HRC 39: Statements and Videos
Here are statements the Sexual Rights Initiative has made during the 39th session of the Human Rights Council.
September 10, 2018
Item 3: Clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and the Independent Expert on democratic and equitable international order.
Thank You Mr President,
Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative. The Special Rapporteur in a recent statement to the Working Group on the right to development underscored that while economic growth is important, it is a quantitative and value-neutral concept that can have both negative and positive impacts on people’s lives. It is often the case that the negative impacts of economic development efforts fall on the poor. It is more often than not the poor who are evicted without notice or relocated to give way for real estate or road developments, and the poor whose shelters are demolished to provide space for housing projects they cannot afford.
While we welcome the report’s focus on inequality, it is crucial that we draw attention to the importance of exposing, analysing and addressing the underlying structural and systemic causal factors of inequality. Patriarchy, racism, classism, nestled within larger neoliberal economies also perpetuate the widening gap between the rich and the poor. The right to development, and inequality which impedes its realization, encompass and impact other human rights such as the right to health. Poor access to health services persists, particularly accessible, available, acceptable and good quality health services, including HIV-related services for people who are marginalised based on their sexuality and gender. While HIV incidence is declining in many parts of the world, a decrease in incidence among adolescents, key populations and marginalised groups is less marked in comparison. The exclusion of key populations is often institutionalized in national laws and policy frameworks and has a direct negative impact on health outcomes.
We call upon States to focus on a people-centered and rights based approach to development, and to gather comprehensive data on the inequalities and their negative effects to ensure the accurate assessment and development of appropriate measures to eliminate inequality. We further call on states to double their efforts to provide accessible, available, acceptable and good quality healthcare for all and to impress upon all healthcare practitioners, policy makers, decision-makers and service users to address stigma, discrimination, harassment and violence towards women, key populations and marginalised people in their access to health. Lastly, we call upon States to recognize that economic development for only a portion of the people who reside within its borders is not progress and should not be hailed as such.
Click here to watch the video, starting at 24:30
September 13, 2018
Item 3: Clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to development and the Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures
Thank You Mr President,
Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative. The Special Rapporteur in a recent statement to the Working Group on the right to development underscored that while economic growth is important, it is a quantitative and value-neutral concept that can have both negative and positive impacts on people’s lives. It is often the case that the negative impacts of economic development efforts fall on the poor. It is more often than not the poor who are evicted without notice or relocated to give way for real estate or road developments, and the poor whose shelters are demolished to provide space for housing projects they cannot afford.
While we welcome the report’s focus on inequality, it is crucial that we draw attention to the importance of exposing, analysing and addressing the underlying structural and systemic causal factors of inequality. Patriarchy, racism, classism, nestled within larger neoliberal economies also perpetuate the widening gap between the rich and the poor. The right to development, and inequality which impedes its realization, encompass and impact other human rights such as the right to health. Poor access to health services persists, particularly accessible, available, acceptable and good quality health services, including HIV-related services for people who are marginalised based on their sexuality and gender. While HIV incidence is declining in many parts of the world, a decrease in incidence among adolescents, key populations and marginalised groups is less marked in comparison. The exclusion of key populations is often institutionalized in national laws and policy frameworks and has a direct negative impact on health outcomes.
We call upon States to focus on a people-centered and rights based approach to development, and to gather comprehensive data on the inequalities and their negative effects to ensure the accurate assessment and development of appropriate measures to eliminate inequality. We further call on states to double their efforts to provide accessible, available, acceptable and good quality healthcare for all and to impress upon all healthcare practitioners, policy makers, decision-makers and service users to address stigma, discrimination, harassment and violence towards women, key populations and marginalised people in their access to health. Lastly, we call upon States to recognize that economic development for only a portion of the people who reside within its borders is not progress and should not be hailed as such.
Click here to watch the video, starting at 38:10
September 19, 2018
Items 3 & 5 – Clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Thank you Mr. President we make this statement also on behalf on the Sexual Rights Initiative and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development. We commend the report of the Special Rapporteur on attacks on and criminalization of indigenous peoples defending their rights.
We present this statement in honour of the life of Berta Cáceres, a feminist, indigenous, land and territory defender who fought against corporate and government interests that wanted to destroy the ancestral land and rivers of her community to build a hydroelectric project in the Lenca lands of Honduras. Two years after her assassination her family and feminist indigenous land defenders are still seeking justice.
There is ample evidence of global trends of repression and gender specific violence perpetrated by corporate, state and non-state actors – including corporations and private companies, state and local authorities, military and police forces, as well as private security services in the context of mega development and mining projects. Indigenous women and people of all genders, ages, race and ethnicity risk their freedom and their life defending human rights, their communities, and the wellbeing of our planet when they challenge powerful economic and political interests. Existing structural racism and patriarchal sites of power shape the geopolitics of extractivism, which fails to deliver the development that it promises. On the contrary, an extractive model of development inflicts poverty, deepens economic, social and gender inequities and leads to human right violations and environmental destruction.
Indigenous women defending their land and territories are subject to criminalization, smear campaigns and defamation with particular reference to their sexuality and role as women or mothers. Rape and sexual violence are used as weapons against indigenous women defenders, threats directed to their family members are another common form of psychological torture. Their right to bodily autonomy and self determination is routinely infringed and these violations are exacerbated when gender intersects with other forms of oppression such as racial and ethnic discrimination. As Lolita Chavez, an indigenous WHRD from Guatemala, explains: “Threats are very specific to indigenous women, [and] there is also a very strong racism against us. They refer to us as those rebel Indian women that have nothing to do, and they consider us less human.”
We demand that States ensure accountability for violations of rights of indigenous communities by State representatives, private security companies, and corporations. Extractive projects and land appropriation must take into account the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities, and refrain from executing projects when communities have expressed their opposition to extractive or mining activities.
In addition, a legal framework that recognizes the role that WHRDs play in the promotion of corporate accountability and that guarantees a safe, enabling environment is essential for them to carry out their work.
Finally, it is critical to strengthen the regulatory framework for businesses’ behavior with legally-binding measures such as the instrument developed by the IGWG to regulate TNCs and other business enterprises.
September 20, 2018
Item 6: UPR Outcome of Colombia
Gracias Señor presidente,
Action Canada realiza esta declaración en nombre del Equipo Colombiano de Investigación en Conflicto y Paz, Akahatá y la Iniciativa por los Derechos Sexuales.
Agradecemos el compromiso de Colombia con el mecanismo del EPU. Colombia recibió en esta revisión diversas recomendaciones relacionadas con los derechos sexuales. Ellas abordan entre otros temas la discriminación, desigualdad y violencia contra las mujeres. En este sentido, la cantidad de recomendaciones sobre violencia contra las mujeres, que incluyen específicamente la violencia doméstica y la violencia sexual evidencia la necesidad de un abordaje urgente e integral de este tema desde todas las esferas del estado.
Lamentamos, sin embargo, que información provista en contribuciones efectuadas para esta revisión sobre formas específicas de estos tipos de violencia, como violaciones a mujeres lesbianas y bisexuales, o los ataques, amenazas y violencia -incluida la sexual- ejercida contra lideresas de movimientos sociales no haya sido plasmado en recomendaciones que las visibilicen y aborden de manera específica e interseccional este tema, y que permita tanto su implementación teniendo en cuenta las diferentes situaciones, poblaciones y circunstancias, como también el seguimiento y la rendición de cuentas sobre esta implementación.
En este sentido, instamos al estado de Colombia a que, aún en aquellas recomendaciones formuladas de manera general sobre derechos relacionados con el género y la sexualidad y violencia contra las mujeres, considere un abordaje integral e interseccional para su implementación, reconociendo a las mujeres afro, campesinas, raizales, palenqueras, indígenas, romm, lesbianas y bisexuales, entre otras, en sus estrategias y acciones legislativas, judiciales, en políticas públicas, recolección de información, medidas de reparación, entre otras. Solamente este abordaje permitirá que todas las mujeres, incluyendo aquellas pertenecientes a grupos históricamente invisibilidados y marginados puedan acceder a sus derechos humanos fundamentales que hasta ahora les han sido negados.
Muchas gracias,
Item 6: UPR outcome of Cameroon – Joint statement with the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA)
Thank you Mr. President,
Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative, the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) and the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL).
Despite accepting recommendations meant to improve the lives of women and marginalised people during the second UPR cycle, we are concerned by how little progress Cameroon has made in combating violence against women, improving access to health and working towards the realisation of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Gender-based violence, discrimination and harassment of minority groups and violations of workers’ rights especially in the informal sector persists. Reproductive health access remains low as illustrated by high maternal mortality rates, low contraceptive access and use due to taboos on sex-related discussions in society.
Women in Cameroon live under and face multiple and intersecting forms of oppression which render some women even more vulnerable than others to violence, discrimination and rights violations. One such group of women who experience multiple forms of violence and discrimination and who are routinely excluded from responses and redress are female sex workers. Sex workers have been at the forefront of demanding that their right to bodily autonomy and agency to choose sex work as a profession is recognised and respected. Globally there is increasing recognition of sex work as work and that sex workers should be consulted while making policies and programmes that affect them.
Mr President, it is concerning that the rights and violations of sex workers have not received specific attention either in the Cameroon national report or through State parties recommendations.
As Cameroon has accepted recommendations concerning violence against women and sexual and reproductive health and rights, it is critical also that the state reviews national health policies, strategies and programmes to ensure that the rights violations of sex workers are documented and addressed – including the structural or social determinants that increase sex workers’ vulnerability to gender based violence and HIV. This includes the decriminalisation of all forms of adult sex work, accountability and independent oversight of the police, who often engage in extortion and blackmail of sex workers, as well as the roll out of rights based SRHR and HIV services with the involvement of sex workers in all aspects.
Thank you Mr. President.
Click here to watch the video.
Item 6: UPR outcome of Bangladesh – Joint statement: SRI, Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and Right Here Right Now Bangladesh
Thank you Mr. President,
The Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and Action Canada for Population and Development make this statement in collaboration with Right Here Right Now Bangladesh and Sexual Rights Initiative.
Young people constitute one fifth of Bangladesh’s population and while the country has made great strides in terms of ensuring reproductive health care services for women, very little attention has been paid to the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people. They lack access to comprehensive information about sexual and reproductive health issues and to quality youth friendly services. The coverage of service providers remains limited in urban slums and rural areas.[i] Furthermore, persons with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities continue to face discrimination, stigma, and violence.[ii]
During its 3rd UPR, Bangladesh received recommendations on elimination of all forms of discrimination and abuse on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation; decriminalization of homosexuality; and enabling environment for sexual and reproductive health of women and girls. It is very concerning that Bangladesh has failed to respond positively to many of these recommendations, citing “cultural codes”. This response contradicts Bangladesh’s international human rights commitments. It also reinforces the deep rooted patriarchal notions that control women and girls’ bodies, reducing their access to sexual and reproductive health services. Further, it directly endangers young people and women’s lives by withholding essential information and services with regard to their bodies.
We urge Bangladesh to build on the positive steps taken in past years to uphold the sexual and reproductive rights of young people and women. We call on Bangladesh to renew its political commitment and investment in gender equality, universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and comprehensive sexuality education for all. And in doing so, to truly fulfill Bangladesh’s international commitments with regards to human rights and to enable young people and women to exercise their fundamental bodily rights.
Thank you.
Click here to watch the video.
Item 6: UPR outcome of Canada
Mr. President, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform makes this statement in collaboration with the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We welcome Canada’s acceptance of the recommendation to ensure equal access to abortion and comprehensive sexuality education across all provinces and territories.
Major systemic barriers exist across the country that prevent individuals from accessing the abortion services to which they are entitled. These barriers often intersect with a person’s age, immigration status, race, class, sexuality and gender, as well as an individual’s geographic location. In accepting this recommendation, we will look to the federal government to take immediate steps to address the barriers and discrepancies across provinces and territories in access to abortion care.
Regarding comprehensive sexuality education, swift action is required to ensure curricula is implemented consistently, effectively and in a way that supports young people’s rights to information, non-discrimination, health and to be free from gender-based violence. Federal leadership to promote and protect evidence-based sexuality curricula is sorely needed, particularely in the wake of the Ontario government’s decision to regress their sex-ed back to a 20-year old curriculum.
We remain disappointed that the human rights of sex workers continue to be ignored by our government. In 2013, laws that criminalized sex work were struck down as they were in violation of the rights of sex workers. Since then, new legislation that effectively re-criminalizes sex workers was passed. The lives and health of sex workers remain at risk. This legislation must be swiftly repealed to prevent further harm, prevent gender-based violence and ensure the rights and dignity of sex workers. Decriminalization of sex work, removing all criminal provisions related to sex work, including those criminalizing clients and third parties, is a necessary step to achieve the goals of many UPR recommendations such as ending the criminalization of poverty, ensuring equal labour rights for women, upholding Indigenous women’s human rights, and fighting human trafficking, which can only be done by ending the conflation of sex work and trafficking.
We look forward to seeing our government take concrete steps to protect, promote and respect sexual and reproductive rights of all in Canada. Thank you.
Click here to watch the video.
September 24, 2018
Item 6 General Debate: Joint statement with the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and Right Here Right Now Bangladesh
Mr. President,
The Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and Action Canada for Population and Development make this statement in collaboration Sexual Rights Initiative.
Sexual and reproductive rights are grounded in existing human rights norms and standards.
The Universal Periodic Review has provided an invaluable opportunity to highlight gaps relating to Member States’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfil sexual and reproductive rights. The past two cycles have highlighted that violations relating to sexuality and gender occur in all regions of the world.
National civil society organisations and individual human rights defenders have played a significant role in bringing rights violations to the attention of member states in this process. They have also demanded accountability from their governments for the implementation of the recommendations made during the UPR. Some states have ensured the participation of civil society in the review of their own human rights record and the preparation of national reports– unfortunately, the majority have not.
In addition, a number of gaps have emerged over the past two cycles that warrant further attention and remedy[1][2]. Particular themes related to sexual and reproductive rights continue to be underrepresented or even ignored in states’ recommendations, despite being addressed in numerous stakeholder reports. Comprehensive sexuality education, adolescent sexuality, universal access to modern contraception, safe and legal abortion and sex work are among these. When these issues are raised, they are often not accepted by the states under review who justify their non-compliance on dubious grounds like national values, which undermine the universality of human rights and the very basis of the UPR.
The potential of the UPR cannot be realised unless states ensure the meaningful participation of civil society– including those advocating on rights relating to sexuality and gender -in the assessment of their human rights record, the development of their state reports, the formulation of follow-up action plans for implementation of recommendations. Finally we call on the UPR Voluntary Fund to increase the support available to member states to engage in the UPR and implement its outcome.
Thank you
Click here to watch the video.
Item 8 General Debate – Joint CSO Statement on Abortion
Mr. President,
Through the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, States explicitly agreed to prioritize the realization of all women’s human rights. From Ireland, to Argentina, to South Korea, to Poland and to the Democratic Republic of Congo, women human rights defenders around the world are taking to the streets, to the courtrooms and to the ballot boxes to reclaim control over their own bodies and lives by demanding access to comprehensive abortion care. We unite in solidarity to recognize the shared roots of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination in our struggles.
Although sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have been broadly recognized under international law, women human rights defenders (WHRDs) working on these rights often face harassment, discrimination, stigma, criminalization and physical violence.2 As highlighted by UNGA resolution 68/181, the first ever resolution focusing on WHRDs, such abuses are violations of a person’s fundamental rights to life, liberty, psychological and physical integrity, privacy, freedom of opinion and expression, association and peaceful assembly.
Human rights violations perpetrated against abortion rights defenders and providers are part of a broader framework of backlash against sexual and reproductive rights aimed at instrumentalizing women’s bodies and lives3. Through restrictive and/or discriminatory laws and policies, some states fail to prevent or actively perpetuate these violations. In doing so, they institutionalize abortion stigma and create a hostile environment for abortion providers to carry out their work. Many persist, but others are harassed, or threatened until they cease providing such care. This forces persons – including girls – with unwanted pregnancies to risk their lives, health and well-being by turning to unsafe abortion. It is the State’s obligation to repeal or eliminate laws, policies and practices that criminalize, obstruct or undermine individual’s or group’s access to sexual and reproductive health facilities, services, goods and information, including restrictive abortion laws.
States can no longer ignore the scientific evidence, the jurisprudence and the growing consensus among human rights bodies that abortion rights are human rights. The criminalization of abortion and the failure to ensure access to comprehensive abortion care has been found to be a violation of, inter alia, the rights to health, to bodily autonomy, freedom from discrimination, to the benefits of scientific progress, to privacy and to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment amongst other human rights. In addition, impunity for attacks on abortion rights defenders, including abortion providers, is a clear violation of the principles set forth in the Declaration of Human Rights Defenders.
Therefore, today, on September 28, Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, we stand together as abortion rights defenders, allies and supporters from around the world and call on the Council to condemn attacks on abortion rights defenders and to urgently address the human rights violations arising from the denial of comprehensive abortion care through its resolutions, decisions, dialogues, reviews and debates. Further, we demand that governments across the world respect, protect and fulfill the right of WHRDs working to ensure comprehensive abortion care and post-abortion care to do their work free from all forms of intimidation, harassment and violence from both State and non- State actors.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Click here to watch the video.
Item 8 General Debate – Joint statement of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, the Coalition of African Lesbians, the Association for Progressive Communications, and the Sexual Rights Initiative
I make this statement on behalf of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, the Coalition of African Lesbians, the Sexual Rights Initiative, and the Association for Progressive Communications.
The Vienna Declaration affirms the duty of all states to promote and protect all human rights – indivisible and universal – prioritizing women’s human rights and the eradication of all forms of gender-based discrimination. Yet, we observe with alarm today intensifying attacks on our human rights systems and protections, and particular threats to Women Human Rights Defenders.
Around the world, movements of the extreme right are growing in power.
Activists are confronted by multiple and intersecting oppressions on the rise: authoritarianism, ultra-nationalism, racism, neo-colonialism, corporate capture, militarism, and fundamentalisms. WHRDs face increasingly repressive environments and threats to their legitimacy and security, and are subject to threats, intimidation, harassment, defamation campaigns, violence, discrimination, and attacks in an attempt to restrict their access and engagement with the UN.
States have violated the rights of defenders and feminist movements in recent years by a number of interrelated measures, including:
- criminalization and stigmatization of human rights defenders;
- restrictions on their rights to freedom of assembly and expression (including surveillance);
- restrictions on funding for CSOs; administrative barriers; and
- anti-rights actors colluding in intimidation, attacks and reprisals against civil society.
States then seek impunity for their violations by delegitimizing and undermining the national and international legal frameworks for the protection of human rights defenders and our human rights frameworks as a whole.
The recent decision of the African Union requiring the ACHPR to revise its criteria for granting and withdrawing observer status for NGOs, for example, mirrors similar attacks on the global human rights system. The decision of the ACHPR to withdraw the Coalition of African Lesbians’ observer status, following instructions from the Executive Council of the AU, is a clear illustration of threats enacted by states to civil society participation and defenders working to advance and defend human rights on the continent.
Without an effective, independent and rights based African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, rights holders are left to defend themselves against the routine and persistent rights violations perpetrated by the powerful – including corrupt corporations and government officials.
Furthermore, States are increasingly and opportunistically using terms like ‘morals’, ‘values, ‘culture’ and ‘family’, to undermine human rights and delegitimize defenders. These terms do not belong in the human rights framework. The African Union, by its interpretation of the ‘African Values’ of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights is actively pushing for homogenisation without recognising the diversity of the continent, that values and culture are not static but change, and is using this to further entrench discrimination and violence against women and non-normative people.
It is clear that we require an urgent response to the growing global trend of pushback and reprisals against feminist activists and WHRDs, and the moves to undermine and delegitimize our human rights systems.
We call upon States to speak out and counter anti-rights propaganda and the dismantling of the global and African human rights mechanisms.
Click here to watch the video.
Annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Human Rights Council and that of its mechanisms
Thank you Mr. President,
Action Canada makes this statement also on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative and AWID.
We welcome the panel’s focus on integrating a gender perspective into the Council’s human rights investigations. We particularly appreciate the panel’s recognition that there has been insufficient attention to pre-existing gender-based rights violations that are exacerbated by conflict settings, as well as the need to ground understandings of gender-based violence in the lived realities of the people most affected. }
We remind the Council that gender is not a synonym for women, nor are women and girls inherently vulnerable because of who they are. We object to the co-optation and instrumentalization of gender equality and women’s rights as a means to further States’ incompatible foreign policy objectives or to engage in pro forma exercises. We see how patriarchy and heteronormativity operate to minimize and homogenize the experiences of women, in all their diversity, into palatable and respectable discourses that challenges noone and nothing. This is not a bug, it’s a feature.
States, UN Agencies, independent experts and civil society have a responsibility to deepen and broaden, rather than narrow, their analyses of gender and the underlying conditions that are designed to subjugate women and all marginalized persons.
Resolution 6/30 exists for a reason. It was adopted to serve as a constant reminder that we must not fall into this trap of limiting analysis about gender and human rights, including in the Council’s methods of work. From administrative procedures regarding the delivery of statements, to the terms of references of Commissions of Inquiries, the Council must fulfill its duty to create the conditions for meaningful accountability and rich gender analysis for human rights violations.
I thank you