Sexual Rights at the 40th UN Human Rights Council

Published on February 25, 2019

Sexual Rights at the 40th UN Human Rights Council

The 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 25 February to 22 March 2019.

Find below information about anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports, UPR outcomes, and parallel events taking place during the 40th session.

 

Expected Resolutions Relevant to Sexual Rights

  • Rights of the child: empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, including through inclusive education (GRULAC, European Union)
  • Human Rights Defenders (Norway)
  • Role of economic, social and cultural rights in empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality (Portugal)

 

Sexual Rights Related Panels

Annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming
Theme: Human rights in the light of multilateralism: opportunities, challenges and the way forward

Biennial high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty
Theme: Human rights violations related to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to the rights to non-discrimination and equality

Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child
Theme: Empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, including through inclusive education

Annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities
Theme: Article 26 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on habilitation and rehabilitation

Debate on the mitigation and countering of rising nationalist populism and extreme supremacist ideologies
Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Click here for a list of all panels and concept notes

 

Sexual Rights Related Reports

A/HRC/40/27
Empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, including through inclusive education – Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Click here to read the report »

A/HRC/40/35
Annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women – Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Click here to read the report »

A/HRC/40/53
Cultural rights: tenth anniversary report – Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Click here to read our submission to the Special Rapporteur »
Click here to read the report »

A/HRC/40/54
Rights of persons with disabilities on disability-specific forms of deprivation of liberty, in the light of the standards set forth in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
Click here to read the report »

A/HRC/40/57
Guiding principles on human rights impact assessments of economic reforms – Report of the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights
Click here to read the report »

A/HRC/40/60
Situation of women human rights defenders – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
Click here to read the report »

A/HRC/40/63
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy Focus: gender perspectives on privacy
Click here to read the report when it becomes available »

Click here for a list of all reports

 

UPR OUTCOMES

Outcomes from the 31st session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will be adopted during this session of the HRC. The 31st session of the UPR was held in November 2018.

Fourteen countries were reviewed: Belize, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Congo, Jordan, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Senegal.

SRI collaborated with organizations and individuals in preparing four reports for three countries:

MEXICO
SRI, Musas de Metal Grupo de Mujeres Gay A.C.
Topics: sexual and reproductive health and rights; sexual health and diversity; LGBTI rights; discrimination, same-sex marriage; families with same-sex parents; assisted reproduction; surrogacy; conversion therapy; violence; femicide.
 

NIGERIA
SRI, Equality Triangle Initiative (formerly Queer Alliance Nigeria)
Topics: LGBT; Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, 2014; Violence against Persons Prohibition Act, 2015; Anti-Torture Act, 2017; Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill.
 

NIGERIA
SRI, Women Action for Gender Equality, Coalition of African Lesbians
Topics: Gender based violence; Blackmail; Extortion; Early and Forced Marriages; Eviction; Discrimination; Human Rights; Housing; Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression; HIV and AIDS; LGBT; Refugees.
 

SENEGAL
SRI, Right Here Right Now
Topics: Adolescents and youth; access to abortion; gender-based violence.
 

All Reports from the Working Groups, containing all recommendations received by States Under Review can be accessed here.

 

WHRDs- Working on sexual rights

Sexual Rights Initiative Side Event

Women Human Rights Defenders working on sexual rights in international and regional human rights mechanisms
Room XXV- Palais des Nations, Geneva
5 March 2019, 13:00-14:00

While there has been an intensified backlash against women human rights defenders across the globe, WHRDs are, and have remained, resilient and resolute actors in the human rights systems. In regional spaces, WHRDs working on sexual rights have been the leading force in challenging gender stereotypes and calling for social transformation and justice. WHRDs’ contribution to raising awareness of women’s rights and gender equality have been recognized at the international and regional level by human rights bodies. As WHRDs working on sexual rights engage in regional and international human rights bodies they reveal that the same struggles of patriarchy, capitalism, racism, militarism, and colonialism they are fighting against at the local level are also prevalent within regional and international human rights bodies, which reflect a microcosm of interlocking systems of oppression. Indeed, international and regional human rights bodies constitute sites of institutional power that create and shape the realities and discourses that WHRDs working on sexual rights face.

This side-event will explore how WHRDs working on sexual rights have engaged within the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to advance human rights, question the unbalanced power relations between North and South actors in these spaces, and create change despite the limitations of these spaces.
 

Speakers will include:

  • Anthea Taderera, Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL)
  • Fernando D’Elio, Akahatá
  • Krystyna Kacpura, The Federation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA)

Moderated by Pooja Patel, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

 

Other Sexual Rights-related Events

Side event are subject to change. Please check the daily order of the day on the Human Rights Council website.

28 FEBRUARY
Sexual and reproductive health and rights in humanitarian settings
Center for Reproductive Rights
13:00 – 14:00, Room XXIV

1 MARCH
Women human rights defenders’ protection
International Service for Human Rights
11:30-13:00, Room XXV

1 MARCH Women human rights defenders in Brazil
Terra de Direitos
15:00-16:00, Room XXIV

4 MARCH
Gender privacy in the digital age
Association for Progressive Communications
15:30-16:30, Room XXIV

5 MARCH
Accountability for women in conflict
Center for Reproductive Rights
16:30-17:30, Room XXIII

6 MARCH
Women human rights defenders
Right Livelihood Award Foundation
11:00-12:00, Room XV

8 MARCH
The UPR and gender equality
UPR-Info
14:00-15:00. Room XXV

12 MARCH
Violations against Yazidi women
Institute of Sustainable Development
16:00-17:00, Room XV

18 MARCH Sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean
Center for Reproductive Rights
12:00-13:00, Room XXIV

 

UN WEB TV

 

IPPF-SRI-web

 

 

 

Read the SRI & IPPF UPR

Toolkit for Sexual Rights Advocates

Available in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish & Arabic.

 

 

 

 

web SRI

 

 

The National Sexual Rights Law and Policy Database documents and compares the status of law and policy related to sexual rights issues in different countries around the world.

Click here to access the database

 

 

 

UPR Web

 

 

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Sexual Rights database records all information from the UPR related to sexual rights. Use it to find out about your country’s sexual rights commitments.

Click here to access the database

 

 

More info about the HRC

Created in 2006 to replace the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Council is the foremost international body for the promotion and protection of human rights and can be used to bring substantial pressure on governments to take steps to implement human rights norms. The Human Rights Council is comprised of governments of countries that are members of the United Nations and is an important venue to develop and advance sexual rights as a critical part of the international human rights framework.

Click here for more information on the upcoming session