Analysis

Sexual rights are profoundly impacted by the interrelated global crises brought on by capitalism through rampant neoliberalism, unchecked extractivism and climate degradation, violent populism and nationalism, soaring inequality within and between states, and entrenched patriarchal, racist, classist and ableist systems of oppression. As part of the development of a new ten-year strategy, SRI sought to deepen its analysis of the political economy of sexual rights. Using a participatory approach, SRI convened a series of three conversations that teased out different dimensions of the overarching theme. Each conversation drew in various actors working nationally, regionally, and globally.

This document contains a summary of the interventions of our 3 conversations of 2023 on the political economy of sexual rights.

This summary contains the essence of our panellists' interventions during our 3rd conversation on the the political economy of sexual rights focusing on coercion, cooption, and collusion: global governance under neoliberalism. This exciting series of conversations hosted by the Sexual Rights Initiative explore how macroeconomics profoundly affects sexual rights and share ideas on effective strategies to address these challenges within social justice activism, including advocacy in UN human rights spaces. By bringing together a diverse group of activists, scholars, and advocates, this virtual conversation series aims to build cross-movement collaboration and global partnerships.

This summary contains the essence of our panellists' interventions during our 2nd conversation on the the political economy of sexual rights focusing on coercive and punitive economic measures & sexual rights. This exciting series of conversations hosted by the Sexual Rights Initiative explore how macroeconomics profoundly affects sexual rights and share ideas on effective strategies to address these challenges within social justice activism, including advocacy in UN human rights spaces. By bringing together a diverse group of activists, scholars, and advocates, this virtual conversation series aims to build cross-movement collaboration and global partnerships.

This summary contains the essence of our panellists' interventions during our 1rst conversation on the the political economy of sexual rights focusing on the legacies and contemporary forms of colonialism, imperialism, and occupation, and their impact on sexual and reproductive rights.

In 2004, in an article titled “Sexuality, Violence Against Women, and Human Rights: Women Make Demands and Ladies Get Protection”, the legal scholar Ali Miller outlined a paradox. Despite the recognition of women’s human rights and increasing attention paid to violence against women in countless spaces, including through the media, the violence was not understood, prevented or adequately responded to. Miller points to two interconnected phenomena to explain this paradox. Firstly, the rise and practice of respectability politics. Due to this, more ‘explosive’ aspects of sexuality such as desire or autonomy are set aside in favour of issues that present less challenge to the systems of patriarchy, racism and class. And secondly, protectionism.