ORAL STATEMENT
Human Rights Council
60th regular session of the Human Rights Council
08 September - 08 October 2025
Item 3: ID with the SR on the right to development - Interactive Dialogue
Wednesday 10 September 2025, 15:00
Mr. President
The Center for Reproductive Rights, Ilga World and the Sexual Rights Initiative welcome the report’s assertion that there can be no gender equality, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, without the right to development - and vice versa.
The false divide between development and gender equality has been weaponized to undermine hard-won progress in gender equality and human rights, threatening the foundations of inclusive, rights-based development, with disproportionate impact on women, girls, and persons with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
As highlighted by the Special Rapporteur, access to sexual and reproductive health is essential to ensure all people can meaningfully participate in and benefit from the right to development. This includes abortion and gender-affirming care. The right to development is also vital to address deep-rooted structural inequalities – such as determinants of the right to health, harmful gender stereotypes, intersecting forms of discrimination and legacies of the slavery and colonial past – which continue to undermine gender equality, bodily autonomy, and the full enjoyment of SRHR.
The right to development must address the economic challenges and barriers perpetrated by the dominant economic paradigm that continue preventing women, girls and persons with diverse SOGIESC to enjoy their SRHR, bodily and reproductive autonomy.
We call on this Council to uphold the universality of human rights so all people can enjoy and participate in the right to development, free from discrimination and violence, and equality can finally be achieved.
Thank you
Co-sponsors
- The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World)
- Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI)
- Feminist Diplomacy Lab
- International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)