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.
Submissions
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.
Statements
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.
Thematic work on special procedures
While we cover a range of topics related to sexual rights, our current focus through the Special Procedures currently covers the following themes:
Latest news on Special Procedures
Opportunities for feminist engagement in the UN human rights system
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
2023 In Review
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
What are Special Procedures?
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.