Sexual Rights Initiative
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative
@sexualrightsinitiative.org
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Coalition of national & regional organisations based in Canada, India, Egypt & Argentina that work on sexual rights at the United Nations. https://www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Did you miss it? Find out all about #HRC60 in our round-up! www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...
Image: On a yellow background a geometric pink shape. TEXT: HRC60 in review Image: On a yellow background a geometric pink shape. TEXT: Sexual rights are shaped and constrained by interconnected global crises, unchecked extractivism, climate degradation, violent populism and toxic nationalism, widening inequalities within and between states and entrenched patriarchal, racist, classist, and ableist systems of oppression. Realising sexual rights, therefore, requires advancing the self-determination and collective liberation of all peoples. Image: On a yellow background a geometric pink shape. TEXT: Calls for accountability were also reflected in the International Safe Abortion Day joint statement, endorsed by over 230 organisations and individuals, which linked reproductive justice to broader struggles against impunity in Gaza, Sudan, and the DRC. While the Council adopted by consensus the resolution on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, this progress stands in contrast with the broader failure of the international system to respond to intersecting crises and uphold the universality and indivisibility of human rights.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 13d
That is why concrete commitments matter. The Human Rights Council should formalise the consultation mechanisms with sex worker organisations, ensuring that community expertise directly informs all of the processes, integrate sex work into broader intersectional agendas.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 13d
The Human Rights Council is not immune from these pressures. It is facing growing attempts by the states to weaken what has been built over the decades. In this context, the council cannot remain neutral.  

We need to stand together as oppressed communities.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 13d
Trajche Janushev from SWAN reflected on rising autoritarianism in its impact on the work of the UN Human Rights Council during our latest side-event at #HRC60

 "Criminalisation and shrinking civic spaces are realities of everyday life.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 14d
Care is a labour rights issue. Care workers demand decent wages and working conditions as well as representation. "
sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 14d
This extraction of value is not only for the benefit of individual men, but for society as a whole and for states who have an excuse to fail to provide for services that fall within human rights scope, especially social, cultural, and economic rights.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 14d

"Nothing related to gender can be considered a private issue because gender is not confined to the private sphere.

It plays a role in public life, and it structures societies.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 14d
At our latest #HRC60 side-event, María Luisa Peralta from Akãhatã spoke about the different dimensions of care, highlighting its need to be examined by the Council and its link to the right to health and economic, social and cultural rights.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 15d
And many of the countries that have received these recommendations have since changed their abortion laws to expand access, including Ireland, Argentina, Chile, Benin, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, and others."
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 15d
We've seen the number of UPR recommendations on abortion rise from 35 in the first cycle to 240 in the third cycle.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 15d
"The UPR is one of the most accessible avenues for national advocates to engage in the UN system in a way that is relevant to their context. And it's particularly useful for issues such as abortion that are highly stigmatised and neglected at the country level.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 15d
At our latest #HRC60 side-event, Meghan Doherty from @actioncanadashr.bsky.social discussed the importance of the Universal Periodic Review in advancing abortion rights.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
While the Council adopted by consensus the resolution on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, this progress stands in contrast with the broader failure of the international system to respond to intersecting crises and uphold the universality and indivisibility of human rights.
sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Calls for accountability were also reflected in the International Safe Abortion Day joint statement, endorsed by over 230 organisations and individuals, which linked reproductive justice to broader struggles against impunity in Gaza, Sudan, and the DRC. : abortionstatement.org
International Day of Safe Abortion Joint Civil Society Statement 2025 | abortionstatement.org
abortionstatement.org
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Realising sexual rights, therefore, requires advancing the self-determination and collective liberation of all peoples.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Sexual rights are shaped and constrained by interconnected global crises, unchecked extractivism, climate degradation, violent populism and toxic nationalism, widening inequalities within and between states and entrenched patriarchal, racist, classist, and ableist systems of oppression.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
For us, sexuality is, at its core, about power. Understanding power in its structural forms is essential: without accountability and solidarity, sexual rights cannot be fully realised.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
As the UN multilateral system faces mounting crises of legitimacy and liquidity, it is more urgent than ever to defend and expand spaces where civil society can actively hold states accountable for their human rights obligations. Read our round-up: www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...
Did you miss it? Here’s what happened at HRC 60! | Sexual Rights Initiative
The 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 8 September to 8 October 2025. The ongoing liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations, which significantly impacts the Council’s…
www.sexualrightsinitiative.org
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Did you miss it? Find out all about #HRC60 in our round-up! www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...
Image: On a yellow background a geometric pink shape. TEXT: HRC60 in review Image: On a yellow background a geometric pink shape. TEXT: Sexual rights are shaped and constrained by interconnected global crises, unchecked extractivism, climate degradation, violent populism and toxic nationalism, widening inequalities within and between states and entrenched patriarchal, racist, classist, and ableist systems of oppression. Realising sexual rights, therefore, requires advancing the self-determination and collective liberation of all peoples. Image: On a yellow background a geometric pink shape. TEXT: Calls for accountability were also reflected in the International Safe Abortion Day joint statement, endorsed by over 230 organisations and individuals, which linked reproductive justice to broader struggles against impunity in Gaza, Sudan, and the DRC. While the Council adopted by consensus the resolution on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, this progress stands in contrast with the broader failure of the international system to respond to intersecting crises and uphold the universality and indivisibility of human rights.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
The ongoing genocide in Gaza for the last two years has proven beyond doubt that the international system lacks willingness to hold Israel accountable.

We cannot afford to continue to treat sexual rights as separate from global economic governance. "
sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Cross-mandate collaboration would be essential. Special Rapporteurs on health, poverty, foreign debt, and others should jointly address these intersections.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Special procedures and treaty bodies should explicitly examine how debt, austerity and privatisation affect SRHR. UPR recommendations should go beyond laws and policies to scrutinise fiscal and budgetary choices and their impact on people.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
"The Human Rights Council must integrate an economic analysis into its work and hold those institutions, international financial institutions, accountable, as well as states implementing these policies and the states dictating them.
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 16d
Lobna Darwish from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reflected on gaps and opportunities for sexual rights advocacy at the Human Rights Council during our latest side event at #HRC60:
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 17d
"There can be no genuine accountability on sexual rights without confronting the economic policies that structures people's ability to access healthcare, contraception, and safe childbirth, among other rights."
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sexualrightsinitiative.org
Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 17d
At our latest #HRC60 side event, Lobna Darwish from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights highlighted the material determinants to sexual and reproductive health and rights, linking economic justice to the realisation of rights and the work of the UN Human Rights Council.
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