Sexual Rights Intiative

Main menu

Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content
  • Home
     
  • About
    Us
    • Who We Are
    • The SRI Partners
    • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Sexual
    Rights
    • Intro to Sexual Rights
  • Human
    Rights Council
    • About the Human Rights Council
    • SRI Advocacy
  • What’s
    New
    • Announcements
    • Events
    • SRI Partners
    • Human Rights Council
    • Universal Periodic Review
    • UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies
  • Universal
    Periodic Review
    • Collaborating with the SRI
    • UPR Submissions
    • UPR Toolkit
    • UPR Database
  • Resources
     

Primary Content

Archive for the ‘Events’ Category:

« Older posts
Newer posts »

February 23, 2017

HRC34 Panel: Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Human Rights

This event will explore recent developments on the right to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) from the perspective of States, youth led civil society, UN agencies and UN Human Rights mechanisms.  Participants will gain a broader understanding of State obligations to provide CSE that is accessible to all children, adolescents and young people, including those with disabilities, and how the Human Rights Council can support the implementation of CSE within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

7 March 2017
Palais des Nations Unies, Room XXI
15:00 – 16:30

Moderator

Meghan Doherty, Sexual Rights Initiative & Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights

Confirmed Speakers

  • Nomtika Mjwana, Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition
  • Benedicte Storm, Youth Adviser, Permanent Mission of Denmark
  • Dr. Chandra-Mouli, WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research

October 4, 2016

Global Action on Safe and Legal Abortion

Video recording of the panel Global Action on Safe and Legal Abortion, which shared different country experiences advocating for safe and legal abortion, highlighted the human rights obligations of States to provide access to safe and legal abortion, and discussed opportunities to utilize HRC mechanisms to affect policy and legal changes at the national level.

 


September 26, 2016

Highlights from Bodily Autonomy & Sexual Rights

Highlights from the panel Bodily Autonomy and Sexual Rights held 20 September 2016 during the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council. The panel articulated the benefits of advancing a holistic and intersectional understanding of bodily autonomy, explored the interlinkages between sexual rights issues affecting bodily autonomy, and encouraged the Human Rights Council to continue to produce contextualized analyses of sexuality and gender in relation to bodily autonomy.


Moderator: Meghan Doherty
Action for Sexual Health and Rights & SRI

  • If we are to examine all the ways in which people’s sexual rights are violated, the list is long but the pattern that begins to emerge and the thread running through all these different violations relates to bodily autonomy: the right to make free and informed decisions about one’s own body and one’s own life.
  • All bodies are not considered equal, all bodies are not valued the same and all bodies are not subject to the same regulations and control. The State places restrictions on what you do with your own body and what others can do to your body without your consent. This may be acted out through the guise of protection, public morality, in the name of nationalism, security or religion, but the limitations placed on some bodies and not others, and the impunity for violence to some bodies and not others, makes it clear that discrimination and subjugation are at work.

Carrie Shelver
Coalition of African Lesbians & SRI

  • The principle of bodily integrity in feminist thought relates to the right of each human being to autonomy and self-determination over their own body. For the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL), this principle envisions a society in which all people are able to exercise autonomy over their bodies and lives, and make decisions that affect their own bodies and lives without interference or dictation by individuals (such as fathers, brothers, and husbands), institutions (such as the government), religious doctrine and tradition, and the society and community as a whole.
  • CAL believes that by locating our work and demands outside of narrow and rigid identity and single issue politics, we are better able to improve the lives of all people, and particularly women who experience multiple and intersecting forms of oppression. We have found that the demand for autonomy, freedom and justice offers us a new frontier of resistance and presents us with opportunities for movement building that cut across race, gender, class and geographic lines.
  • Market fundamentalism and neo-liberal economic policy continue to enslave Southern nations and ensure that those who live within its borders get poorer with fewer options of state provided health care, housing, education and other essential services and constitutionally promised rights. Within this economic reality, choice is promoted as the right to consume (privatised services and commercial goods) rather than the ideal where a person’s rights are so fully protected that she is able to make decisions over every aspect of her life freely.
  • Just as we must resist the co-opting of autonomy and choice by those who would want to claim it as an individualistic and consumerist idea, we must also find ways to resist women’s bodies becoming the test/ symbol of our ‘authentic’, nationalist ideals (also often an expression of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial ideology). When we can’t resist the “westernising” influence fully, we turn to women’s bodies as the site where our authentic “non-western” identity is maintained intact.
  • CAL’s work takes place in a context where violence and violation (in other words the “freedom from…” rights approach) has taken precedence over approaches that prioritise autonomy, agency, freedom and justice (or the rights associated with ‘freedom to…”). In CAL’s view this has a number of negative effects – firstly it relegates women into the perpetual category of victim (requiring saving) and can obscure the structural and systemic conditions which lead to these violations. A “freedom from violence” perspective can result in locking women up rather than eliminating the violence or holding violators accountable. There is a risk that we become guilty of protecting women instead of protecting women’s rights. When we protect women, we reinscribe and reinforce the very ideas that fuel the violence in the first place.

Fernando D’Elio
Akahata & SRI

  • Bodily Autonomy is a key, cross-cutting and deeply related issue to human rights, and certainly to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. It is also interrelated among them and with a wide range of other rights, and threatened by exclusion that many people and groups face and by intersectional forms of discrimination.
  • Many SRHR issues addressed by this Council and by states are related to bodily autonomy, even those which seem not to be. Some of them are obvious, such as early and force marriage, intersex persons’ rights, sexual violence, sex work, human rights related to SOGIE, among others, some of them are particularly related to women’s rights such as female genital mutilation, contraception, abortion etc. Other issues, that ARE also related to sexual rights such as comprehensive sexuality education sometimes seem not to be as closely linked to bodily autonomy as they should be – how can anybody possibly enjoy their sexual rights without knowing them or having accurate and scientifically based information to make decisions? This is the connection between sexuality education and bodily autonomy.
  • I tried to bring some good examples of recommendations made in the UPR on sexual rights issues but none of them mention bodily autonomy. This concept is completely overlooked, few of those recommendations say something timid about informed decision, but that’s as far as they go, and mostly relegates women’s health to reproduction, maternity or maternal mortality and mobility.
  • It is time for all of us working on human rights and sexual rights to rid ourselves of the fear of this concept and stop considering it as a taboo, to embrace and make it visible. This is the only way that sexual rights can be addressed and advanced in a comprehensive and meaningful way. Otherwise we are telling just half the story, a story of vulnerability, threats and weakness that can be solved with paternalism and care, and at the same time hiding a very important story, the one of freedom, self-determination and capability that every human being is entitle and that the concept of bodily autonomy brings.

Brief presentation of the SRI National Laws and Policies Database

  • The idea behind presenting the database during this panel was to show the multitude of ways our sexual rights and bodily autonomy is restricted by the state.
  • Through this tool we can see that there are many laws and policies on sexual rights in every country and the connections between the different issues.
  • All laws and policies listed have an impact on how a person’s bodily autonomy is regulated.

To learn more about the database visit www.sexualrightsdatabase.org

 

 


September 8, 2016

HRC33 Panel: Global Action on Safe and Legal Abortion

In recognition of the Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, the panel will share different country experiences of advocating for safe and legal abortion, highlight the human rights obligations of States to provide access to safe and legal abortion, and discuss opportunities to utilize HRC mechanisms to effect policy and legal changes at the national level.

28 SEPTEMBER, Palais des Nations
13:00-14:30, Room XXVII 

Read the rest of this entry »


September 8, 2016

HRC33 Panel: Bodily Autonomy and Sexual Rights

The traditional siloed approach of considering issues in isolation ignores the interconnectedness of sexual rights, the common source of oppression and inevitably leaves people behind. The panel will articulate the benefits of advancing a holistic and intersectional understanding of bodily autonomy, explore the interlinkages between sexual rights issues affecting bodily autonomy, and encourage the HRC to continue to produce contextualized analyses of sexuality and gender in relation to bodily autonomy.

Click here for highlights from the event

20 SEPTEMBER, Palais des Nations
14:00-15:00, Room XXV 

Download (PDF, 293KB)

Click here for highlights from the event

« Older posts
Newer posts »

Secondary Content

  • Search

  • Latest news

    • 2018 Sexual Rights Highlights
    • Sexual Rights Recommendations at UPR31
    • Sexual Rights Recommendations at UPR30
    • Request for Proposal for Website Redesign
    • Did you miss it? Here’s what happened at HRC 39!
    • Statement on the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion
    • HRC 39: Statements and Videos
    • Request for Sign-On: HRC39 Joint NGO statement on abortion rights
    • Here’s What to Expect at HRC39
    • Abortion Rights Event at HRC39!
  • Categories

    • Announcements
    • Events
    • Human Rights Council
    • Regional Bodies
    • Resources
    • Special Procedures
    • SRI Partners
    • UN General
    • UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies
    • UPR
  • Tags

    2030 Agenda Abortion Adolescents Bodily Autonomy Civil Society Comprehensive Sexuality Education Criminalization Disability Discrimination Against Women Early Forced Marriage ESCR Freedom of Opinion and Expression Fundamentalisms Gender Mainstreaming HIV Human Rights Defenders Human Rights Mainstreaming ICPD Indigenous Peoples Maternal Mortality Morbidity Oral Statement Participation Post-2015 Protection of the Family Racism Rights of the Child Right to Development Right to Education Right to Health Right to Privacy Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Sexual Rights Sex Work SOGIE Special Procedures Torture Trafficking UN Women UPR Vienna Declaration Violence Against Women WHO Women's Rights Women Human Rights Defenders Youth Rights
  • Archives

    • February 2019
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012

  • What We’re Saying

    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    We're excited to share with you our highlights from 2018! They feature abortion, bodily autonomy, intersectionality and trends to watch out for! Read more 👇👇 #sexualrights #SRHR #humanrights sexualrightsinitiative.com/20…

    reply retweet favorite
    9:41 am · February 14, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    Great intervention from @GlobalSexWork's Ruth Morgan Thomas at today's #HRC consultation on #HIV and #HumanRights, answering the question of "how to leave no one behind" in the HIV response [thread] ⬇️

    reply retweet favorite
    5:20 am · February 13, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    Feminism is for everybody. #feminism thelancet.com/journals/lance…

    reply retweet favorite
    12:27 pm · February 12, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    .@FPNewZealand: "@UN_HRC recommends #abortion law changes in #NewZealand" familyplanning.org.nz/news/20… #UPR #UPR32 #SRHR

    reply retweet favorite
    8:20 am · February 1, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    Women are often hit harder by austerity and cuts: UN expert says #HumanRights ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/…

    reply retweet favorite
    8:53 am · January 25, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    New report from @Guttmacher on Ensuring Access to #Abortion at the State Level guttmacher.org/gpr/2019/01/en…

    reply retweet favorite
    10:50 am · January 11, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    China’s #MeToo Activists Have Transformed a Generation foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/10/…

    reply retweet favorite
    10:49 am · January 11, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    New @UNHumanRights review of case law and background paper on the role of the judiciary in addressing harmful gender stereotypes related to sexual and reproductive health and rights: ohchr.org/Documents/Issu… #SRHR

    reply retweet favorite
    8:21 am · January 7, 2019
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    Although #abortion is illegal in most of #Mexico, it was decriminalized during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy within #MexicoCity in 2007, making the capital the only locale in the country where safe, elective abortion is available. guttmacher.org/news-release/2…

    reply retweet favorite
    12:53 pm · December 18, 2018
    Twitter
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    Sexual Rights Initiative
    @SexualRights

    #NGOs agendas in #Africa depoliticise #WomensRights and sideline and weaken grassroot African activism. aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio…

    reply retweet favorite
    11:46 am · December 14, 2018
    Follow @SexualRights
  • Search the site

    • Home
    • About Us
    • Sexual Rights
    • Human Rights Council
    • What’s New
    • Universal Periodic Review
    • Resources
  • Contact us

    info (at) sexualrightsinitiative (dot) com

  • Follow Us

     •  Facebook   •  Twitter   •  RSS Feed 
  • Global Giving - Donate today!
© Copyright 2019 Sexual Rights Initiative. All rights reserved.