 2009 in Uganda’s parliament would violate human rights and should be withdrawn immediately, a group of local and international human rights organizations.

A series of regional meetings has been organized by the United Nations regional commissions — ECA, ECE, ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA — in preparation for the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, from 1-12 March 2010, in New York. See the agenda.

In this issue, you find information on the main activities which SPW has been involved since June. The first one is the Latin American Regional Dialogue on Sexuality and Geoplitics that took place in Rio de Janeiro, in August, and gathered close to 50 researchers and activists to reflect on the sexual political landscape in the region. The other important activity is that SPW’s is involved in the global research EroTICs: Sexuality and the internet – an exploratory research project, organized by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC WNSP). Read also about global and local events involving sexuality, politics, as well as recent sexuality/sexual rights advocacy. See what projects and events connect art and sexuality and browse listings of upcoming events, scholarships, job opportunities and publications.

Zimbabwe: The director of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), Keith Goddard has died on October 9th, 2009 after a short illness.

Second session—Science and Sexual Politics Afternoon – August 24, 2009 The overview paper presented in the afternoon section, Science, Gender and Sexuality, was written by

First Session – Sexuality, States and Political Processes Morning—August 24 , 2009 The first session of the Latin American Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics was

Panama Declaration Meeting of women representing regional Networks in latin America and the Caribbean in the process of Cairo +15 Panama, 3-5 August 2009 The

Sexuality and Human Rights – Discussion Paper was commissioned by the International Council on Human Rights Policy from Alice M. Miller, Lecturer in Residence and

In this issue learn what SPW has been doing since January, including the Asian Regional Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in April 10-12, 2009, and the web-based survey to evaluate the use and application of the Yogyakarta Principles whithin Brazilian LGBT activists, groups and researchers. Read also about global and local events involving sexuality, politics, as well as recent sexuality/sexual rights advocacy. See what projects and events connect art and sexuality and browse listings of upcoming events, scholarships, job opportunities and publications.

UN Human Rights Council – Urging Governments to Support Resolution on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights at the Upcoming session (June 2 – 18).

The UN Conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, held in Geneva during April 2009, was a follow up to the Conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, and its Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA).

Turkey: Transgender human rights activist is murdered – the second killing of a member of Lambda Istanbul in the past year

Asia, with its high-income countries and rapidly industrializing centers rising in the midst of widespread poverty and regional inequalities, is a primary source and locus

Internet Regulation and Sexual Politics in Brazil The issue 55(2) of Development – Citzenship for Change assesses the potential and unpacks the myths around new

During the 4th session of the Human Rights Council, one key event was the launching of the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human

Read the third edition of the Knowing Our Rights: Women, family, laws and customs in the Muslim world, organized by Women Living under Muslim Laws

In this issue we highlight the UN declaration on sexual orientation, gender identity and human rights and the long anticipated end of the Bush Era: Welcome Obama! Other updates, materials and texts are provided in the sections Advocacy: keep an eye and Sexuality in Art. In Check it out, you can find links to job opportunities, scholarships, upcoming events and publications.

This issue brings information about the main activities developed by SPW during the last semester as well as the various launchings of Yogyakarta Principles and other debates on sexuality related issues that took places around the world. You will also find the section “Sexuality in Art” and links to job opportunities, scholarships and events we should “keep an eye”.

In this issue read the first article of a series produced by SPW about the Pope Benedict XVI visit to Brazil on May 2007 and its implications for national political debates on sexuality and human rights. See also the proposal for the SPW participation at the 6th International Conference organized by International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS) and check the suggestions about publications, events and opportunities.

Oral Statement By Soha Abdelaty Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network Oral Statement by Soha Abdelaty 10 March 2008 Interactive Dialogue, Agenda Item 3 Working Group on

By Daniel Sarmento* One of the most important human rights issues in the current world regards discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Notwithstanding

By Marina Maria* The First Brazilian National GLBT Conference will be held in Brasília between June, 6th – 8th, 2008. Roughly 600 participants are expected,

By Angela Collet* Since its creation in 2006, the Human Rights Council has been engaged in intense efforts to advance the notion of sexual rights

By Angela Collet* On June 8th, the Human Rights Council approved the appointment of Anand Grover as the new Special Rapporteur on the right of

By Marina Maria* The First Brazilian National Conference on LGBT public policies was held in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, from June 5th to 8th

Since March 15th, 2006, when the resolution creating the Human Rights Council was adopted by the UN General Assembly, the Council have met in four sessions. The 5th session of the HRC will take place from June 11th to 18th, 2007, when it is expected that the ongoing HRC institution building process will be completed.

Svati Shah* Along with shifts in the global economy and a new presidential administration in the U.S.A., 2008 also brought the possibility of change in

By Gloria Careaga* In New York City on December 18th, 2008, 66 UN member states joined together for the first time ever to support a

By Dotty Aken’ova* It has been almost two years since the bill prohibiting same sex marriage in Nigeria was introduced to the national house of

Considerations about the Principles By Mauro Cabral* The Yogyakarta Principles are the outcome of a long and difficult historical process through which the diversity of

Human Rights Council review process: opportunity to advocate for sexual rights Since March 15th, 2006, when the resolution creating the Human Rights Council was adopted

SPW, ABIA and Conectas Human Rights facilitated a South American Consultation on Right to Health called by Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, March 25th and 26th, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Documents for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Second Cycle – Brazil In May 2012, the second cycle of the Brazilian UPR took place at the

Hanoi, Vietnam – April 10 – 12, 2009 Asia is one of the fastest-changing regions in the world. Considering this, the Asian Dialogue on Sexuality

On 7 October 2008, a special reception was held at the City University of New York (CUNY) in the USA to honor the new book Sexuality, Health and Human Rights by Sonia Corrêa, Richard Parker and Rosalind Petchesky, published by Routledge in August 2008.

The Yokyakarta Principles have been translated into Portuguese and were launched in a series of events in Brazil, held in 2007, in Porto Alegre (August 24th), Rio de Janeiro (August 27th), Nova Iguaçu (August, 31st), and São Paulo (August, 31st).

The book Sexuality, Health and Human Rights was published by Routledge in August 2008, and written by SPW’s Steering Committee members Sonia Corrêa, Richard Parker and Rosalind Petchesky. This ground breaking work provides a critical analysis of shifting theoretical perspectives and activist strategies regarding sexual politics and their larger geopolitical context in the twenty-first century.

NEW! The report The Role of Global-Level Advocacy in Addressing HIV among Key Population details strategies used and outcomes achieved by five constituency-led global network

The book Development with a Body, edited by Andrea Cornwall, Sonia Corrêa and Susan Jolly and recently published by Zed Books, offers compelling insights into contemporary challenges and transformative possibilities of the struggle for sexual rights. This is one of the results of the Seminar on Sexuality, Development and Human Rights (April, 2006).

The X IASSCS Conference, hosted at Dublin City University, Ireland, proposes to investigate the politics, nature, roles and effects of sexual (and gender) literacy in

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