SRI Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health: Sexual Rights During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In response to the Special Rapporteur’s call for contributions, SRI made a submission locating the impact of COVID-19 on the right to sexual and reproductive health within a broader context of racial capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, ableism and austerity.

It argues that the analysis of the state of the right to sexual and reproductive health during the Covid-19 pandemic must engage with these structures and systems of oppressions, as well as the macroeconomic and geopolitical factors impeding the equal enjoyment of SRHR across the globe.

The submission also outlines SRHR trends reported by SRI partners and collaborators at the international, regional and national levels during this pandemic, including de-prioritization, de-funding, retrogression, opportunistic and “protectionist” actions taken by States.

For more analysis from SRI partners on this topic, please see our 2020 SRHR round up

Our partner, the Federation for Women and Family Planning, also made a submission on the Polish government’s instrumentalisation of Covid-19 measures to restrict access to SRHR, and particularly abortion.