We echo the report’s call on States to repeal all laws and policies that penalise individuals for structural inequality, and to move away from punitive and carceral approaches.
There is overwhelming evidence showing that the criminalisation of drug use and of sex work is deeply discriminatory, disproportionately affecting people on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity and class. It also increases exposure to physical and sexual violence. It is also used as a driver of other harmful policies, for instance by restricting access to safe housing and shelter, as well as to safe places of work and labour rights for sex workers.
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.
Sex workers have a right to a safe working environment. We are women, we are mothers, we are workers. But due to criminalisation and discrimination, going back home alive everyday is not assured.
As sex workers, we demand respect for our consent when we say we choose sex work and when we demand the full decriminalisation of our work for our rights, health and safety.
UPR 44 Canada Submission - Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW), YWCA Hamilton, The Community Research Platform at McMaster University, and the SRI
Whilst the buying and selling of sex is not llegal in Botswana, there are a number of legal provisions in place that prohibit a wide range of activities associated with sex work such as soliciting clients, public indecency or living on the earnings of sex work. This means that sex work is nevertheless criminalised - a status quo that poses a material risk to sex workers, and violates their rights to work, to health, to bodily autonomy and to be free from violence.
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.
The 43rd session of the Universal Periodic review begins on 1 May 2023. The working group session will take place from 1 to 12 May 2023. 14 Countries will be under review during the session: France,Tonga, Romania, Mali, Botswana, the Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein and Serbia. In collaboration with our partners, the SRI collaborated on reports for Romania and Botswana.
This submission, prepared ahead of the 4th Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, examines the challenges faced by the young people living with HIV in Pakistan in relation to HIV, AIDS treatment and human rights.
In response to the Special Rapporteur’s call for inputs on violence and its impact on the right to health, SRI made a submission addressing violations of bodily autonomy and the operation of systems of oppression as structural violence
Sex work is deeply intertwined with the public and policy debate on immigration in Denmark. Many street-based sex workers in Copenhagen and other big cities are migrants and are subjected to intersectional discrimination, including xenophobic and racist violence. The anti-migrant, xenophobic and racist sentiment is also frequently expressed by political leaders and senior ranking government officials. Government funding continues to be drastically cut from many sex workers’ organizations and organizations supporting migrants. Absurd and inaccurate reasoning is often provided for these funding cuts, such as conflating sex work with “human trafficking and illegal migrant work.”
Patriarchy is pervasive and entrenched in Mozambican society. Women face restrictions and discrimination throughout their lifetime and in every sphere of life. The feminization of poverty and the greater incidence of HIV/AIDS without proper health care, prevent women from enjoying their rights. While important strides have been made by Mozambique as reported on during the UPR, much more still needs to be done.
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.
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.
Submissions for the 37th UPR for Georgia, Nepal, Rwanda and Saint Lucia
UPR Submissions 36th Session: Croatia, USA, Malawi, Honduras and Panama
UPR Submissions 35th Session: Kenya, Turkey, Armenia, Spain and Lesotho
UPR Submissions - 22th session: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Malawi, Maldives, Panama and the USA
UPR Submissions - 30th session: Canada, Bangladesh, Cameroon and Colombia
The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 27/32, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to update the report of the Office of the High Commission on violence and discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity (A/HRC/19/41).
Human Rights Council – 35th session
Item 3: IE on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Thank you, Mr. President. Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
Sexuality and gender continue to be sites of oppression, discrimination, violence and subject to harsh religious, legal, political, economic and social control. They have become the sites of geopolitical contestation and are often leveraged to win elections, obscure or justify human rights abuses in other areas and cynically used to subvert the universality of human rights.
Item 6 - Universal Periodic Review – Dominica – Adoption of UPR outcome on Dominica – September, 2013
UPR Submissions - 4th session
Human Rights Council – 31st session
Item 6: Universal Periodic Review Outcomes: Saint Lucia
Statement by Action Canada for Population and Development
Human Rights Council – 31st session
Item 6: Universal Periodic Review Outcomes: Lebanon
Statement by Action Canada for Population and Development
HRC34 - Togo’s Universal Periodic Review
We are writing in response to UN Women’s call for submissions regarding UN Women’s policy on sex work. A number of sex workers’, women’s and human rights organizations have been engaging with UN Women for some months about this proposed policy, stressing the importance of a process that meaningfully engages with a broad range of sex workers’ and women’s rights organizations as essential to the policy development process.
The views of UN Women on the subject are grounded in the relevant human rights principles and provisions, intergovernmental normative frameworks and the best available scientific and epidemiological evidence. UN Women is attentive to the important input of civil society across the wide spectrum of opinion that pertains to the subject.
Sarah Kennell (Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights) tells us about Canada's review at the UPR and the work done by Action Canada and the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform to call for better access to abortion care, comprehensive sexuality education, and decriminalization of sex work in Canada.
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.
The 30th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is taking place now until 18 May, 2018 at the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva. Fourteen countries will be reviewed during the session: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Canada, Cabo Verde, CameroonColombia, Cuba, Djibouti, Germany, Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu and Uzbekistan.
The 28th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held at the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, from 6-17 November 2017.
The 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council is took place from 11-29 September 2017. Here are transcripts of oral statements made by the Sexual Rights Initiative.
Find out which human rights recommendations were accepted, noted or deferred by Haiti, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova (Republic of), South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and Zimbabwe during the latest UN Universal Periodic Review.
The 26th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held at the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, from 31 October-11 November 2016.
A fundamental principle of human rights is the equal right to participate in political and public affairs. This is guaranteed by Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as other several human rights instruments, and is a key component of a human rights based approach which seeks to eliminate marginalization and discrimination in the development of laws and policies.
This statement has been jointly prepared by 190 sex worker rights, women’s rights, and human rights organizations.
During the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council, the SRI collaborated with national-level organizations and advocates to deliver oral statements regarding outcomes from the Universal Periodic Review ‘s (UPR) of five countries:
On September 22nd, during the 30th session of the Human Rights Council, we co-hosted a side event to discuss protection gaps around sexual rights. The five panelists discussed the nature and causes of existing protection gaps in sexual rights, and gave recommendations to further protections for all individuals in the field of sexuality.
The 22nd session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will take place at the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, from 4 – 21 May 2015.
Alongside the ongoing 26th session of the Council, the Sexual Rights Initiative, in partnership with, Ipas, Amnesty International and UNAIDS, hosted a parallel event examining the interplay of the criminalization of sexuality and reproduction with the international human rights framework.
Human rights activists across the country are deeply disappointed with today’s decision of the Supreme Court in Suresh Kumar Kaushal v. Naz Foundation to overturn the historic Delhi High Court judgement of 2009, which decriminalised homosexuality in India. CREA believes that today’s decision to set aside that historic and progressive judgement is an unconscionable blow to people’s fundamental rights to equality and freedom from discrimination, violence, and harassment. This is a huge setback not just for the LGBT movement in this country and elsewhere, but also for human rights everywhere.
