About Us
The Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) is a coalition of organizations from Canada, Poland, India, Egypt, Argentina and South Africa, that work together to advance human rights related to sexuality at the United Nations.
Read More »UPR Deadlines
UPR 34 stakeholder submission deadline
March 28 2019:
Italy, El Salvador, Gambia, Bolivia, Fiji, San Marino, Kazakhstan, Angola, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Madagascar, Iraq, Slovenia, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What’s New
- 2019 Feb 142018 Sexual Rights HighlightsThroughout 2018 the UN human rights system continued to be an important space for the development of global sexual rights norms and standards as well [...]
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The #CEDAW Committee should unequivocally recommend full decriminalisation of sex work in its entirety, including laws that criminalise demand. The effect of all models of criminalising sex work is to deny the rights of sex workers to their #bodilyautonomy. #CEDAW72
Our recommendations to the #CEDAW Committee is to lay down core pillars of #humanrights obligations, address the structural & systemic issues that do not essentialize and reduce the life, experiences and decisions of women and girls. #CEDAW72
This includes ‘rescue operations’ of migrant sex workers which leads to their deportation and loss of their home and livelihood. It perpetuates the victim-perpetrator binary, further validating criminal justice responses to deeper structural imbalances. #CEDAW72 #CEDAW
The logics of profit, class and race determine who is policed, where and if they can bargain their way out. With sex work, this paradigm has served States to use stereotypes based on gender & sexuality to attack visible manifestations of ‘deviancy’ and poverty. #CEDAW72
The material conditions that are necessary to ensure that all persons have their rights are ignored in this narrative of the getting rid of ‘evil’. The conflation of all sex work with trafficking should also be located in this neoliberal paradigm and border control. #CEDAW72
It also enables States to discriminate against migrants by having unsafe labour conditions, criminalising migration, criminalising sex work, adopting xenophobic & racist discourse & policies, yet perpetuate the fiction of ‘saving’ and/or ‘rescuing’ the trafficked victim. #CEDAW72
This creates a binary of ‘agency less victim’ & ‘evil perpetrators’ denying autonomy for women & girls who are ‘trafficked’. This binary creates an individualistic perspective towards a phenomenon that requires State responses to structural and deep-rooted inequalities. #CEDAW72
In our statement, we highlighted that the narrative of trafficking has its roots in organised crime, ‘crime control’ & border control, focusing on 'law & order' rather than #humanrights. @ThinkCREA @CALAdvocacy @actioncanadashr @AkahataOrg @federapl #CEDAW72 #CEDAW
Spokesperson for @SexualRights says that standard trafficking narrative enables states to discriminate against migrants by having unsafe labour conditions and criminalising migration, even while they perpectuate the fiction of ‘saving’ and/or ‘rescuing’ victims #CEDAW #CEDAW72
Anti-sex worker rights lobby present at the UN this morning are using this meeting to demand anti-trafficking priorities focus on ending the sex trade... and sex worker & migrants’ rights groups are pushing back hard twitter.com/sexualrights/s…
@SexualRights says human rights approaches are needed
too often anti-trafficking policy has been used to police borders & control womens migration & work
Oppressives measures against women &
#sexworkers have no place We must make a clear distinction between sexwork & trafficking
Law and Policy Database
The national sexual rights law and policy database is a one-stop-shop for sexual rights related Constitutions, laws and policies.
UPR Toolkit
This practical toolkit for sexual rights advocates is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.
UPR Database
The SRI's UPR Database includes all sexual rights recommendations and references and is now open access.
CREA
Together with partners from a diverse range of human rights movements and networks, CREA works to advance the rights of women and girls, and the sexual and reproductive freedoms of all people.
