• Public health vs rights based approaches

Public health vs rights based approaches

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 rights and sexuality, focusing on United Nations (UN) negotiations. The paper notes that conventional public health and population concerns regarding family planning and the HIV and AIDS pandemic have shifted the sexual liberation agenda towards sexual risk. Consequently, the interpretation of sexual rights has generally been negative, emphasising victimisation, including gender-based violence and rape, as well as sexual and reproductive health problems. Key obstacles to a more positive interpretation include the persistent forces of conservatism, the dominance of a biomedical approach to sexual health and rights, and a perception of sexuality as somehow “frivolous”.

The paper acknowledges the need to properly link sexuality, health, reproduction and violence. However, it also calls for sexual rights to be considered as an end in themselves, affirmed in relation to pleasure and eroticism, reflecting Amartya Sen’s concept of “development as freedom”. The paper stresses the links between sexuality and equality, calling for future debates on sexual rights to include diverse groups such as sex workers, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in order to achieve a truly global consensus on sexuality and sexual rights.

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