Human Rights Council

What is the Human Rights Council?

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:
● Engage governments, civil society, and experts to debate, discuss, and adopt resolutions on thematic and country-specific human rights concerns.
● Appoint Special Procedures to analyze and report on human rights related to particular themes and in specific countries.
● Assess the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States through the Universal Periodic Review.
● Examine human rights violation complaints.

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.

Recent posts:

The 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 9 September to 11 October 2024. The ongoing liquidity crisis experienced by the United Nations, which deeply affects the Council’s functioning, has once again put civil society organisations under an additional and significant burden - especially when it comes to accessing hybrid modalities and organising side events.

This council must act now to prevent itself from collapsing under the weight of its own compromise and complicity. We call on all states to end colonial domination and oppression, discrimination and persecution - we ask the states, if you can't hold genocidal regimes to account, how can we expect anyone else to adhere to accountability mechanisms.

War & Armed conflicts

Rights of indigenous peoples

We need a new sustainable development model that prioritises equal and equitable access to all resources for all, and which values people over profits. On the occasion of International Safe Abortion Day, we call for an intersectional feminist model to development that centres the voices of women, girls and gender-diverse persons in determining indicators to measure global development.

Economic justice

Right to development

Bodily autonomy

Right to health

We regret that there were no recommendations explicitly made on the rights of sex workers. Whilst current legislation does not criminalize sex work, the 2008 Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation prohibits activities associated with sex work, leading many to believe that sex work itself is illegal.

This Panel is unique in its design as a self-assessing mechanism for the Council to evaluate its progress in integrating a gender perspective in all its mechanisms. However, we found that it has lost its internal focus and moved away from its mandated goal.

Gender equality

Civil society participation

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.

Comprehensive sexuality education

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

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?

Economic justice

Racial discrimination

Gender-based discrimination

Poverty and economic inequality

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.

Right to development

Economic justice

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.

Decriminalization

Civil society participation

The study is crucial in a context of willful denial by many Global North states of the right to development, its collective dimensions, and its aim of ending economic colonialism and dependency - the same states that directly benefit from our unequal international economic order.

Right to development

Economic justice

Instead of continuing on this destructive path, he challenges us all to rethink the ways in which water is valued, managed and utilized in order to strengthen communities, to repair our poisoned ecosystems and to better understand the connections between water, territory and our bodies.

Economic justice

Right to development

Sanctioning States claim that sanctions aim to improve women’s and other marginalized people's lives and continue to dismiss the evidence that they deepen gender, race and class marginalization.

Economic justice

Right to development

Older persons, including LGBT ones, as well as persons with disabilities are often treated as if they did not have a sexual life. LGBT older persons are discriminated against in residencies and by their families. Their autonomy is frequently violated, including in deciding where and with whom to live and even preventing them from having a sexual life.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Bodily autonomy

We appreciate the Special Rapporteur’s efforts to hear directly from sex workers in Canada who are experts in their own lives and have solutions to the harms caused by the criminalization of sex work. This is a fundamental principle of human rights - those who are most impacted have a right to participate in the decisions that affect them. We urge Canada and other Special Procedure mandates to heed this principle.

Decriminalization

Without addressing oppressive systems, particularly the global financial architecture and its impact, human rights are a distant dream. Given the urgent need to reform the global financial architecture, how can the HRC and other actors ensure that efforts to promote economic, social, and cultural rights do not remain superficial? If the underlying financial systems driving global inequalities are not addressed, it will all remain window-dressing.

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

The 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 9 September to 11 October 2024. In this post you can find information about Below you can find information about: Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports, UPR outcomes, SRI’s online events taking place during the 57th session.

Right to development

The 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 18 June to 12 July 2024. The ongoing liquidity crisis experienced by the United Nations, which deeply affects the Council’s functioning, has once again put civil society organisations under an additional and significant burden - especially when it comes to accessing hybrid modalities and organising side events. Below, you will find information on some of the key sexual rights-related: Resolutions Panel discussions Oral statements UPR Outcomes Side Events

We welcome the recommendations made to Malaysia on the ratification of the 1951 Refugee Convention (and its protocol) and regret the noting of the same. Malaysia currently fails to adequately recognise refugee status, and UNHCR registration provides only limited protection against arbitrary arrest, detention and refoulement. Malaysia is yet to provide clarity on how it determines the refugee status of detainees, and indeed the UNHCR has been denied access to immigration detention centres for almost five years now. This is concerning given current policies and the prevailing climate of xenophobia towards refugees and migrants.

We regret the noting of recommendations pertaining to providing access to information and education on sexual and reproductive health. Nigeria is failing to meet its obligations to provide such information, with private institutions left to bridge the gap in access to evidence-based, accurate information. Everyone has the right to learn about one’s body, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health. We call on Nigeria to ensure access to comprehensive sexuality education for all, as part of its obligation to ensure that everyone enjoys the right to a quality education.

Gender-based discrimination

Comprehensive sexuality education

Sexual orientation and gender identity

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.

Poverty and economic inequality

Decriminalization

Human rights economy seeks to prioritize investment in economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the right to development. However, the transformative potential of a human rights economy will remain hollow without addressing the global financial architecture as a colonial structure that exerts control over countries in the Global South through debt burdens, austerity measures, structural adjustment programs and loan conditionalities through international financial institutions.

Economic justice

We urge States to heed the Working Group’s recommendations related to the realization of individual and collective rights to substantive equality, including guaranteeing the right to decent work, comprehensive social protection, and repealing laws criminalizing poverty. International and regional economic, financial and monetary institutions and their member States must move away from the growth-centered and neoliberal paradigm that are root causes of inequalities.

Poverty and economic inequality

Gender equality

Gender-based discrimination

Racial discrimination

Economic violence against women and girls, as with many other forms of gender-based violence, is rooted in patriarchal, racist, classist systems of oppression. In the last decades, structural conditions created by global capitalism and neoliberal policies, combined with those first mentioned, have added new dimensions, causes and consequences.

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

Gender equality

Gender-based violence

We support the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations to States to move away from criminal approaches to drug use and control frameworks and rather adopt an evidence-based, human rights approach. Moreover, access to medicines is a human right that must not be impeded by policies that favour corporate interests over people’s health and rights.

Right to health

Decriminalization

In collaboration with the Global Network of Sex Work Project, SRI supported a delegation of sex workers from different countries to participate in the 56th session of the Human Rights Council. This delegation also benefited from the support of the Count me In! Consortium and the Our Voices, Our Future Consortium.

Decriminalization

Evidence collected over 25 years by Amnesty International in Norway and Ireland, Médecins du Monde in France has consistently demonstrated that criminalisation as recommended by the SR VAW, has been responsible for increasing the economic vulnerability, worsening the quality of life of sex workers everywhere this system is implemented.

Economic justice

Decriminalization

As a mother, I am offended by the report’s assertion that sex workers are bad mothers and our children are a result of violence who will end up getting stolen, trafficked, raped and killed. I have chosen sex work to be my profession, but this is not my whole reality. Before I am a sex worker, I am many things. My rights should not be denied because of my job.

As a sex worker and sex worker advocate, I and my community find this report problematic and harmful. As a feminist, I object to the report because it denies our agency and autonomy.

The greatest violence we sex workers suffer is based on stigma, discrimination, and police persecution. We need sex work to be recognized as what it is: a job.

Gender-based violence

Sexual violence

The first form of violence is that people refuse to hear our voices and impose moral judgments against us. Our voices as sex workers must be heard. To protect ourselves from violence, we need labor law, the recognition of sex work as work, and respect for our choices as sex workers.

Gender-based violence

Sexual violence

24 June 2024 - 15h00 - 16h00 CET In person: Room XXV, Palais des Nations

The 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 18 June to 12 July 2024. Below you can find information about: Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports UPR outcomes SRI’s side event taking place during the 56th session

The 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 26 February to 5 April 2024. Due to the ongoing liquidity crisis experienced by the Council, civil society organisations were asked to pay for the use of hybrid modalities for their side events through the WebEX platform for the first time in the Council's history. This puts an additional and significant burden on organisations that have very limited budgets to engage with the HRC, which is deeply concerning.

We regret that Azerbaijan noted all the recommendations pertaining to the signing and ratification of the Istanbul Convention. Violence against women is widespread in Azerbaijan and domestic violence is normalised, as violence against women is framed as a "family matter".

Gender-based discrimination

Gender-based violence

Domestic violence

Child, early, and forced marriage

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.

Civil society participation

The functional denial of sexual and reproductive rights is connected to the denial of other rights, including the rights to health, non-discrimination, education, and freedom from violence. We are disappointed Canada did not fully accept several recommendations in support of broader health equity, particularly on access to services for undocumented people.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Right to health

War & Armed conflicts

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.

War & Armed conflicts

Civil society participation

Remote participation is crucial, due to the obstacles faced in accessing multilateral spaces, including discriminatory visa and resource requirements, environmental and security concerns and accessibility.

Civil society participation

We cannot continue talking about the universality of human rights and social protection while selectively restricting access to protection for specific groups of children. In order for social protection for children to be universal and comply with children’s rights, we must hold States accountable for their obligations not only within their borders but also globally.

Rights of the child

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

In many instances, social protection benefits are not accessed by persons with disabilities due to family’s own perception of their legal incapacity. We need to understand what are the additional support elements which need to be available for accessing services ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Economic justice

As noted in the report, military spending by Global North states reflects their priorities and disregard for basic human rights - and we remind states in the Global North that their military aid and arms exports currently contribute to the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, in violation of the current ICJ provisional measures order.

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

Gender-based discrimination

Racial discrimination

While we appreciate the focus on gendered aspects of care economies, we reiterate that the rights of persons with disabilities to be re-centered in this area, in line with the UN CRPD article 23 as persons with disabilities, in all diversity, are parents, caregivers, and rights holders.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Gender equality

Gender-based violence

President, this panel comes at a critical juncture for the premier multilateral body responsible for promoting and protecting human rights. UNDP has documented that “twenty-five developing economies, the highest number since 2000, spent over 20 percent of their government revenues in 2022 on total external debt servicing.”

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

War & Armed conflicts

Our response to these coordinated attacks must be focused on building solidarity across movements and issues, and on strengthening transnational ties that enable us to amplify and elevate each other’s priorities and demands. This is why today we echo the global feminist call for the March 8th strike and stand in solidarity with Palestinian feminists and women in Gaza who are facing human rights violations of an unprecedented scale yet who are still building solidarity and paving the way for collective liberation.

Gender equality

Women human rights defenders

War & Armed conflicts

Join us for this side event that will ground sexual rights and bodily autonomy in the social and political contexts, highlighting that there can be no hierarchy of rights.

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

The 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 26 February to 5 April 2024. In this post you'll find information about: Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports UPR outcomes SRI’s online events taking place during the 55th session

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.

The 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 11 September to 13 October. Below, you will find information on some of the key sexual rights-related: Resolutions Panel discussions Oral statements Side Events

Despite 30 years of the Vienna Declaration, universal access to sexual and reproductive health services for all women, girls, and pregnant people is still very far from reality. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are treated as a siloed issue - with limited relevance for the majority of people.

Right to health

We regret that Botswana received and noted several recommendations on decriminalising abortion, on repealing Section 167 of the Penal Code, and on ensuring access to legal gender recognition. Botswana must eliminate discrimination against women and ensure their access to legal, safe, and affordable sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion, which Botswana still criminalises, and gender-affirming care.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

We urge Canada to honour its treaty obligations, fully implement the calls to action set out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the calls to justice in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s National Inquiry, and to guarantee in law and practice the rights set forth in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Rights of indigenous peoples

Racial discrimination

This year’s theme on gender parity must go beyond merely counting the number of women in various positions. We must consider whether the necessary structural changes have been implemented to enable women from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences to play a meaningful role in shaping the work of the Council.

Gender equality

The criminalisation of abortion is taking an increasing toll in my country. Women die because of lack of access to life saving abortion care, the entire hospitals rely illegally on the consciousness clause. The recent police intervention in the case of a woman who took an abortion pill and another who miscarried show how the restrictive legal and policy environment is facilitating the abuse of powers by authorities, and legitimising the refusals of care by medical providers.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Right to health

Until all neocolonial and occupying states and forces are withdrawn, until transnational corporations and foreign military bases and operations are expelled, until extractivist industries are stopped, until debt is cancelled and the international economic order reframed to put people before profit, people living under occupation and those who bear the brunt of neocolonialism as well as their allies will continue to fight to be free.

Economic justice

Right to development

Racial discrimination

When we talk about debt, let us also talk about the unpaid reparations, current and historical illicit financial flows, and the global tax abuses that benefit Global North countries, corporations, and economic elites across the world.

Right to development

Economic justice

Gender equality

The current economic, geopolitical and global health context is a reflection of colonial power dynamics and structures shaping racist inequalities in resources, health access and outcomes within and among countries. COVID-19 highlighted the impacts of decades of systematic underfunding of health systems partly fuelled by austerity, privatisation and structural adjustment programs, underpinned by neoliberal ideologies and approaches.

Economic justice

Right to health

We strongly believe that a deeper and more critical scrutiny is needed on the wide range of other rights violated by these measures, including the right to development.

Bodily autonomy

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Right to development

Right to health

Economic justice

The 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 11 September to 13 October 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions have meant that HRC 54 will be held in a hybrid format with online and in-person modalities for informal negotiations, voting and statements. Due to the ongoing renovations started in 2020 and since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, side events taking place in the Palais will be limited to one per organisation and one hour in duration. Below you can find information about: Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports UPR outcomes SRI’s online events taking place during the 54th session

Join us for this side-event that will examine the connections between macroeconomics and sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as responses by different human rights actors.

Maternal mortality and morbidity

Economic justice

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.

Bodily autonomy

The 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 19 June to 14 July. Below you will find information on some of the key sexual rights-related: Resolutions Panel discussions Oral statements Side Events

The relationship between health, race, caste, class and gender is rooted in colonial, patriarchal and capitalist control over women’s sexuality, reproduction and bodies and produces distinct experiences of oppression that are often fatal. Racialised women are specifically targeted by harmful stereotypes, the essentialisation of women to their reproductive capacities, forced sterilisation, forced pregnancies and chromosomal testing in sporting events through state interventions or purposeful inaction. This has profound impacts on their health and human rights.

Racial discrimination

Right to health

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

JOICFP delivers this statement on behalf of 9 partner organizations on the issues related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR in short). We deeply regret that Japan did not accept the recommendations it received on decriminalization of abortion, removal of spousal consent requirement for abortion, revision of law that forces sterilization to trans-persons under the legal gender recognition process, and implementation of comprehensive sexuality education.

Forced sterilization

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Comprehensive sexuality education

We regret that Pakistan did not receive any recommendations on its HIV/AIDS response, as Pakistan has one of the highest rates of new HIV infection in South Asia. Only 12% of people living with HIV can access treatment, and the public healthcare delivery system faces uneven distribution of health professionals among provinces and towns, a deficient workforce, insufficient funding and limited access to quality healthcare services.

Decriminalization

We welcome the recommendations made to Pakistan on protecting women’s rights, the rights of transgender people, and sexual and reproductive rights.

We are concerned by the recent regressive ruling by the Federal Shariat court, which struck down key sections of the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act 2018.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

We regret Switzerland’s inconsistent approach to recommendations received on addressing racism and racial discrimination. We remain concerned by structural racism in Switzerland, and its varied manifestations as illustrated through barriers to accessing affordable health services or housing, through restrictive immigration rules and related border harassment, or through a lack of accountability for racial profiling, police harassment, brutality, and murder- as recently exemplified through the acquittal of the police officers who murdered Mike Ben Peter.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Comprehensive sexuality education

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Racial discrimination

Although progress has been made in Zambia’s HIV/AIDS response including a general drop in new infections, there has been an increase in new infections amongst youth and adolescents. Zambia needs to increase the roll out of youth-friendly health services, clarify the policy position on the age of consent to health services, and it needs to ensure that young people and adolescents have access to HIV testing, treatment and care.

Adolescents and youth

Comprehensive sexuality education

Right to education

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.

Civil society participation

Adolescents and youth

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Freedom of expression

Freedom of assembly and association

We regret that Ghana has taken such an inconsistent approach to the sexual and reproductive health and rights-related recommendations it received during its UPR review, and regret that the addendum to the report does not provide adequate explanations for the chosen approach.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Privatisation and financialization of social protection transfer responsibility and risk, to the individual instead of the state. This has two important consequences: first, it absolves the state from its obligations, and second, structural oppressions, which create and entrench inequalities, continue to operate without any challenge.

Economic justice

Poverty and economic inequality

Bodily autonomy

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

From the criminalization of abortion in Poland, to the anti-LGBTIQ+ laws being passed in Uganda, racist anti-migrant laws and policies across Europe and North America, and the push for punitive frameworks against sex work; these attacks aim to construct an exclusionary society that reinforces social hierarchies of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, caste, and class. Make no mistake, this is structural and intentional violence.

Bodily autonomy

Gender-based violence

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Gender-based discrimination

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.

Civil society participation

Economic justice

Rights of indigenous peoples

Poverty and economic inequality

Technology and digital innovation have advanced health coverage, particularly sexual and reproductive health, providing spaces for youth, adolescents, and other marginalized communities to access these services without stigma. However, it is essential to underline that we are facing a context where regressive actors are using these same digital platforms to assault women human rights defenders, attacking their privacy and propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly related to abortion, the rights of trans persons, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and comprehensive sexuality education.

Right to health

Adolescents and youth

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Women human rights defenders

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Feminists have long understood that poverty is the result of violent impoverishment and (neo)colonial economic exploitation. We know that economic justice is essential for the realization of gender justice - just as it is for racial, disability or climate justice. However, members of this Council continue to treat these issues in siloes, or even as competing human rights concerns.

Economic justice

Bodily autonomy

The 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 19 June to 14 July 2023. Below you can find information about: Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports UPR outcomes SRI’s online events taking place during the 53rd session

Protectionism views women, girls, and other marginalised individuals as inherently vulnerable and in need of state and patriarchal protection. However, these policies sacrifice autonomy and freedom and do not address systemic inequality and root causes of discrimination and violence. Join us at this side event that delves into the underpinnings and impact of protectionist policies and proposes alternative frameworks including prioritising bodily autonomy.

Bodily autonomy

The 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 27 February to 4 April. Below you will find information on some of the key sexual rights-related to resolutions, panel discussions, oral statements and side events.

We welcome the numerous recommendations made to South Africa on adolescent and youth SRHR, access to modern contraceptives, termination of pregnancy services and on accelerating a funded, coordinated, and measurable response to gender-based violence and femicide. We regret the lack of recommendations pertaining to comprehensive sexuality education and remain concerned about its delivery in schools.

Comprehensive sexuality education

Gender-based violence

We welcome the Netherlands’ support of the recommendation on bringing the legal definition of rape in line with international human rights law, including the Istanbul Convention. We also regret that the Netherlands noted the recommendation to fully implement guidelines for a more gender responsive and intersectional approach to gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

Sexual violence

Gender-based violence

Comprehensive sexuality education

We welcome the robust recommendations addressed to Poland on sexual and reproductive health and rights and women’s rights, and we regret that these did not explicitly include comprehensive sexuality education and access to contraception.

Comprehensive sexuality education

We appreciate Brazil's acceptance of almost all of the recommendations received during its review, and its noting of two recommendations related to a concept of traditional family that does not conform to Brazilian legislation and jurisprudence and which opposes Human Rights.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Gender-based discrimination

We regret that India did not receive any HIV/AIDS-related recommendations, despite India having the third highest prevalence of HIV in the world. India needs an efficient HIV prevention programme which includes PrEP rollout, improved access to routine HIV screening and testing, and most crucially, treatment and excellent patient care.

Adolescents and youth

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Comprehensive sexuality education

Indonesia must adopt evidence-based policies to ensure that adolescents and young people have adequate access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. Adolescents and young people, particularly in the eastern part of Indonesia, still lack the information they need to help them to exercise their agency, and to make more informed decisions for their bodies and lives.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Adolescents and youth

Comprehensive sexuality education

The UK’s Gender Recognition Act, which sets out the process by which trans people can gain legal gender recognition, was passed almost 20 years ago. Whilst at the time it was considered world-leading, it has now fallen far behind international best practice and human rights standards.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Decriminalisation of abortion in Poland is imperative. The recent case of criminal conviction of an activist who helped in abortion and persistent denials of legal abortion services demonstrate that only full liberalisation and decriminalisation of abortion would make a change in the Polish context.

While Special Procedures present unique opportunities for rights-holders' participation and analysis, inconsistent participation avenues across mandates and reliance on individual mandate-holders' initiative and available resources hinder their effectiveness.

Civil society participation

Big pharma and vaccine hoarding governments are responsible for 1.3 million avoidable deaths in the first year of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. That is 1 death every 24 seconds. As a test of international cooperation and human rights, this is nothing short of abject failure.

Right to health

Economic justice

We note that the Expert pointed out the seriousness of the fact that in 40 years of democracy, the Argentine State, which tried those responsible for the last civil-military dictatorship, has not implemented any mechanism to find the truth in relation to the foreign debt taken by the dictatorship itself. For at least 30 years there has been a social demand to audit foreign debt and cancel the debt contracted by the dictatorship, because it is not legitimate.

Economic justice

We welcome the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Women human rights defenders

Side-event during the 52nd session on the UN Human Rights Council Monday 20 March 13:00 to 14:00 CEST In person: Palais des Nations, Room XXII Online on Zoom: https://bit.ly/HealthRightsSRI

Economic justice

SRI Statement to the Full-Day High-Level Meeting on the Right to Development at the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council.

Right to development

The 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 27 February to 4 April 2023.
Below you can find information about:
Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports
UPR outcomes
SRI’s online events taking place during the 52nd session

Economic justice

Right to health

Right to development

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.

Bodily autonomy

Civil society participation

Right to development

Economic justice

Gender-based discrimination

Gender-based violence

Comprehensive sexuality education

Right to health

Racial discrimination

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.

Civil society participation

The 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 12 September to 7 October. Below you will find information on some of the key sexual rights-related:

Resolutions
Panel discussions
Oral statements
Side Events

Right to development

Racial discrimination

A Conversation on Safe Abortion
Autonomy, control & self-management:
guidelines & essential policy

Side-event during the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council
Tuesday 20 September 17:00 to 18:00 CEST
Palais des Nations, Room XXV

The 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 12 September to 7 October.
In this post you'll be able to find information about: Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports, UPR outcomes and SRI’s online events taking place during the 51st session.

Right to development

The 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 13 June to 8 July. Below you will find information on some of the key sexual rights-related: resolutions, panel discussions and oral statements.

The side event explores the history and resurgence of coercive population policies - from pro-natalist policies to forced sterilisation.

Bodily autonomy

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

The 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 13 June to 8 July.

Joint Civil Society Statement on Abortion at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council. This statement has been supported by more 450 organisations and 425 individuals as of Monday, 3 October, 2022. A full list of signatories will be published on our website shortly.

Bodily autonomy

Statement by the Sexual Rights Initiative on the Item 6 General Debate: Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Bodily autonomy

Statement by the Sexual Rights Initiative, Al-Haq, IWRAW Asia-Pacific, ILGA and AWID on the Panel discussion on the negative impact of the legacies of colonialism on the enjoyment of human rights at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council.

Racial discrimination

Statement by SRI's partner the Federation for Women and Family Planning to Item 4 General Debate at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council.

War & Armed conflicts

Statement by the #EmptyChairs Campaign to the Annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective to the work of the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Civil society participation

Freedom of expression

Statement by AWID, SRI and IWRAW Asia Pacific to the Biennial panel discussion on the right to development at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council

Right to development

Sustainable development goals

Gender-based violence

Statement by Sexual Rights Initiative to the interactive dialogue with the  Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development at 51rst session on the Human Rights Council.

Right to development

Racial discrimination

Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative, the International Dalit Solidarity Network, Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network and National Council of Women Leaders.

Racial discrimination

Em apoio ao próximo Dia Internacional do Aborto Seguro em 28 de setembro, a Sexual Rights Initiative, Center for Reproductive Rights, Association for Women’s Rights in Development, CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Ipas, International Service for Human Rights, Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women, MSI Reproductive Choices e a Swedish Association for Sexuality Education formularam uma declaração conjunta sobre o direito ao aborto a ser lida na 51ª sessão do Conselho de Direitos Humanos da ONU em Genebra.

في سياق دعمنا لليوم العالمي للإجهاض المأمون في ٢٨ أيلول/سبتمبر، أعدّت «مبادرة الحقوق الجنسيّة» و«ائتلاف العدالة الجنسيّة والإنجابيّة» و«مركز الحقوق الإنجابيّة»، و«الرّابطة لحقوق المرأة في التّنمية»، و«CHOICE للشّباب والجنسانيّة» «اتّحاد التّخطيط الأسري» و«Ipas» و«الخدمة الدولة لحقوق الإنسان» و«مركز المرأة لمنطقة آسيا والمحيط الهادئ للموارد والأبحاث» و«MSI للخيارات الإنجابية» و«الرّابطة السّويديّة للتّثقيف الجنساني» بيانًا مشتركًا بشأن حقوق الإجهاض لتقدّمه عند انعقاد الجلسة الـ٥١ لمجلس الأمم المتّحدة لحقوق الإنسان في جينيف.

In support of the upcoming International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September, the Sexual Rights Initiative, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Ipas, the International Service for Human Rights, Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women, MSI Reproductive Choices and the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education have developed a joint statement on abortion rights for delivery at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

SRI Statement to the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Racial discrimination

Right to health

Poverty and economic inequality

Statement by independent activists in Sudan and the Sexual Rights Initiative to the Outcome of the Universal Periodic Review for Sudan at the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Freedom of expression

Freedom of assembly and association

Gender-based discrimination

War & Armed conflicts

Statement by Dili Model United Nations and SRI Statement to Timor-Leste's Universal Periodic Review outcome at the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Comprehensive sexuality education

Adolescents and youth

Child, early, and forced marriage

Statement by the Uganda LBQ Loose Network, a collective working towards increasing the voice and visibility of lesbian, bisexual and queer women in advocacy, feminist leadership, and women’s rights in Uganda, CREA, the Coalition of African Lesbians and the Sexual Rights Initiative to the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Uganda at the 50th session of the Human Rights Council.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Statement by Girls Awake, Peer to Peer Uganda, the PACT, and the Sexual Rights Initiative at the 50th session of the Human Rights Council on the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review for Uganda.

Comprehensive sexuality education

Sexual orientation and gender identity

SRI statement to Annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women - Panel 2:Human rights-based and gender-responsive care and support systems at the 50th session of the Human Rights Council

Poverty and economic inequality

Right to health

SRI and Center for Reproductive Rights Statement: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights at the 50th session of the Human Rights Council

Poverty and economic inequality

Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression

SRI Statement to the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants at 50th session of the Human Rights Council

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Racial discrimination

SRI, Her Rights Initiative, the Women’s Legal Centre Statement to the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Right to health

Forced sterilization

SRI Statement to the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association

Civil society participation

Freedom of assembly and association

Statement by Action Canada, Action Canada's National Youth Advisory Board and the Sexual Rights Initiative to the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

Adolescents and youth

Gender-based discrimination

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Statement of Federa to the Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls at the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Adolescents and youth

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

War & Armed conflicts

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.

Right to health

Civil society participation

The 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 28 February to 1 April.

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.

Civil society participation

This statement on racism and gender discrimination in sport was delivered 22 September.

Racial discrimination

Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with SR on Unilateral Coercive Measures

The Sexual Rights Initiative and partners co-sponsored a side event at the 20th session of the Human Rights Council focusing on criminal laws and women’s right to health. The objective of the event was to provide a forum for States and stakeholders in Geneva to discuss the key findings and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health’s 2011 report to the General Assembly on the criminalization of sexual and reproductive health including abortion.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Bodily autonomy