UPR Submissions - 49th session

The 49th session of the Universal Periodic will take place from 28 April to 09 May 2025. 14 Countries are under review during the session: Kyrgyzstan, Kiribati, Guinea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Spain, Lesotho, Kenya, Armenia, Guinea-Bissau, Sweden, Grenada, Türkiye, Guyana and Kuwait. In collaboration with our partners, the SRI submitted reports for Armenia, Sweden and Kenya.

HRC 57: NSWP & SRI Statement on General debate item 3

Sex workers are habitually denied opportunities to participate in international human rights platforms, such as the HRC. Many of us are refused visas and lack funding to travel and participate in UN processes. Human rights are universal. You cannot promote the human rights of some people while excluding others.

HRC 55: Canadian Civil Society Joint statement to Canada's UPR adoption

The implementation of these recommendations is especially urgent given the shortcomings of the Government’s engagement with civil society in this fourth UPR and its overall lack of accountability on international human rights compliance. These shortcomings include a lack of federal leadership, limited information accessibility, unequal opportunities for civil society participation, and no clear process for monitoring and follow up of recommendations.

HRC 55: #EmptyChairs campaign statement to the Item 5: Human Rights Bodies and Mechanisms

We urge States, especially Global North States, to implement Special Procedures’ recommendations and call for a permanent ceasefire, and immediately stop their support for Israel’s genocide. This Council must concern itself with human rights violations and do away with double standards.

HRC 53 the PACT, Red Juvenil de Asociación de Mujeres Gente Nueva and SRI Statement to Guatemala's UPR

We regret that Guatemala has noted all the recommendations pertaining to the closing of civil society space, creating an enabling environment for civil society organisations to operate, protecting the rights of human rights defenders, and pertaining to meeting its obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil sexual and reproductive rights, the rights of women and the rights of LGBT+ persons.

Akãhatã & SRI Statement to the Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on Transnational Corporations

The social and economic development that transnational corporations were supposed to bring is just a distant promise for Global South countries, as extractivism, degradation of natural resources, privatisation of public resources and violations of human rights are a palpable reality.

2022 In Review

As we embark on another year of activism for sexual rights, we wanted to share with you our highlights of 2022. While the UN human rights system continues to be confronted by multiple challenges –from funding shortages, geopolitical tensions and polarisation and attempts to undermine multilateralism to the presence and influence of regressive and conservative actors, we have made steadfast progress in advancing sexual rights in this system. Read below for our highlights of 2022.

UPR Submissions - 42nd session

The 42nd session of the Universal Periodic review begins on the 23rd of January 2023. The working group session will take place from 23 January to 3 February 2023. 13 Countries will be under review during the session: Czechia, Gabon, Benin, Switzerland, Argentina, Ghana, Guatemala, the Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Japan, Sri Lanka and Zambia. In collaboration with our partners, the SRI collaborated on reports for Guatemala, Japan, Pakistan, Switzerland and Zambia.

Statement to the Organisational session for the 17th cycle of the HRC

As observers of the Human Rights Council, we have repeated and continue to repeat our concerns with these so-called efficiency measures. The so-called efficiency measures privilege convenience over the Council's effectiveness, which should concern all of us. The lack of general debates during the June sessions has severely impacted civil society participation. It is particularly true for feminist groups and groups that work on issues of gender and sexuality.

UPR Submissions - 42nd session

The 42nd session of the Universal Periodic review begins on the 23rd of January 2023. The working group session will take place from 23 January to 3 February 2023. 13 Countries will be under review during the session: Czechia, Gabon, Benin, Switzerland, Argentina, Ghana, Guatemala, the Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Japan, Sri Lanka and Zambia. In collaboration with our partners, the SRI collaborated on reports for Guatemala, Japan, Pakistan, Switzerland and Zambia.

UPR 42 Guatemala Submission - REDJUAMUGEN, The PACT and SRI

This report is submitted by REDJUAMUGEN, The PACT and SRI and the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI). This report is the result of a consultation convened to contribute to the UPR in Guatemala, led and implemented by REDJUAMUGEN, was carried out through a multisectoral analysis. This identified the needs and demands of Guatemalan youth, guaranteeing the gender approach by investigating the current national situation in different sectors, forming a holistic analysis, then generating milestones to formulate recommendations for the country and the diverse Guatemalan youth.

HRC50 - SRI Statement on the commemorative event on the occasion of the 50th session of the HRC

SRI Statement on the commemorative event on the occasion of the 50th session of the HRC.
The Human Rights Council will marked its 50th session through a high-level interactive discussion that provided stakeholders an opportunity to reflect on the achievements made and the lessons learned since its 1st session. The following is SRI's statement to this interactive discussion.

HRC 48: Statement for the Interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on international order

At some point there was hope that the Council would be a place where states would answer for their actions and where people could seek remedy for human rights violations - but that hope has faded over time. During this pandemic, the UN’s international cooperation mandate has given way to States’ and corporate interests. Barriers to entering multilateral spaces including denial of visas, ECOSOC status requirements, unsustainable cost of travel, lack of translation, lack of access for people with disabilities, technology access and safety issues, and so-called efficiency measures that restrict civil society participation, all take away the nuance and expertise that civil society brings in pursuit of social justice and equality. All of this is symbolized by the empty chairs throughout the UN.

HRC 48: Item 8 General Debate statement on #EmptyChairs campaign

During this pandemic, we have seen that the UN can change and create processes for better participation of all, including civil society. We have seen modalities evolve to allow for video statements and other remote modalities that had long been demanded by activists but were treated as impossible -- that is until States needed them too. But we have also seen the instrumentalization of the pandemic to restrict civil society space nationally and internationally, the UN’s budget crisis impact on its ability to fulfill its mandate, including with regards to civil society participation, delayed reports and other outcomes, and the drive for expediency leading to the renewal of ‘efficiency’ measures that obstruct rather than advance broad participation.

HRC34: Sexual Rights Recap

The 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from the 27th of February to the 24th of March 2017. Here is an overview of resolutions, panel, oral statements and side events related to sexual rights that took place during the session.

OHCHR Wants to Hear from You! Mapping the History and Achievements of Civil Society

‘Imagining a World Without Participation’: Mapping the History and Achievements of Civil Society

June 2017 thematic report to the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association

Source: OHCHR

The space for civil society globally has shrunk dramatically over the last 10 years. In established democracies as well as in autocratic regimes and states in transition, laws and practices constraining freedoms of association and of peaceful assembly have flourished.

Statement: Release Egyptian Journalist Hossam Bahgat

Partners in the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) coalition – Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Akahata, Coalition of African Lesbians, CREA, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and Federation for Women and Family Planning – condemn the detention of Egyptian journalist Hossam Bahgat by the military police.

HRC28: SRI Oral Statements

During the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) collaborated with national-level organizations and advocates to deliver oral statements regarding outcomes from the Universal Periodic Review ‘s (UPR) of Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador and Madagascar. Responses were also prepared for Egypt and Iran but not delivered due to time limitations

SRI partners sign on to Joint Statement on ‘Human Rights for All in the Post-2015 Development Agenda’

Human rights have surged to the forefront of the debate about what will succeed the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. As human rights and social justice organizations worldwide, we feel compelled to lay out some of the baseline implications of embedding human rights into the core of the sustainable development agenda this time around.