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Sexual Rights Initiative

@sexualrightsinitiative.org

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Coalition of national & regional organisations based in Canada, India, Egypt & Argentina that work on sexual rights at the United Nations. https://www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

Did you miss it? Find out all about #HRC60 in our round-up! www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...

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TEXT: HRC60 in review

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TEXT: Sexual rights are shaped and constrained by interconnected global crises, unchecked extractivism, climate degradation, violent populism and toxic nationalism, widening inequalities within and between states and entrenched patriarchal, racist, classist, and ableist systems of oppression. Realising sexual rights, therefore, requires advancing the self-determination and collective liberation of all peoples.

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TEXT: Calls for accountability were also reflected in the International Safe Abortion Day joint statement, endorsed by over 230 organisations and individuals, which linked reproductive justice to broader struggles against impunity in Gaza, Sudan, and the DRC. While the Council adopted by consensus the resolution on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, this progress stands in contrast with the broader failure of the international system to respond to intersecting crises and uphold the universality and indivisibility of human rights.

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

While the Council adopted by consensus the resolution on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, this progress stands in contrast with the broader failure of the international system to respond to intersecting crises and uphold the universality and indivisibility of human rights.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

Calls for accountability were also reflected in the International Safe Abortion Day joint statement, endorsed by over 230 organisations and individuals, which linked reproductive justice to broader struggles against impunity in Gaza, Sudan, and the DRC. : abortionstatement.org

International Day of Safe Abortion Joint Civil Society Statement 2025 | abortionstatement.org

abortionstatement.org

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

Realising sexual rights, therefore, requires advancing the self-determination and collective liberation of all peoples.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

Sexual rights are shaped and constrained by interconnected global crises, unchecked extractivism, climate degradation, violent populism and toxic nationalism, widening inequalities within and between states and entrenched patriarchal, racist, classist, and ableist systems of oppression.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

For us, sexuality is, at its core, about power. Understanding power in its structural forms is essential: without accountability and solidarity, sexual rights cannot be fully realised.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

As the UN multilateral system faces mounting crises of legitimacy and liquidity, it is more urgent than ever to defend and expand spaces where civil society can actively hold states accountable for their human rights obligations. Read our round-up: www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...

Did you miss it? Here’s what happened at HRC 60! | Sexual Rights Initiative

The 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 8 September to 8 October 2025. The ongoing liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations, which significantly impacts the Council’s…

www.sexualrightsinitiative.org

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 19h

Did you miss it? Find out all about #HRC60 in our round-up! www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

The ongoing genocide in Gaza for the last two years has proven beyond doubt that the international system lacks willingness to hold Israel accountable.

We cannot afford to continue to treat sexual rights as separate from global economic governance. "

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

Cross-mandate collaboration would be essential. Special Rapporteurs on health, poverty, foreign debt, and others should jointly address these intersections.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

Special procedures and treaty bodies should explicitly examine how debt, austerity and privatisation affect SRHR. UPR recommendations should go beyond laws and policies to scrutinise fiscal and budgetary choices and their impact on people.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

"The Human Rights Council must integrate an economic analysis into its work and hold those institutions, international financial institutions, accountable, as well as states implementing these policies and the states dictating them.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

Lobna Darwish from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reflected on gaps and opportunities for sexual rights advocacy at the Human Rights Council during our latest side event at #HRC60:

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

"There can be no genuine accountability on sexual rights without confronting the economic policies that structures people's ability to access healthcare, contraception, and safe childbirth, among other rights."

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

At our latest #HRC60 side event, Lobna Darwish from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights highlighted the material determinants to sexual and reproductive health and rights, linking economic justice to the realisation of rights and the work of the UN Human Rights Council.

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

In this video, Sunita Kujur from @thinkcrea.bsky.social reflects on the complexities of identity and its importance, the impacts of societal norms over legal standards, particularly in the case of child, early, and forced marriages.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

accountability mechanisms ignored, and persistent funding challenges intersecting within a multilateral system under strain.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

from early efforts to broaden their scope and foster inclusive participation, particularly of Global South activists, to today’s complex political economy, active and growing participation of sex workers,

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 1d

At our latest #HRC60 side event: Sexual Rights at the UN HRC: Past, Present and Future, SRI's partners explored how sexual rights have evolved within the Human Rights Council,

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

The naval blockade of Gaza by the apartheid regime violates international law, and the interception of the vessels of the flotilla is therefore illegal, as also highlighted by multiple independent human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

UN experts stand in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, demand full protection of all passengers

GENEVA – United Nations experts* today urged Israel to cease all threats of harm against the Global Sumud Flotilla and ensure it proceeds unhindered in its mission to deliver humanitarian aid to the…

www.ohchr.org

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

SRI supports her efforts to be part of a collective action to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

Carrie Shelver, the coordinator of SRI’s Geneva office, has joined the flotilla as part of the Swiss Waves of Freedom delegation in a personal capacity. Carrie is a citizen of South Africa.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

The Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) joins the calls from activists around the world to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and the immediate release of all Global Sumud Flotilla abductees.

📢 Read our full statement here: www.sexualrightsinitiative.org/news/2025-oc...

PRESS RELEASE: SRI Demands An End To The Genocide In Gaza And The Immediate Release Of All Global Sumud Flotilla Abductees | Sexual Rights Initiative

PRESS RELEASE

www.sexualrightsinitiative.org

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

🚨 On 2 October 2025, several members of the @globalsumudflotilla were kidnapped by Israel following an illegal interception of the flotilla boats in international waters.

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Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

to dismantle the structures of colonial apartheid, and to guarantee the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.

Sexual Rights Initiative @sexualrightsinitiative.org · 12d

Beyond ensuring the immediate release of the Global Sumud Flotilla members and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, states have an obligation to address the ongoing impunity, violence, and unlawful killings of Palestinians,