We can, however, advocate for several Sexual Rights issues, get involved with UN Mechanisms and collaborate in advancing human rights in relation to gender and sexuality.
Let us know how we can help or search our website.
The UN human rights system is a collection of mechanisms that work together to:
Hold States accountable for their human rights obligations
The SRI works with the four main UN human rights mechanisms:
The Human Rights Council is the foremost inter-governmental body charged with protecting and promoting human rights.
47 UN Member States are elected by the UN General Assembly to serve on the Human Rights Council for a three-year term. All 193 UN Member States can participate in the proceedings of the Human Rights Council; however, only the 47 Members are entitled to vote on actions to be taken.
The Human Rights Council is mandated to:
The Human Rights Council meets three times a year for regular sessions in March, June, and September at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
To learn more about the Human Rights Council, please visit its website or watch this video produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Universal Periodic Review is an inter-governmental process where each of the 193 UN Member States are reviewed on their entire human rights record every four and a half years.
All UN Member States are reviewed on an equal basis and with the same frequency. States under review are provided an opportunity to update the UN Human Rights Council on the steps taken to fulfill their human rights obligations at the national level. During this process, UN Member States also make recommendations to the State under review to improve the implementation of human rights obligations at the national level.
To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, please visit its website or watch this video produced by UPR-Info.
Click here to review a collection of the SRI’s collaborative UPR stakeholder submissions.
UN Special Procedures are human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate, analyze and report on thematic or country-specific human rights concerns.
UN Special Procedures can take the form of Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts, or Working Groups. The Special Procedures submit annual reports to the Human Rights Council, respond to communications of urgent human rights violations, undertake country visits, and contribute to the development of international human rights norms and standards.
To learn more about the Special Procedures, please visit their website or watch this video produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Click here to learn more about our work at the Special Procedures
The Treaty Monitoring Bodies are committees of independent experts that monitor the implementation of international human rights treaties.
When States ratify a human rights treaty, they agree to periodically report to the respective Committee on the steps taken to ensure everyone in the State can enjoy the rights set out in the treaty. The Treaty Monitoring Bodies also develop and adopt General Comments or Recommendations to guide States in the implementation of the obligations set out in the human rights treaties.
To learn more about the Treaty Monitoring Bodies, please visit their website or watch this video produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Click here to learn more about our work at the Treaty Monitoring Bodies
The SRI works at the UN Universal Periodic Review by collaborating with national and regional organisations and coalitions on stakeholder submissions. These submissions touch on a number of different sexual and reproductive health and rights issues affecting the country under review, such as abortion, sex work, access to contraception, and rights related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression.
The UPR provides an opportunity for civil society organisations (CSOs) to engage in advocacy at the United Nations. CSOs can submit stakeholder submissions advocating for improved human rights conditions in their country, including on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The 48th session of the Universal Periodic will take place from 20 to 31 January 2025. 14 Countries are under review during the session: Italy, the Gambia, Fiji, Kazakhstan, Iran, El Salvador, Bolivia, San Marino, Angola, Madagascar, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and Egypt. In collaboration with our partners, the SRI submitted reports for Angola and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The UPR Database, a project of the SRI, allows you to access and search all the sexual rights related recommendations and references made during the Universal Periodic Review.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is an intergovernmental process in which each of the 193 UN Member States is reviewed on their entire human rights record every four and a half years. The UPR highlights actions that countries need to take to fulfil their agreed human rights obligations—these actions are presented as recommendations that states must accept or note.
Explainer on Terminology
To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, please visit its website or watch this video produced by UPR-Info.
SRI works at the UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies in partnership with national and regional civil society organisations and tracking recommendations made by treaty bodies on sexual rights. Committees assigned to a treaty will review its implementation by analysing reports submitted by States and contrasting that information with reports sent by civil society.
We prepare stakeholder submissions to Treaty Monitoring Bodies Committees and provide technical assistance to civil society organisations wishing to make submissions to Treaty Bodies. We also contribute to Committees' debates, discussions, and panels when there is an opportunity to do so.
Summary of the submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to inform the elaboration of General Recommendation no 37 on racial discrimination and the right to health
Submitted by: Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI), National Council of Women Leaders (NCWL), Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network (DHRDNet), International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Her Rights Initiative (HRI), and Alisa Lombard
This alternative report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), for the review of the State of Paraguay, is a joint contribution between the Network Against All Forms of Discrimination of Paraguay, the CDIA (for its acronym in Spanish) - Coordinator for the Rights of Children and Adolescents of Paraguay, Akahatá - Task Force on Sexualities and Genders, SYNERGIA - Initiatives for Human Rights and SRI - Sexual Rigths Initiative; for the 95th session of the CRC.
The Treaty Monitoring Bodies are committees of independent experts that monitor the implementation of international human rights treaties.
When States ratify a human rights treaty, they agree to periodically report to the respective Committee on the steps taken to ensure everyone in the State can enjoy the rights set out in the treaty. The Treaty Monitoring Bodies also develop and adopt General Comments or Recommendations to guide States in the implementation of the obligations set out in the human rights treaties.
To learn more about the Treaty Monitoring Bodies, please visit their website or watch this video produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
SRI engages with the UN Special Procedures to influence the content of their thematic work and reports. As independent experts, Special Procedures have a particular role to play in echoing feminist analysis and demands and are sometimes able to do so more freely than other human rights mechanisms. We work in this context to bring an intersectional approach that includes sexual rights and foregrounds a Global South perspective to thematic mandates in their contributions to the development of norms and standards.
We engage with Special Procedures by making submissions to their thematic reports. We also contribute to the debates, discussions and panels with independent experts at the Human Rights Council. We participate in their consultations and connect them with activists at the national level when they undertake country visits. Finally, we support organisations and activists who want to make a complaint through the communication procedure.
Deprivation of liberty of women and girls by the State, institutions and families is often the result of the need to control women and girls, accompanied by the fear of sexuality, its expression and assertion.
Prepared in response to the call for inputs issued by the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights to inform her report on the right to participate in sports, this submission advocates for an intersectional approach that examines the colonial, racist, patriarchal and capitalist underpinnings and root causes for violations of the right to participate in sports.
This submission reviews bioethics and how it has related to the rights of persons with disabilities. It first highlights how bioethics constitutes its own authority and experts to have a say in the lives of persons with disabilities. Secondly it provides a brief overview of a global feminist approach to bioethics and its contributions to a critique of the field. After highlighting the contributions of women with disabilities to the so-called “bioethical discussions,” the submission recommends to move away from bioethics and adopt a human rights-based analysis.
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).
While we cover a range of topics related to sexual rights, our current focus through the Special Procedures currently covers the following themes:
You'll find in this post the most recent opportunities for feminist engagement in the UN human rights system from February to April 2024.
Published on February 08, 2024
Last year, our work continued to highlight how 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. Read below for our highlights of 2023.
Published on February 12, 2024
UN Special Procedures are human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate, analyse and report on thematic or country-specific human rights concerns.
UN Special Procedures can take the form of Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts, or Working Groups. The Special Procedures submit annual reports to the Human Rights Council, respond to communications of urgent human rights violations, undertake country visits, and contribute to developing international human rights norms and standards.
To learn more about the Special Procedures, please visit their website or watch this video produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
SRI as a feminist coalition has participated in every regular session of the Council since its formation. SRI works at the Human Rights Council to bring a feminist and intersectional approach to sexuality and gender while foregrounding the voices of the Global South. We do this through advocacy with member states, UN mechanisms and agencies. Each session, we engage the council’s debates, discussions and panels through statements, often written and delivered in collaboration with activists and other civil society organisations. We also provide workshops and trainings to organisations and activists interested in engaging with the council. Finally, we contribute to developing knowledge on sexual rights by organising events and panels, organising campaigns and creating and sharing knowledge resources.
At the HRC, we:
This work intersects with the Special Procedures when they report to the Council and the Universal Periodic Review.
SRI as a feminist coalition has participated in every regular session of the Council since its formation. SRI works at the Human Rights Council to bring a feminist and intersectional approach to sexuality and gender while foregrounding the voices of the Global South. We do this through advocacy with member states, UN mechanisms and agencies. Each session, we engage the council’s debates, discussions and panels through statements, often written and delivered in collaboration with activists and other civil society organisations. We also provide workshops and trainings to organisations and activists interested in engaging with the council. Finally, we contribute to developing knowledge on sexual rights by organising events and panels, organising campaigns and creating and sharing knowledge resources.
At the HRC, we:
This work intersects with the Special Procedures when they report to the Council and the Universal Periodic Review.
This tool is a collaborative project by Fòs Feminista and the Sexual Rights Initiative. It aims to facilitate access for advocates and delegates to UN intergovernmental resolutions, expert guidance, and technical information in order to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights at the global level and hold governments accountable for their international obligations and commitments.
This tool includes two sections:
A searchable database of adopted intergovernmental documents and of expert guidance related to sexual and reproductive health and rights,
A curated list of key sexual and reproductive health and rights terms with selected examples of agreed language and additional guidance, definitions and resources.
The Human Rights Council, an intergovernmental mechanism made up of 47 UN member states, was created by the General Assembly in 2006 to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights across the globe and address human rights violations and make recommendations. The HRC can discuss either thematic or country-specific issues. The human rights council has three regular sessions every year and special sessions for urgent situations.
47 UN Member States are elected by the UN General Assembly to serve on the Human Rights Council for a three-year term. All 193 UN Member States can participate in the proceedings of the Human Rights Council; however, only the 47 Members are entitled to vote on actions to be taken.
The Human Rights Council is mandated to:
The Human Rights Council meets three times a year for regular sessions in March, June, and September at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
To learn more about the Human Rights Council, please visit its website or watch this video produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
We urge the government to prioritise the development of a national plan for the inclusion of comprehensive sexuality education in school curricula as a mandatory subject. Access to comprehensive sexuality education will empower them to make informed decisions about their bodies, sexual and reproductive health, sexuality, and relationships. Comprehensive sexuality education is crucial for promoting gender equality, reducing violence, and enhancing the well-being of students across North Macedonia.
The principle of universality must be applied to challenge which families are considered to be worthy of state protection and therefore which family members are entitled to human rights, according to the state. At this very moment, we are witnessing families being decimated in service of a racist, colonial state and its expansionist aspirations. Are these family members not entitled to human rights?
Join us for this side event that will feature a discussion on the definitions and understandings of the term development, and examine its uses from a feminist and Global South perspective.
