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Find the full statement and list of signatories here: https://www.abortionstatement.org/

On 2 October 2025, several members of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) were kidnapped by Israel following an illegal interception of the flotilla boats in international waters. The Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) joins the calls from activists around the world to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and the immediate release of all Global Sumud Flotilla abductees

Today, a few hundred ordinary people from 44 countries are sailing toward Gaza to break the siege and open a humanitarian corridor. Our action is rooted in the failure of states to stop the humanitarian catastrophe created by Israel and to end the genocide. Under international humanitarian law, our governments must protect us from any attack on the flotilla. The Human Rights Council must act with clarity and urgency and condemn Israel’s genocide, and call on all states to fulfil their legal obligations. This requires a full arms, trade, and cultural embargo on Israel, and concrete steps to end impunity for these crimes.

The UPR is a useful check point for states to reflect on their human rights programming - their best practices, gaps and challenges. It is a continuous reminder that the realisation of human rights should be a regular facet of states’ work, and that we shouldn’t have to wait for crises, emergencies, and conflicts to centre human rights, or to make a voluntary commitment to do better.

If the Council is truly serious in its objectives to meaningfully integrate a gender perspective into transitional justice processes, States must start their processes with gendered analyses at the centre, not as an add-in later. As 47 Independent UN Experts recently stated, gendered analyses are “essential for exposing power disparities, structural inequalities and discriminatory practices embedded in laws, institutions and social norms. ”

We are deeply concerned by the Sweden’s approach to sex work, which indirectly criminalizes the bodies of sex workers, conflates sex work with trafficking, and exposes sex workers to violence, stigma, and exclusion from democratic participation. The criminalization of sex work forces sex workers to the margins of society. Red Umbrella Sweden members often live in precarious conditions, at constant risk of eviction, homelessness, and social isolation, and often face barriers to accessing health care.

Armenia must address uneven access to reproductive services, including abortion, which is legally permitted in the country. Rural women, women with disabilities, LBT women and women living with HIV face systemic barriers due to stigma, lack of trained providers, and gaps in service delivery. The government must take proactive steps to ensure abortion is accessible, affordable, and safe for all women, regardless of their social status, genetic or personal characteristics, or geographic location.

We are concerned by Kenya’s decision to note the recommendation to amend the Penal Code to decriminalise and legalise abortion. Despite the provisions of Article 26(4) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, which permits abortion under certain grounds, women are still denied access to abortion in Kenya due to a lack of a clear legal and policy framework.

We welcome and deeply appreciate in this regard the recent statement by 47 UN Special Procedures mandate holders which highlighted that legal and policy frameworks that fail to incorporate a gender perspective risk reinforcing, rather than dismantling, structural inequality, and that regressive approaches ignore the lived realities of women and girls, as well as gender-diverse persons, and obscure the root causes of discrimination and violence.

Aunque el informe aborda la interseccionalidad, lamentamos que omite mencionar a las trabajadoras sexuales, quienes son sistemáticamente excluidas del sistema de protección social debido a la criminalización, el estigma y la falta de reconocimiento legal de su trabajo. Esta exclusión resulta en una falta total de acceso a pensiones, seguro médico o apoyo económico, una situación que se siente con mayor intensidad en la vejez.