More definitions
Definitions from non-governmental and campaigning organisations
During the 1980s, women's movements and other activist groups began mobilising around issues relating to reproduction and sexuality (Petchesky, 2000). More recently, activists from groups stigmatised for their sexual practices have grown in strength and increasingly worked together, for example the "Rainbow Planet" coalition at the World Social Forum in Mumbai in 2004 which united lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people (LGBT) alongside sex workers and people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). Some definitions of SRHR by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and campaigning organisations include:
- IPPF Charter on Sexual and Reproductive Rights
- Women's Health Project South Africa - Sexual Rights Charter
- World Association of Sexology Declaration of Sexual Rights
What's your definition?
The above are examples only. Do you have a definition of sexual and reproductive rights that you would like to recommend? If so, please email the author
Recommended readings
- Breaking through: a guide to sexual and reproductive health and rights
- Center for Reproductive Rights, formerly known as the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, New York, 2004
- Recommended reading
- This guide, published by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), provides a comprehensive introduction to the political debate surrounding sexual and reproductive health and rights (SR...
- Annotated bibliography: sexuality and human rights
- S.T. Fried / International Women's Health Coalition , 2002
- Recommended reading
- This bibliography, published by the International Women’s Health Coalition, introduces the issues of sexual rights, sexuality and human rights, providing summaries of 28 key documents and a list of fu...
- Sexual rights: much has been said, much remains to be resolved
- S. Carrea / Siyanda, 2002
- Recommended reading
- Presented as a lecture in the Sexuality, Health and Gender Seminar at the Department of Social Sciences, Public Health School, Columbia University, USA, this paper revisits the ongoing debate on human...
- Sexual rights in Southern Africa: A Beijing discourse or a strategic necessity?
- B. Klugman / University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2000
- Recommended reading
- This article from the journal Health and Human Rights looks at the interpretation and practice of sexual rights following the Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action, focusing on the nine member c...
- Sexual but not reproductive: exploring the junctions and disjunctions of sexual and reproductive rights
- A. Miller / Health and Human Rights, 2000
- Recommended reading
- This article from the journal Health and Human Rights examines the concept of sexual and reproductive rights and argues that the term itself poses a challenge. In particular, the article suggests that...
- Reproductive and sexual rights: charting the course of transnational women's NGOs
- R.P. Petchesky / United Nations [UN] Research Institute for Social Development , 2000
- Recommended reading
- This UNRISD paper assesses the role played by women’s movements in the 1990s in the creation and implementation of international agreements related to reproductive and sexual rights. The paper looks a...
- Health, Empowerment, Rights and Accountability (HERA) action sheet: sexual rights
- International Women's Health Coalition , 1999
- Recommended reading
- This action sheet on sexual rights is one of a series on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), published by the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), which define central concepts...
Next: key debates in sexual and reproductive health and rights
