Stigma, sexual health, and human rights among women who have sex with women in Lesotho
In recent years, gender and sexual minorities have become increasingly visible across sub-Saharan Africa, marking both the progression and violation of their human rights. Using data from a study with sexual minorities in Lesotho, this analysis leveraged the social ecological model to examine relationships between stigma, human rights, and sexual health among women who have sex with women in Lesotho. A community-based participatory approach was used for the mixed-method, cross-sectional study. A total of 250 women who have sex with women completed a structured questionnaire, of which 21 participated in a total of three foc...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 15, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tonia C. Poteat, Carmen H. Logie, Darrin Adams, Tampose Mothopeng, Judith Lebona, Puleng Letsie, Stefan Baral Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
The Arab Bed Spring? Sexual rights in troubled times across the Middle East and North Africa
In recent decades, attitudes in many parts of the Arab region have hardened towards non-conforming sexualities and gender roles, a shift fuelled in part by a rise in Islamic conservatism and exploited by authoritarian regimes. While political cultures have proved slow to change in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring’, a growing freedom of expression, and increasing activity by civil society, is opening space for discreet challenges to sexual taboos in a number of countries, part of wider debates over human rights and personal liberties in the emerging political and social order. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 14, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Shereen El Feki Tags: COMMENTARY Source Type: research
Sexuality, sexual politics and sexual rights
(Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 14, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Statement from GATE - Global Action for Trans* Equality
8 April 2015 (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 14, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Mauro Cabral, Justus Eisfeld Tags: Statement Source Type: research
“I provide the pleasure, I control it”: sexual pleasure and “bottom” identity constructs amongst gay youth in a Stepping Stones workshop
This paper explores the meanings attached to gay sexuality through the self-labelling practices of a group of young gay-identified students in focus group and individual interviews in Johannesburg, South Africa. These meanings include constructs of the dynamics surrounding safe sex negotiation and risk related to “top-bottom” subject positioning as well as the erotics of power and desire that are imbued in these practices and positioning. Using performativity theory as a theoretical tool of analysis, I argue that constructs of “top-bottom” subjectivities can be seen to meet certain erotic needs for L GBTI youth, in...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 14, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Peace Kiguwa Tags: Feature Source Type: research
Sexual torture of Palestinian men by Israeli authorities
This study is based on the PCATI database during 2005-2012, which contains 60 cases – 4% of all files in this period – with testimonies of alleged sexual torture or ill-treatment. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 14, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Daniel J.N. Weishut Tags: Feature Source Type: research
Stigma, sexual health, and human rights among women who have sex with women in Lesotho
In recent years, gender and sexual minorities have become increasingly visible across sub-Saharan Africa, marking both the progression and violation of their human rights. Using data from a study with sexual minorities in Lesotho, this analysis leveraged the social ecological model to examine relationships between stigma, human rights, and sexual health among women who have sex with women in Lesotho. A community-based participatory approach was used for the mixed-method, cross-sectional study. A total of 250 women who have sex with women completed a structured questionnaire, of which 21 participated in a total of three foc...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 14, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tonia C. Poteat, Carmen H. Logie, Darrin Adams, Tampose Mothopeng, Judith Lebona, Puleng Letsie, Stefan Baral Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Sexual rights as human rights: a guide to authoritative sources and principles for applying human rights to sexuality and sexual health
This Guide seeks to provide insight and resources to actors interested in the development of rights claims around sexuality and sexual health. After engaging with the vexed question of the scope of sexual rights, it explores the rules and principles governing the way in which human rights claims are developed and applied to sexuality and sexual health, and how that development is linked to law and made a matter of state obligation. This understanding is critical to policy and programming in sexual health and rights, as it supports calling on the relevant range of human rights, such as privacy, non-discrimination, health or...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 12, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Alice M. Miller, Eszter Kismödi, Jane Cottingham, Sofia Gruskin Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Sexual health in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD): implications for measurement and beyond
This paper examines different dimensions of sexual health as related to the measurement of sexual health indicators and the proposed changes in the International Classification of Diseases to address issues related to sexuality and sexual health with an aim of informing health policy-making and programming. The lack of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating sexual health outcomes has impeded the development of policies and programmes that support sexual health. The potential impact of changes to the ICD-11 is major and far-reaching given that the ICD is used by countries to define eligibility and access to health service...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 12, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Doris Chou, Sara Cottler, Rajat Khosla, Geoffrey M. Reed, Lale Say Tags: Brief Communication Source Type: research
Sexual rights as human rights: a guide to authoritative sources and principles for applying human rights to sexuality and sexual health
This Guide seeks to provide insight and resources to actors interested in the development of rights claims around sexuality and sexual health. After engaging with the vexed question of the scope of sexual rights, it explores the rules and principles governing the way in which human rights claims are developed and applied to sexuality and sexual health, and how that development is linked to law and made a matter of state obligation. This understanding is critical to policy and programming in sexual health and rights, as it supports calling on the relevant range of human rights, such as privacy, non-discrimination, health or...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Alice M. Miller, Eszter Kism ödi, Jane Cottingham, Sofia Gruskin Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Sexual health in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD): implications for measurement and beyond**The authors are staff members of the World Health Organization. The author alone is responsible for the views expressed in this publication and they do not necessarily represent the decisions or policies of the World Health Organization.
This paper examines different dimensions of sexual health as related to the measurement of sexual health indicators and the proposed changes in the International Classification of Diseases to address issues related to sexuality and sexual health with an aim of informing health policy-making and programming. The lack of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating sexual health outcomes has impeded the development of policies and programmes that support sexual health. The potential impact of changes to the ICD-11 is major and far-reaching given that the ICD is used by countries to define eligibility and access to health service...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Doris Chou, Sara Cottler, Rajat Khosla, Geoffrey M. Reed, Lale Say Tags: Brief Communication Source Type: research
“Sex is sweet”: women from low-income contexts in Uganda talk about sexual desire and pleasure
In many patriarchal societies in Africa, heterosexuality is privileged as the single legitimate form of sexual interaction; other sexualities are marginalised because they are perceived as un-African, abnormal, sinful and are repressed. Female sexuality too is subordinated and controlled with it being reduced to women’s conventional mothering roles that are conflated with their reproductive capacities. However, there is evidence that women in heterosexual relations have the opportunity to assert themselves and to define pleasurable sex. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi Tags: Feature Source Type: research
Facing negative reactions to sexuality education through a Multicultural Human Rights framework
Sexuality education, its protocols and planning are contingent on an ever-changing political environment that characterizes the field of sexuality in most countries. In Brazil, human rights perspectives shaped the country’s response to the AIDS epidemic, and indirectly influenced the public acceptability of sexuality education in schools. Since 2011, however, as multiple fundamentalist movements emerged in the region, leading to recurrent waves of backlashes in all matters related to sexuality, both health and educational policies have begun to crawl backwards. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Vera Paiva, Valeria N. Silva Tags: Feature Source Type: research
Sexual identity stigma and social support among men who have sex with men in Lesotho: a qualitative analysis
Men who have sex with men (MSM) face sexual identity stigma in many settings, which can increase risk for HIV by limiting access to care. This paper examines the roles of social support, sexual identity stigma, and sexual identity disclosure among MSM in Lesotho, a lower-middle income country within South Africa. Qualitative data were collected from 23 in-depth interview and six focus group participants and content analysis was performed to extract themes. Four primary themes emerged: 1) Verbal abuse from the broader community is a major challenge faced by MSM in Lesotho, 2) participants who were open about their sexual id...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Shauna Stahlman, Kali Bechtold, Stephanie Sweitzer, Tampose Mothopeng, Noah Taruberekera, John Nkonyana, Stefan Baral Tags: Feature Source Type: research
Exploring Somali women’s reproductive health knowledge and experiences: results from focus group discussions in Mogadishu
With a total fertility ratio of 6.7 children per woman, a maternal mortality ratio over 1,000 deaths per 100,000 live births, high rates of sexual and gender-based violence, and the lowest contraceptive prevalence rate in the world, women’s reproductive health indices in Somalia prove alarming. The voices of women living in Somalia have long been neglected and we undertook this qualitative study to explore women’s reproductive health knowledge and experiences. In 2014, we conducted four focus group discussions with 21 married and unmarried women of reproductive age living in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - December 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Faduma Gure, Marian Yusuf, Angel M. Foster Tags: Feature Source Type: research
