The revolution is feminist in its postulates as well and the key demand is the dismissal of the government. However the Women’s Strike, which organised the protests, formulated five key areas for change; these are: full spectrum of access to SRHR, a secular state, implementation of the Istanbul Convention, improvement of the material conditions of women and making Poland an inclusive and non-discriminating country.

At SRI, we believe that it would be foolish to treat COVID-19 as a temporary hiccup in a generally progressivist tale of the inevitable triumph of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as universally upheld human rights. Experience teaches us to always prepare to have SRHR gains be stalled, coopted, or deprioritized in a crisis, any crisis. The SRHR priority going forward must, therefore, be a refusal to accept “the new normal” – the normal of denial, deprivation, and discrimination – and recognize that the “war” that has been declared on the virus masks another war, one on fundamental and interconnected human rights. The further disempowerment of the impoverished, the unhoused, of gender and sexuality minorities, women in rural areas seeking abortion, adolescents in need of comprehensive sexuality education, sex workers, and women forced into marriage and childbearing – particularly in low-income countries and in low-income communities in wealthy countries – will be written off as the collateral damage of this war. Accepting the war analogy and the discourse of securitization that accompanies it means acceding to the logic of the necessary sacrifice of “foot soldiers” (frontline workers, in this case) and of the weak and most vulnerable among us, and provides a convenient distraction from the impact of the prioritization of military spending and of neoliberal policies of austerity and privatization on health systems and social security nets worldwide that have led us to this crisis. Research from different parts of the world clearly shows that there needs to be a joint, speedy, and concerted effort to catch the backsliding on women's rights, including SRHR, and we can expect that economic recession will be used to justify what the nationalist warcry might fail to.

Unaddressed, historical, structural and systemic discrimination and violence in the world create situations of crisis. Systems of patriarchy, racism and xenophobia and/or neoliberal capitalism created and continue to further and entrench this discrimination and violence increasing situations of crisis across the world. The impacts of any crisis on women and girls has to be addressed considering neoliberal policies that have defunded or privatized public health systems, eroded labour rights and other networks of protection, and promoted precarious forms of labour.[1]  At this moment in time, the multiple and intersecting crises the world has been experiencing for centuries have never been so visible. The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has exposed the brokenness and inequality of global capitalism. These structural oppressions manifest in different crisis situations while exacerbating the existing forms of discrimination they cause. 

In response to the Special Rapporteur’s call for inputs on housing discrimination and spatial segregation, SRI made a submission addressing the impact of discrimination based on gender and sexuality norms.

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The SRI collaborated on submissions for Eswatini, Hungary, Samoa, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea for the 39th Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session.

Joint statement by IWRAW Asia Pacific, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Sexual Rights Initiative and endorsed by a total of 71 organizations delivered during the General Debate on Item 3 on the human rights obligation to ensure equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine, particularly to highlight civil society perspectives from the Global South on this topic.

Federation for Women and Family Planning, Poland

Interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on Foreign Debt

Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

CAL & SRI Statement - Meeting on Poverty

CAL & SRI Statement - Racism, People of African Descent at the 46th HRC

Joint civil society letter on civil society organizations’ (CSOs) participation at the 46th Human Rights Council

HRC 46 - RHRN & SRI - UPR Joint Statement

As organizations based in the Global North, we are ashamed of our governments’ hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines.

As organizations based in the Global North, we are ashamed of our governments’ hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines.