Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Angela Heimburger, MPH and Kate Rath. IPPF/WHR, 120 Wall Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10005, 212-214-0275, aheimburger@ippfwhr.org

IPPF/WHR envisages a world in which “sexuality is recognized as a natural and precious aspect of life and as a fundamental human right; a world in which choices are fully respected and where stigma and discrimination have no place”. Yet often times sexual rights are not made explicit and thus cannot be adequately respected, protected and fulfilled. There has been increasing recognition among world health authorities, human rights activists, and service delivery organizations of the need to address the contents of sexual rights, the right to sexual health and the relationships between them. In addition, new approaches recognize sexual rights as fundamental entitlements that are central to health and well-being and crucial for achieving equity and social justice.

The IPPF/WHR Draft Bill on Sexual Rights builds on the IPPF Charter on Sexual and Reproductive Rights (1996) and other international and national documents from NGOs and associations to emphasize sexuality within a human rights framework and address some of the emerging social justice issues. Discussions of what to address include comprehensive sexuality education, rights of sexually diverse populations, honor killings, trafficking, hate crimes, laws that criminalize consensual sex among adults, labor and domestic issues like sexual harassment, commercial sex work, civil partnerships and adoption, the right to pleasure and sexual satisfaction, and the right to desire, dreams, fantasies and eroticism. This document serves to generate discussion and consensus within IPPF, support advocacy activities, inform educational materials, trainings, and monitoring and evaluation processes, and gives increased visibility and credibility to these issues.

Learning Objectives: