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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.

Since we released our second 2025 bulletin, last December, the world has gotten worse. What happened in Venezuela on January 3, with the capture of Nicolás Maduro by US military forces in Caracas and his imprisonment on US territory, has radically altered the world order, with effects far beyond Latin America.

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).

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

By Judith ButlerPublished at The Guardian As Trump delivers a series of devastating and appalling executive orders and public pronouncements every day, it has never been

In 2024, more than 60 countries held or will hold elections at different levels of government. The contests aren’t only about who gets elected, but

When Trump was elected for the first time, in 2016, we published a compilation of articles that predominantly analyzed the astonishment that the election result

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 –

Misinformation campaigns and the future of Bangladesh-India relations – The Daily Star Hasina fled Bangladesh, leaving behind a ‘beaten’ Indian security establishment – Nenews Cannot

English If Trump Wins – NY Times Why Trump’s Second Victory Would Be Worse – The Nation The Theocratic Blueprint for Trump’s Next Term –

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

Niger coup: What is Russia’s role? – DW Russia uses social media channels to exploit Niger coup – The Guardian Prigozhin celebrates Niger coup, says

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

A Meditation on Death, Killing, and Possibility I knew my body was healing from the surgery when I found myself ready to engage with the

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

Senegal’s Macky Sall rules out third term after deadly protests – AlJazeera The sexual assault case behind Senegal’s unrest – AlJazeera Senegalese women fear rights

Tunisia: Rached Ghannouchi sentencing part of ‘aggressive crackdown’ by Kais Saied – Middle East Eye Rached Ghannouchi arrest ‘tragic loss’ for Tunisia and region, academics

  English How foreign aid supported anti-LGBTQ+ advocates in Uganda – Devex Calls for US anti-rights groups to face action over Uganda anti-gay law –

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

This article is one of the chapters of the book “This is War”, written by the Polish feminist journalist Klementyna Suchanova. We dearly thanks her

English Iranian woman dies ‘after being beaten by morality police’ over hijab law – The Guardian  Iran unrest: Women burn headscarves at anti-hijab protests –

As Brazil was stunned by January 8th storming rioters against the buildings of Federal Administration, Congress and Supreme Court, we collected analysis to better understand the roots, circumstances and outcomes of the “infamous Sunday”.

The case of the 11-year-old girl raped and barred by a female judge from having a legal abortion in Santa Catarina had wide repercussions in

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,

By Jamil Chade* Dear young girl, While your story was the subject of a dramatic debate in Brazil, I tell you that in a room

>>> 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.

English The Johnny Depp–Amber Heard Verdict Is Chilling – The New Yorker The Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial was an orgy of misogyny – The Guardian

English 100 Days of War: Death, Destruction and Loss – NY Times Ukraine round-up: 100 days of war and some Russians refuse to fight –

English The situation of Ukrainian trans people during the war – Insight ‘Lawful transphobia’ stopping Ukraine’s trans community from fleeing – Euronews ‘Danger everywhere’: War

>>> 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

By Manuela Lavinas Picq. This law is a victory for regulating the right to abortion due to rape, even allowing survivors to avoid police procedures, but advocates of decriminalization contested exclusionary aspects that will affect the most vulnerable. The dark side of the law? The deadlines.

Since 2020, intense controversies against “gender” and trans rights have been unfolding that are mobilized by “gender-critical” feminist strands. As mentioned in previous issues, these

In this article, we present an analysis of narratives mobilised by extreme right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

By Emil Edenborg In Vladimir Putin’s speech on February 24, announcing what would be a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine (in his official Orwellian euphemism, a “special

Para acessar o artigo da The New Yorker Is a Civil War Ahead?

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.

Is Trump’s power over Republicans starting to slip? – BBC All the Republicans Who Won’t Support Trump – NY Times A Prominent Anti-Trump Republican Says

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

LGBT hate crime bill polarizes Italy – Politico Vatican urges Italy to stop proposed anti-homophobia law – The Guardian Vatican defends intervention over Italy anti-homophobia

Is Cuba’s Communist Party Finally Losing Its Hold on the Country? – New Yorker ‘I’m surprised it took so long’: Cubans find anger in their

Pedro Castillo Terrones is 51 years old and is a primary school teacher, farmer, and militia member. He studied education and obtained a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the Universidad César Vallejo. He gained public notoriety after leading the teachers’ strike in 2017 and 2018 which stopped classes for months with the demand for salary improvements and the elimination of teacher evaluation. He was active in Perú Posible, the party of former president Alejandro Toledo, and was a member of the Cajamarca committee from 2005 until 2017, when the grouping lost its registration.

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

Go to the conference website

In his artistic practice, Léon Ferrari makes use of different languages, such as sculpture, drawing, writing, collage, assemblage, installation, and video. This heterogeneous set of

COVID-19 encounters Black Lives Matter In June, however, another wave of protests swept over the global political landscape, also targetting State repression but carrying an

Berlin protests against coronavirus rules divide German leaders – The Guardian Neonazistas, conspiracionistas e antivacinas marcham an Alemanha pelo fim do isolamento – El País

From insight to action: gender equality in the wake of covid-19 – UN Women Recession With a Difference: Women Face Special Burden – NY Times

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

COVID-19 to Add as Many as 150 Million Extreme Poor by 2021 – World Bank What crisis? Billionaires rack up record fortunes, survey shows –

Brazil Hits 7 Million Cases With Infections Picking Up Speed – Bloomberg Brazil’s president rejects COVID-19 vaccine, undermining a century of progress toward universal inoculation

Offline: COVID-19 is not a pandemic – The Lancet The COVID-19 syndemic is not global: context matter – The Lancet One stillbirth every 16 seconds,

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.

Read Richard Horton’s essay on biopolitics during COVID-19

Proposition Number Year Author Party Federative Unit PL 478/2020 478 2007 Luis Bassuma PT BA PL 3406/2019 3406 2019 Eduardo Girão PODE CE

CONGRESS Proposition Number Year Author Party Federative Unit PEC 164/2012 164 2012 Eduardo Cunha and others PMDB RJ PEC 181/2015 181 2015 Aécio Neves PSDB

Proposition Number Year Author Party Federative Unit Object INC 443/2020 443 2020 Chris Tonietto PSL RJ Recommends the Supreme Court to dismiss the bill that

Majority says winner of presidential election should nominate next Supreme Court justice, Post-ABC poll finds – Washington Post Trump’s Selection of Amy Coney Barrett for

We have updated our position to align with evolving international human rights law and standards, to make it as inclusive as possible, and to ensure it addresses the full range of barriers that impede access to safe abortion and the full range of human rights violations due to criminalization of abortion.

By Sonia Corrêa & Rajnia de Vito Recently, references to pedophilia have increased vertiginously in Brazilian social networks and the press. At first glance, this

A series of memes and messages were recently circulated throughout the continent with the aim of alerting people to an alleged movement that would be

July, 2019  Isabela Kalil: Políticas de direita criam ‘Bolsonaro protetor de mulheres’, diz estudiosa – Universa  Isabela Kalil: ‘O bolsonarismo é maior que Bolsonaro’: projeto

A summary of the article “Corona protests: The cross front for trivialization” authored by Nils Markwardt and published at Die Zeit in May 2020. By

PROTECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF LGBTI PEOPLE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC – Amnesty International LGBTQ Inequality and Vulnerability in the Pandemic – HRW COVID-19 pandemic

North America US The Coronavirus Crisis Inside Prisons Won’t Stay Behind Bars – NY Times Stop Unnecessary Arrests to Slow Coronavirus Spread – NY Times

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

World Indigenous groups in Canada, Australia, Brazil brace for coronavirus – Washington Post US Why has Navajo Nation been hit so hard by the coronavirus?

What’s Really Behind the Gender Gap in Covid-19 Deaths? – New York Times India’s coronavirus pandemic shines a light on the curse of caste –

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

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

English Black Lives Matter The Souls of White Folk – Verso Books Illiberal Racisms, Extremism and the Discursive Reconstruction of the Far Right – Verso

By Lorena Moraes* Last weekend, the largest Brazilian national survey on Covid-19 suffered resistance in a number of cities, most of them located in the

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

English Germany Politicians worry about radicalization at anti-lockdown protests – Deutsche Welle US Tea Party 2.0: What the Reopen Protest have in common with the

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

MAY / JUNE English Laid Off and Locked Up: Virus Traps Domestic Workers in Arab States – NY Times A FAMILY SEPARATED BETWEEN EL SALVADOR

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

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

SPW begins a series of brief analyses of the Covid-19 crisis in contexts that are generally under-reported by the mainstream press and which are characterized

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

English States must combat domestic violence in the context of COVID-19 lockdowns – UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, endorsed by other UN rights

Mena countries COVID-19: Impact on MENA Countries – Arab Reform Initiative COVID-19 in the Middle East: Is this pandemic a health crisis or a war?

English COVID-19: States should not abuse emergency measures to suppress human rights – UN experts COVID-19: Who is protecting the people with disabilities? – Special

English COVID-19 fears should not be exploited to attack and exclude minorities – UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues “Unacceptable”: UN expert urges better protection of

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’ –

Iran ‘Armageddon’: When coronavirus struck a Tehran hospital – Middle East Eye Iran’s corona-diplomacy – Brookings Politics in the Time of Corona: Tehran (Hosted by

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

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

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

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

SPW is pleased to announce the collection Anti-gender Politics in Latin America, comprised of 9 case studies from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador,

India’s New Laws Hurt Women Most of All – Foreign Policy We Are Seeing, for the First Time, a Sustained Countrywide Movement Led by Women

“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

Brazilian outlet AzMina faces criminal complaints, online harassment over abortion article – CPJ Jornalistas são alvos de ataques em redes sociais após publicação de reportagem

On December 3rd, sociologist Jacqueline Pitanguy became the target of a serious accusation by the Brazilian Minister of Family Women and Human Rights, Damares Alves,

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

Indian police have shot dead four men suspected of raping and killing a young female vet in Hyderabad last week. The men were in police

By Isabela Kalil The Context On October 29, 2019, Jornal Nacional (the main Brazilian television newspaper, broadcast by Rede Globo) reported that the name of

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).

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

SPW has the pleasure to present the work of Pará born (Brazil) artist Berna Reale. Berna is one of the finalists of the 2019 Pipa

Leaked documents show Brazil’s Bolsonaro has grave planes for Amazon rainforest – openDemocracy The Amazon Fire Isn’t Just Climate Change—It’s Political Violence – Bitch Media

#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 Sonia Corrêa A few days before completing the symbolic mark of Jair Messias Bolsonaro’s – or  JMB’s – first 100 days of government, consecrated

By Fábio Grotz A continuous state of war driven by the government is what drives the speech and activities of actors engaged in the redemptive

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

The recent measures against sociology and philosophy in public universities that have been announced by the minister of education, and supported by the president, clarify

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

– What do humans have to do not to have regret at that last second before we die? That is one of Elizabeth Streb’s moving

Brazil’s National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC) expresses solidarity with young Christian Evangelical Camila Montovani who, after a series of threats, will have to leave

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

The Sultan of Brunei: opulence, power and hard-line Islam – The New York Times Will Brunei’s anti-LGBT Sharia law spread across Southeast Asia? – CNN

What happened in New Zealand is no coincidence – openDemocracy Jacinda Arden is leading by following no one – The New York Times The Myth of

Recife, 15 March 2019. We are in a political moment marked by setbacks and by obscurantism against universities, which attack their finest traits: critical thinking,

#Hail International Women’s Day 2019: struggle, endurance, resistance! #Eyes on Brazil From an insider´s point of view, observing Brazilian politics after January 1st is like being caught

As 2018 reaches its end, SPW publishes a recollection of main events, trends, discoveries and challenges as we start 2019 and prepare for all the

In November 2015, on the trail of the “feminist occupations”, we published for the first time the work of the black painter Rosana Paulino, whose

As SPW has been reporting monthly on how the Nicaraguan crisis develops, we report another sad event that targets feminist activists on 23 November. Activities

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

In a time of mourning, processing and making our best to re-exist in the glooming post-electoral atmosphere in Brazil, SPW brings back to our screens

Text by Berenice Bento (UnB) published at Outras Palavras, on Dec. 12, 2018. Translated by SPW. Available here. At first glance, nothing seems stranger to

Text originally published at Artememoria. Available here. Curator Gaudêncio Fidelis on Queermuseum, his exhibition that was closed down because of pressure from the far-right. INTERVIEW

José Miguel Nieto Olivar* ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to understand feminine and indigenous forms of agency, especially that of the young women

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

We, the undersigned, members of the academic community and civil society organizations, denounce the persecution suffered by advocates of the LGBTI+ community and demonstrate our

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

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

Authors The initiative Mawjoudin for equality is a Tunisian association that fights for equality and the rights of LGBTIQ people. Damj The Tunisian Association for

Papers and articles Just as U.S. Media Does With MLK, Brazil’s Media Is Trying to Whitewash and Exploit Marielle Franco’s Political Radicalism – The Intercept

On March 14th, 2018, Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes were brutally assassinated in a shootout a week after Women’s International Day.  Marielle was

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.

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

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

On Wednesday, February 14, Parkland suffered a violent episode of mass shooting at the Stoneman Douglas High School depicted by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who was

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

Ex-Miss Febem is the avatar of Aleta Valente, a Brazilian artist who lives in the peripheric neighborhood Bangu in Rio de Janeiro, where many correctional

On the completion of Egon Schiele’s 100th birthday, Vienna’s Tourist Board started a campaign to promote art exhibitions in honour of Schiele’s work all over

Sex Abuse Case Shadows Pope Francis’ Visit to Peru – The New York Times Pope Francis arrives in crisis-hit Peru – BBC News Why Pope

Repression and marginalisation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Queer (LGBTQ) people across the world have limited safe opportunities for LGBTQ people to meet up but

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

As 2018 begins, SPW highlights the main events and trends as well as tensions and challenges traversing sexual politics worldwide. Trends and Facts January In

The #MeToo movement erupted in October 2017  after several sexual harassment accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein became public. It is worth noting, however, that

By Sonia Corrêa In the third week of October 2017, an array of openly right-wing formations comprised of the Catholic hierarchy, evangelical Christians, conservative psychologists

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

  Stonewall’s new report LGBT in Britain: Hate Crime and Discrimination is out now and reveals high levels of hate crime and discrimination in the

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

By Sonia Corrêa Anna Kahn is a Brazilian photographer who lives in Rio. In  2007, she made public the series Stray Bullet  in which she

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

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

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

Anti-occupation LGBTQ activists block Tel Aviv pride parade – 972 The Latest: Tear Gas, Checkpoints Greet LGBT Pride in Turkey – U.S News The Baltic

Text by Marlise Richter* originally published at Daily Maverick on May 29, 2017. Available here.  I am writing to you now that my fingers can

In May 2017, Sexuality&Art featured Paola Paredes, an Ecuadorian photographer engaged in groundbreaking work centered on ‘disclosure’.  Her last photo series, titled  Until you Change 

Donald Trump is dramatically expanding the federal government’s support for healthcare organisations that agree to not provide abortion services. Read more on the Independent. The

Ecuadorian artist Paola Paredes has created a photo series, titled “Until You Change“, to protest against the existence of underground centers intended to “cure” homosexuality in Ecuador.

They Have Long Arms and They Can Find Me’: Anti-Gay Purge by Local Authorities in Russia’s Chechen Republic – Human RIghts Watch report News Update:

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.

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 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

by Sonia Corrêa Last week, in Rio, I visited an exhibition of drawings, painting, and sculptures produced by persons belonging to the ‘first nations’ of

The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic states «individual, her/his rights, freedoms and guarantees for their implementation are the highest value and purpose of the society

UN global plans on HIV/AIDS have committed to reducing the number of countries with punitive laws criminalizing key populations. This study explores whether punitive laws are associated with countries’ performance on targets set in the global plans.

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

Text by Marge Berer, originally published at International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion on Mar 3, 2017. Available here. The story to date

President Trump on Wednesday rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in the middle

Grada Kilomba is a Portuguese writer, scholar and artist who enacts and delivers decolonial knowledge by weaving relations between gender, race and class. She is

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

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

As we resist Trump’s potential anti-LGBTQ orders, it’s important to remember that even though Trump is himself transphobic and homophobic, he can get on the side of LGBTQ rights when it’s convenient.

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

By Sonia Corrêa In the first two weeks of his administration Donald Trump has opened a can of worms spreading around draconian and regressive conservative

My own sense is that Trump unleashed a rage that has several objects and several causes, and we should probably be skeptical of those who claim to know the true cause and the exclusive object. The condition of economic devastation and disappointment, the loss of hope in the face of an economic future brought on by economic

By Sonia Corrêa Searching for works of art that would reflect the dystopian state of world affairs in January 2017, I recalled walking over the

Barbaros Şansal, a Turkish fashion designer and LGBTI activist, is being held in pre-trial detention, as his request of appeal has been rejected. According to Amnesty International, which has launched an urgent action appeal, he is accused of ‘inciting the public to hatred or hostility’ for a video message and tweet he shared on social media on New Year’s Eve. In this clip, Şansal reportedly criticized people for celebrating the New Year at a time of large scale detention of journalists and widespread corruption.

“Not dancing to their music” is a report by Bisi Alimi Foundation, in which 446 LGBT Nigerians completed an online survey that uncovered disturbing stories

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,

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.

Andrew Mroczek and Juan José Barboza-Gubo created a series of photographs called “Canon.” It’s a symbolic name — a way of re-writing traditional laws in Peru to

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

As part of its celebrations of the Human Rights Day, Mesahat Foundation for Sexual and Gender Diversity is pleased to launch its publication “LGBT Voices from Sudan,” which documents violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity against sexual and gender minorities in Sudan.

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

By Mara Vivero. In this text I will present some elements on gender ideology, its antecedents and contemporary uses and secondly I will refer to the Colombian case, as one of the cases in which the term “gender ideology” has been used as part of a conservative rhetorical strategy to the constant interfaces between religious and political sectors that oppose the changes that have occurred in society in terms of gender and sexuality.

The monitoring research was conducted from December 2015 till June 2016 by the Transgender Legal Defense Project. Within the framework of the research, the project

Text by Stephen Wood, Lukas Berredo and Carla LaGata published at Institute of Development Studies on Nov 18, 2016. Available here. In the three months following the

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 workshop will bring together key scholars working across different disciplines in order to examine how gender is constructed in new wars and the consequences and/or advantages of new gender relations. It seeks to bring together emerging work on the formation, contestation and transformation of gender relations in new wars.

The UN Human Rights Council has nominated its first independent investigator aimed at protecting people in regard to sexual orientation and gender identity across the

Originally from Prostitution Policy Watch ——————- Once again, Rio de Janeiro has hosted a sporting mega-event, this time the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. And once

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

  The  most commented sport modalities of the Rio Olympics were the gender relations obstacle course competition, racism target shooting and out-of-closet leaping by Fernando Seffner[1]

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

The last days of the government of Hosni Mubarak and the turbulent revolution that followed were tense, occasionally gut-wrenching times for many in Egypt. But

While the international media were busy highlighting the Stanford rape and Brazil gang-rape cases, another gang-rape, followed by murder, of a 14 year-old girl named Yuyun happened in Indonesia. It was an atrocity as severe, despite the lack of international coverage.

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.

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.

Pride Uganda raided by police as LGBT activists arrested – Pink News Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) Statement on State-Sanctioned Disruptions of Pride

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

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

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

Presentation by Alejandro Brito from Letra S (México) at the pre IAC seminar organized by Ford Foundation Seminar in Durban on Challenging Criminalization Globally. The

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

by Maria Eugenia Matricardi Translation: Matheus Opa, reviewed by Sonia Corrêa A white butterfly flies over the humid foam that floats next to the waterfall.

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’.

Twenty-one members of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) in El Salvador submitted a motion on 11 July to the parliament for debate on 14 July to reform Article 133 of the Penal Code, increasing the penalty for women who cause or consent to an abortion from up to eight years in prison to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 50 years.

Going beyond the dichotomy of victims and savages entails a nuanced understanding of violence. Such an understanding perceives mainstream violence as indivisible from other paradigms of large-scale oppression – hegemony, socioeconomic injustice, institutionalization, neoliberalism, occupation… It also accounts for the normalized violence we live on a daily basis, in silent acts of coercion, harassment, bullying, and self-damage, and the ways in which they are informed by macro instances of violence, and vice versa.

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

Maria Teresa was Colombian actress who became a visual art performer. She died of cancer in 2008. Her art directly dialogued  with the impacts of

On March 2016, we relaunched our Spanish website that (among other things) provides access to the Spanish translation of Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico

In June, 2016, as the impeachment of Dilma Roussef followed its course, it became increasingly evident that one of the strongest motivations of the power maneuvering that led to the April parliamentary coup was the interest of many of those supporting this move to strangle the ongoing investigations on corruption.

The ‘natural’ separation of men and women in these spaces arose less than 200 years ago, as part of a pervasive ideology of separation and dominance.

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.

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 drumbeats have started. Almost immediately after a mass shooting that left over fifty people dead on Latin night in a Florida gay nightclub, Pulse, the news shifted to the identity of the shooter himself. As soon as his name and the fact that his father immigrated (long ago) from Afghanistan was announced, the narrative began unfolding as Naeem Mohaiemen put it, on cue: This must be a terrorist attack.

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

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.

When rape and sexual violence invaded the public debate in Brazil, SPW brings, once again,  attention to the work of Luiza Jesus Prado.This Brazilian artist

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.

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.

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

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

Very soon after Professor Rezaul Karim Siddque of Rajshahi Univeristy was hacked to death in the morning of April 23, 2016, I wrote my feelings, my frustrations, my concerns and my fears. From all the information we received, Professor Karim appeared to be a quiet man, a man who was of a peaceful nature, a lover of music and a committed teacher.

Fernanda Doz Costa, researcher on the Americas, reports from a protest outside a court in Argentina where “Belen” returns after being sentenced to eight years following a miscarriage.

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.

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

As underlined by Michel Foucault in his writings, in modern times, children and adolescent sexualities have been under close and systematic surveillance. While in the

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

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.

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

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.

We have the great pleasure to inform that our Spanish page has been re-launched. In this opportunity Alejandra Sardá from Akahatá has written an update

The world is talking about tax this week, so here’s another tax story for you. Asana Abugre has a small shop in Accra, Ghana where she makes and sells batiks and tie-dyed textiles. Asana pays her taxes regularly. Women like her, working in markets across the city, sometimes pay up to 37% of their income in tax.

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.

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

Originally posted at Transrespect on 31/03/2016. Available at: https://transrespect.org/en/tdov-2016-tmm-update/ On occasion of the International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDoV) [1] held on the 31st of

On Wednesday, I became illegal in my home state. I can’t go home to see my mother or my sister or my uncle or my friends from high school. I can’t go back to my favorite restaurant. Because the systematic eradication of transgender people from North Carolina is now the law of the land.

Dozens of transgender women, including asylum seekers who have come to the United States seeking protection from abuse in their home countries, are locked up in jails or prison-like immigration detention centers across the country at any point in time, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Many have been subjected to sexual assault and ill-treatment in detention, while others are held in indefinite solitary confinement.

Originally posted at SIGNS. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society invites submissions for a special issue titled “Displacement,” slated for publication in spring

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,

Rightwing groups surrounded hotel in Lviv where about 70 participants in the equality festival had gathered.

Originally posted on QZ on 15/03/2016. Available at: https://qz.com/africa/639763/nigerian-lawmakers-voted-down-a-women-equality-bill-citing-the-bible-and-sharia-law Nigerian lawmakers on Tuesday (Mar.15), voted against a gender and equal opportunities bill (pdf). The bill,

In a new report launched in the European Parliament today, the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) highlights that prevailing negative attitudes towards LGBT people endanger their fundamental rights and hamper efforts to counter discrimination and hate crime.

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

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has published this week two General Comments: General Comment 22 on sexual and reproductive health and

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.

Originally published on: https://lgbt-ep.eu/recent-news/european-parliament-demands-protection-lgbti-refugees-also-from-safe-countries/ Today, the European Parliament adopted a report on the situation of women refugees and asylum seekers in the EU, paying particular

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.

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

Among the first of its kind, this book is composed of works by writers from different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, including first and second-generation Africans

In 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

Chilean health officials on Thursday for the first time expressed their opposition to so-called conversion therapy. Agence France-Presse reported the Chilean Ministry of Health made the statement to the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, an LGBT advocacy group in the South American country.

Laughter, solidarity, and conviviality were in the air at a quietly remarkable event in a Nairobi hotel on February 12. Yet the subject matter discussed at the event was anything but light: depression and suicide, public stripping and rape. The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) was presenting its new report, “Research on the Lived Realities of Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women in Kenya.”

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

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

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

Last week in Jakarta, I met leaders of the Support Group and Resource Center on Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Indonesia, who were brimming with confidence about their work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

Planned Parenthood has been cleared of accusations of selling human tissue, after covert videos released last year prompted the investigation. A Houston grand jury instead

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.

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.

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

Butler’s insight into the lives and deaths of transgender women in 2015 penetrates beyond the surface details of their deaths. Her perspective illustrates a startling reality about the real cause of violence against trans women, and the fatal importance of an intersectional approach to the liberation of transgender people.

Partners for Law in Development have compiled the rich, vibrant discussions from the Roundtable on Exploring the Continuum between Sexuality and Sexual Violence on April

I will critically discuss the campaign for (full) criminalisation of marital rape to call attention to ways by which this campaign reduces a potentially tranformatory agenda on gender, sexuality and marriage, to one of law, crime and punishment.

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

Civilians, Police Injured in Shooting Near Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood (Updated) – Reality Check Anti-Choice Leaders’ Response to Colorado Violence Reveals Tension Between Rhetoric and

I have absolutely no problems with flag filters on Facebook. Or for that matter, profile-picture revolutions that happen all too often. I’m not, in the least bit indignant about such a competitive exhibitionism of feeling – indexed through a currency of memes and emoticons. In an age of such mass-production of violence (‘terroristic’ or ‘humanitarian’), it is no surprise that the event of mourning must become a symptom of the incompatibility between ‘act’ and ‘response’.

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

Originally published at Verso Books on 16/11/2015. Available at: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/2337-mourning-becomes-the-law-judith-butler-from-paris Letter from Judith Butler, Paris, Saturday 14th November I am in Paris and passed near

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

The data in Coming Out of Concrete Closets sheds light on the ways in which systemic discrimination of LGBTQ communities—particularly low-income communities and communities of color—forms a dragnet of criminalization for the most marginalized. (Shutterstock)

Read New York Times’ article “On Being Queer in the Caribbean“, which reflects on the situation faced by gay and trans people in some Caribbean

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.

The data which has been collected from 190 countries worldwide is separated into 81 maps, to allow website visitors to take a closer look, and compare country situations for the following topics: ‘Legal Situation’, ‘Health Care Situation’, ‘Social Situation’.

Originally published in 2015 at: http://gsrc-mena.org/kohl/call-for-papers/ We are pleased to invite submissions for the third issue of Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research,

Originally published on Jurist.org on 14/10/2015. Available at: https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2015/10/arvind-narrain-intersex-justice/ JURIST Guest Columnist Arvind Narrain of ARC International discusses the issues with assigning a gender to

Originally published on HRW on 26/10/2015. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/26/dispatches-kenyan-president-stepping-forward-lgbt-rights   Neela Ghoshal Senior Researcher, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program NeelaGhoshal Kenya’s President Uhuru

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

The legal status of trans* individuals in India was discussed quite extensively in the 2014 case of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) judgment by the Supreme Court of India.

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.

Originally published on Daily IO on 30/09/2015. Available at: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/modi-us-visit-mark-zuckerberg-silicon-valley-facebook-digital-india-democracy-vhp-rss-branding/story/1/6529.html Shiv Visvanathan @ShivVisvanathan   If Facebook has face value, Modi’s interview with Mark Zuckerberg at

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

Originally published on DailyIO on 09/08/2015. Available at: https://www.dailyo.in/politics/narendra-modi-porn-ban-yoga-baba-ramdev-homosexuality-valentines-day-5557 Shiv Visvanathan @ShivVisvanathan   Narendra Modi’s economic and technological policies might have limited impact despite the

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

In English Global Advocates Issue a Call to Amnesty International in Open Letter – Coalition Against Traffickin in Women ICRSE, 1100 organisations and individuals ask

Everybody on earth knows that last week a deal on Iran’s nuclear program was announced. Everybody also knows that this apparent step toward peace launched a new stage in an old war: of propaganda.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has released a collection of eight articles that offer innovative and provocative approaches to advance acceptance

Aswat Collective has condemned the arrest of two Moroccan homossexuals accused of “Homosexuality ” and “breach of public modesty”. Click here to read the Statement.

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

Originally published on Morocco World News on 16/06/2015. Available at: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/06/160745/moroccan-magazine-under-fire-for-cover-asking-should-we-burn-homosexuals/ Rabat – Weekly magazine Maroc-Hebdo has come under fire after it ran a cover

Originally published on Al Jazeera on 10/06/2015. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/people-power/2015/6/10/canadas-lost-women An investigation into the abuse and exploitation of aboriginal women in Canada and the authorities’

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

Originally published on: http://www.madamasr.com/sections/politics/being-transgender-egypt Aisha* was sleeping when her apartment was raided. She and three other friends had just moved in when the police came by asking

Any critical revisiting of 2015 will inevitably address the tragic episodes of Paris that left behind 17 dead people, including the journalists and cartoonists from

With panoramic views of both the city and its harbor, the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (OBA), proved to be an ideal place for me to take a break from working at either my home or office at Leiden University.

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.

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

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

Originally published on Aljazeera on May/2015. Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/05/sex-food-scandal-central-african-republic-150505071049079.html French soldiers patrol a street in Bangui [AFP] Hisham Aidi* In late March, a report commissioned

Scott Long writes about the case involving a Libyan student whom police expelled from Egypt in 2008, after a complaint that he was gay, which

Originally from A paper bird. Posted on 18 April 2015 So they’re going to deport gay foreigners from Egypt. My phone started ringing a few

Originally published on Reality Check on 09/04/2015. Available at: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2015/04/09/white-house-takes-stance-reparative-therapy/ A letter posted Wednesday to WhiteHouse.gov thanked visitors for signing a petition in support of banning

Originally published on Belfast Telegraph on 14/03/2015. Available at: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/battle-over-the-unborn-antiabortion-protester-showed-me-foetus-doll-31066577.html BY PATRICIA DEVLIN – 14 MARCH 2015 Followed down the street and told my unborn

Originally published on Real Screen ok 09/12/2014. Available at: http://realscreen.com/2014/12/09/terror-attack-at-vessel-screening-in-sweden/#ixzz3Wf3Xvm5h Three masked men stormed a screening of SXSW-winning abortion documentary Vessel (pictured) in Sweden on

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 published on BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31828123 Draft laws aimed at boosting the birth rate in Iran reduce women to “baby-making machines”, the rights group

Originally published on Jadaliyya on 26/01/2015. Available at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/20626/%E2%80%98a-distinctly-french-universalism%E2%80%99_translating-la%C3%AF by Muriam Haleh Davis It was impossible to avoid the discussion, despite my repeated protests. In Lyon,

Originally published on Paper Bard on 27/01/2015. Available at: http://paper-bird.net/2015/01/27/isis-kills-gays-a-history-of-violence/ Hands shove them forward, bound and blindfolded. Then comes the step when the stone beneath them stops

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

Originally published on NYT on 05/01/2015. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/opinion/egypts-appalling-crackdown-on-gays.html By THE EDITORIAL BOARD JAN. 5, 2015 Even if they were acquitted on the ludicrous charge of “debauchery,”

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 from:  http://kelinkenya.org/2014/12/announcement/ Women Living with HIV & their Lawyers Issuing a Press Statement after Filing their Case       Picture By: KELIN/Regina Mwanza 1.0

Read Jadaliyya’s article Sexual Violence, Women’s Bodies, and Israeli Settler Colonialism, which reflects on the violence against Palestinian women

Originally published on CLAM on 29/10/2014. Available at: http://www.clam.org.br/EN/destaque/conteudo.asp?cod=11878 Every day women die of unsafe, illegal abortions. Two recent deaths provoked uproar in Brazil.Elisângela Barbosa, a

Originally published on NYT on 05/10/2014. Available at: Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/opinion/pedophilia-a-disorder-not-a-crime.html By MARGO KAPLAN OCT. 5, 2014 CAMDEN, N.J. — THINK back to your first childhood crush.

Check out the Working Paper Senegal: homophobia and Islamic political manipulation by Codou Bop, a Senegalese journalist. She develops a particularly sharp insight analysis about on

Caso Jandira e aborto no Brasil: crime com pena de morte – Pragmatismo político Coragem para enfrentar o preconceito – Observatório da Imprensa Sobre princípios,

By Marianne Thamm Three years ago South Africa and Brazil co-sponsored a historic resolution encouraging the UN to discuss discrimination and violence based on sexual

Unlawful Arrests Undermine Basic Freedoms, Rule of Law SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 (Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should immediately release seven men arrested on September 6, 2014,

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)

If you have followed the aftermath of the August 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, then you have most likely seen the image of his

American groups sent out a fundraising appeal over the weekend claiming LGBT people had been stoned to death. But Ugandan activists say there is no

Photograph: Cathal Mcnaughton / Getty It sounded like a strawman, until it wasn’t. There is one thing that suicidal rape victims need: immediate assistance.But for

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

Every morning we wake up to an updated butcher’s bill: one hundred, two hundred, four hundred, six hundred Palestinians killed by Israel’s war apparatus as of

The Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) expresses our deep sentiment of grief with the lives lost in the tragedy of flight MH17 of Malaysian Airlines

SPW is on Twitter and Facebook! Follow @sxpolitics and like our Facebook fan page to read more on our activities and sex politics around 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

Read New York Times article about a fierce battle raging in Egypt beyond that one between Islamists and military rulers: the battle “between the patriarchy

The Cranky Sociologists website publishes an article arguing, according to a global map of gender murders, that homicides are gendered social fact. Here.

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has launched a report on violence against LGBT person in Asia. Read it here.

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

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the National LGBTI Security Committee have been documenting the different cases of violences following the Anti-Homossexuality Bill Approval in 2013.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a statement aimed at contributing to the elimination of forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization. It reaffirms that

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, meeting at its 55 Ordinary Session held in Luanda, Angola, from 28 April to 12 May 2014,

The kidnapping of more than 200 girls by the extremist Islamic group Boko Haram in Nigeria has prompted a worldwide campaign for their release, in

An article from RH Reality Check shows how fundamentalist christians are reaching space on US state and federal governmemt. Read here.

The Vatican was questioned this week at the UN Committee against Torture in relation to cases of sexual abuse and violence that have been reported

According to Alternet, Tennessee has become the first state in U.S. to pass a law criminalizing women for their pregnancy outcomes. Click here to learn

Article by Aljazeera highlights the difficult choices Brazilian women are forced to make when trying to end a pregnancy in the country with the largest

In an article in Aljazeera America, Silvia Tamale highlights how certain ideas are being used to justifiy laws like the Ugandan one which criminalizes same-sex

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

The Guardian brings information on the dissemination of rape as a practice used by Egyptian police against arrested dissidents. Read more.

Mother Jones brings an article about women’s role in Rwanda, two decades after the genocide that killed 800.000 people. Today, women represent two-thirds of the

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

Read Ryan Richard Thoreson’s article, from Yale Law School, about the debate over Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009 and 2010, when journalists and activists warned of

Uganda, the World Bank, and LGBT rights: Winners and losers SPW recommends Scott Long’s article about World Bank delaying a schedule loan to Uganda aimed

Read NY Times article about some of the findings of a landmark government-sponsored report on the size and structure of the sex economy in USA,

Pambazuka News 667 comes with a special issue on “The struggles for homosexual rights in Africa”, which brings analyzes from a African perspective of the

Mauro Cabral shares the compilation ‘Torture in Healthcare Settings’, which reflects on the report of Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the first

Since December Uganda and Nigeria have approved draconian laws under debate for many years that drastically curtail the freedom and rights of persons whose gender

Nigerian LGBT community is organizing a Global Day of Action on the 7th of March 2014 to protest against law that criminalizes same-sex people relationships. Click

UNDP’s HIV, Health & Development Group has launched a Discussion Paper on Transgender Health & Human Rights, prepared by Jack Byrne, an expert on trans

Read the article “The Implications of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 on Uganda’s Legal System”, by Adrian Jjuuko and Francis Tumwesige, in which the authors discuss

In december, Nigeria’s Senate approved a law that criminalizes displays of affection, people in same-sex marriage (including tourists) and even those who argue in favor

Read article “Two Women, Different Outcomes: How U.S. Foreign Assistance Policy Harms Women”, by Elizabeth Maguire in “RH Reality Check”, in which the author tells

In article on The Guardian, Annmarie Chiarini tells how her ex-boyfriend put nude photos of her on the web and how she reacted. The case

Uganda Police arrested last week, without a warrant, Mr. Samuel K Ganafa, The Executive Director of Spectrum Uganda Initiatives and Board Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda

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

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

SPW recommends the document “LGBTI persons deprived of their liberty: a framework for preventive monitoring”  because it considers very relevant that the Association for Prevention

Article on NY Times describes the case of a american young woman, taked in handcuffs to a cell because of the allegation that she, once

The Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) published a statement on the October 19 reaffirming the devasting effects of the patologization of trans identities. Click

The Kuwait Ministry of Health has proposed tightening genetic tests for immigrant workers in order to prevent transgender migrants from entering the GCC job market.

Read The Independen’s news about medical tests that will be conducted by Gulf states to stop homosexual to enter their countries. Click here.

Organizations, associations and activists defending the human and civil law of  trans people denounce generalized extreme violence and murders and impunity that trans people suffer

Read article about the situation of trans people in South Africa and the obstacles that they face regarding the identification country system. Here.

Read LGBT activist Igor Yashin’s article (“Russia needs its own Stonewall, not Western sanctions”) about the ways to confront the homophobia that imperils minorities in

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) has launched a statement on the attacks made by Equality Now on UN recommendation calling for decriminalisation

Read Huffington Post’s article about USA iniciative “Safe from the Start”, designed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in conflict and crisis and build

“The Gikuyu of Kenya, who had very rigid codes of sexual convention, thought the public displays of affection among Europeans were unspeakably vulgar. Ironically, however,

Read women’s rights lawyer Flavia Agnes’ article about the fate of the woman raped and killed in India last year. “And so she lives on

Almost one in four men surveyed in six Asian countries admit to having raped their partners at least once, according to a UN report. Researcher

A new research in the Lancet Global Health, a medical journal, indicates that more than one in ten men surveyed in six Asian countries said

Read some information on the recent Brazilian context on regressions in sexual and reproductive politics.

Read the “Letter Repudiating the Ministry of Health’s Censorship of the Campaign about Prostitution and HIV/AIDS”, written by the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association – ABIA, after the Ministry of Health announced its censorship of the campaign about prostitution and HIV/AIDS launched on International Prostitutes Day (June 2nd).

US: NY Archdiocese has been reluctantly paying for health plan that covers birth control. Read more.

Awid’s “Facing Fundamentalisms Newsletters” seek to spark engagement and interaction from readers who are confronting religious fundamentalisms across a diversity of contexts. March edition is focused on Religion, Culture, Tradition and Fundamentalisms at the UN.

Brazil: Sexual assaults in Rio de Janeiro have cast a light on class differences in the city and have raised fears for women’s safety ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Read more.

With the recent release of the US State Department’s Human Rights Reports for 2012, the Council for Global Equality has compiled information from the reports on areas ranging from police/state violence to transgender and lesbian-specific incidents. Download the compendium here.

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.

Starting with the issue No. 11, SPW Newsletters no longer provide detailed links to posted material, as they will have already been circulated through the announcements of new website postings. The newsletter will mainly focus on one or two pieces of substantive analysis addressing one key debate and, eventually, one key event that we consider to be have been critical in the global sexual politics landscape in the period immediately preceding the publication. Partners and collaborators are invited to share their views on these topics and the Newsletter No 11 is devoted to two key topics: the ongoing debate around the validity of aid conditionality as an instrument to protect LGBT rights and the current state of affairs of abortion reform in Uruguay. Good reading!

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.

Brazil: Cleides Amorim, a professor at the Federal University of Tocantins, was one of over a dozen LGBT Brazilians murdered in just the first two weeks of 2012. AllOut started a national campaign aimed at Federal Government, inspired in a protest letter from a group of professors of Brazilian universities. Read more.

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.

Russia: On November 11, 2011, St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly approved a bill to ban the so-called propaganda of “sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and pedophilia to minors”. The second reading of the bill has been temporarily postponed until 30 November, 2011. Read more.

Global: On October 24th, 2011, Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, presented a report before the UN General Assembly, calling on all countries to abolish or suspend any criminal laws that seek to control women’s sexual and reproductive rights. Read the NGO statement supporting the report and more.

Read the article “Argentina uncategorized: Debates about human trafficking, prostitution and sex work,” by Carolina Justo von Lurzer and Santiago Morcillo, on the debate organized by the Sexualities Studies Group of the Gino Germani Research Institute of the University of Buenos Aires to discuss the public policies related to prostitution, after president Cristina Fernandez Kirchner announced the enactment of the decree 936/11, which prohibits advertisements that promote sexual services in all media.

Uganda:A number of violations based on sexual orientation and backlashes are also to be reported in Uganda, starting with the murder of David Kato, in Kampala, in January 2011, and more recently the suspicious ‘burglary’ at FARUG (Freedom and Roam Uganda), which has posed threats to the lives of other Ugandan activists.

Turkey: read a series of news on recent cases of violance against LGBt people in this country.

Argentina: Read the press release written by AMMAR – Sex Workers Argentina repudiating the Presidential Decree that prohibits publicity that promotes sex services.

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

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”.

Ghana: While progressive and exciting things are happening in Geneva, homosexuals could soon be lynched in Ghana – MP warns. Read more.

Global: Women from Toronto started to organize the Slut Walk against all expressions of sexist violence as a response to a policeman statement that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”. Brazil, UK, US, Australia and India joined the movement. Read more.

Richard Parker, SPW’s Co-chair, will participate in the Seminar Responding to HIV and AIDS in Brazil: Structural Violence, Social Movements, and the Local Politics of Global Health, which will be held on May 2nd 2011 at the Wenner-Gren Foundation, in New York. Read more at the New York Academy of Sciences Anthropology website.

This document, organized by Amnesty International, identifies how the crimes of rape and sexual violence must, as a requirement of its own statute and a matter of international human rights law, be interpreted and applied with equality between men and women by the International Criminal Court (the Court). The Court has yet to rule on this matter in its jurisprudence. Such incorporation of human rights law and standards in the prosecution of rape and sexual violence should be undertaken by other international courts, as well as national courts, in order to discharge states’ duties under treaty and customary law.

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.

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.

UK: Ugandan lesbian Brenda Namigadde’s request for asylum to be reviewed on February 7th by UK Border Agency. Read more.

Uganda: After the High Court prohibited Rolling Stone local magazine to campaign against LGBTI community, gay activist David Kapo was murdered in his home. Read more.

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.

Read the article “The meaning of the Kampala Court Decision”, by Kasha Jacqueline, from the Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), on the Uganda’s high court decision permanently prohibiting the tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the venerable U.S. publication by the same name) from continuing its public vigilante campaign against that country’s LGBT community.

Uganda: Uganda’s high court released a ruling permanently prohibiting the tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the venerable U.S. publication by the same name) from continuing its public vigilante campaign against that country’s LGBT community.

Global: On 21 December, 2010 the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of restoring reference to “sexual orientation” in a high-profile resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Read more.

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

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has just published Behind bars: life stories of people affected by the criminalisation of HIV, an international collection of interviews which exposes the effect criminal laws on HIV transmission are having on people’s working and private lives. Read more and watch a short video highlighting the dimensions and impact of laws that criminalize HIV transmission.

Click here to read a great editorial piece in which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay denounces homophobia and calls for concerted action to better protect individuals from violence and discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Uganda: A sex worker conference that would be held from November 18-20, 2010 was under attack by the Government. Read and support a call to action organized by FARUG – Freedom and Roam Uganda.

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.

USA: The recent spate of gay teen suicides has captured the attention of the US nation to confront the issue of anti-gay bullying and the vulnerability of gay adolescents. Barack Obama has released a video to draw attention to the pressures facing gay teenagers. Read more.

Click on the icons to see the pictures in a bigger version. Photos by Malu S. Marin

Kazakhstan: The leader of the Pearl, an NGO that protects LGBTand conducts work on the prevention of HIV infection, was found dead in his apartment in the center of Karaganda. Read more.

Malawi: Gay couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga walked free after Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika pardoned and ordered the release of the men who

Zimbabwe: Two employees of Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) were arrested on Friday May 28, 2010 after a police raid on their offices. Police alleged to have found pornographic material. The activists complained they had been tortured. Read more.

USA: Elderly gay couple forcibly separated by county officials in California. Click here to read a short article written by Kenneth Camargo and more on it.

Vatican: Read ILGA’s press release on the statement by the spokesperson of the Vatican Press Room, Federico Lombardi, about paedophilia and homosexuality.

Read official ABGLT position on Vatican statements about homosexuality and pedophilia. Avalilable in English and Portuguese.

Indonesia: ILGA through its Co-Secretary General Gloria Careaga provides detailed information on what really transpired in Surabaya, Indonesia and why the Fourth ILGA Asia Regional Conference was canceled. Read more.

Read the article “Homophobia, Africa and Evangelical Neocolonialism” on the Uganda’s anti-homophobia Bill, written by Rosalind P. Petchesky, Member of the SPW’s Steering Committee and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

> To Sinead O’Connor, the pope’s apology for sex abuse in Ireland seems hollow, by Sinead O’Connor at The Washington Post > Should There Be

Indonesia: Indonesian police ordered the cancellation of the ILGA Asia conference due to be held from Friday 26 till Monday 29 March, 2010, in Surabaya, East Java’s capital. See the communication from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) and read more and see some photos at Fridae’s, the Gay City News’ and the Associated Press’ websites and other news on the episode by clicking here.

See news on the Human Rights Council.

2.7 Genital mutilation Since 2003, February 6th has been recognized as the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. Surveying the Web in

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

2.1 The Uganda case > The article Draconian laws against homosexuality in Africa, by Cesnabmihilo Aken’ova > A complete coverage available at SPW’s website

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

Malawi: Human rights groups in Malawi have leapt to the defense of two gay men who were arrested after marrying in the country’s first public same-sex ceremony. The men were charged in court. Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, pleaded not guilty before a court in Blantyre to charges of indecency.

Honduras: Murder of gay rights activist shows another crisis. Walter Tróchez spent a lot time at Honduras police stations and morgues: he was the HIV-positive gay activist who got the call every time a transgender sex worker was murdered on the streets of Honduras.

Jamaica: British Honorary Consul John Terry murdered in his bedroom. The content of a note reportedly found at the murder scene suggests he was the victim of a violently homophobic crime.

Afghanistan: Taliban shoot dead Afghan politician who championed women’s rights

The Pink Chaddi Campaign in India has recruited more than 21 thousand people. Read more about the campaign here.

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

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 Vagner de Almeida * Sexuality and Hate Crimes is a documentary and the first alternative film produced by Director Vagner de Almeida and Richard

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.

By Alexandre Boer* The headquarter of the Brazilian gay organization SOMOS – Communication, Health & Sexuality, from Porto Alegre – capital of Rio Grande do

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