Sexuality, Health and Human Rights


Book Description

Sexuality, Health and Human Rights surveys the rapid changes taking place at the start of the twenty-first century in the social, cultural, political and economic domains and their impact on sexuality, health and human rights.




Sex, Gender, Sexuality and the Law


Book Description

"In the past decade, people whose bodies, genders or sexualities differ from socially expected norms have become more visible and have been granted greater recognition within the law. Yet despite this, many service providers do not have a strong understanding of the social and legal issues that continue to have a significant impact on these diverse groups of people and their relationships and families. In order to address this knowledge gap, this book brings together research findings from often disparate disciplines into an accessible and useful form for practitioners, as well as for researchers, academics, students, and the general public. Part 1 defines key terms, and addresses the psychosocial and legal issues faced by trans or gender diverse, intersex, and/or non-heterosexual individuals. Part 2 looks at the psychosocial and legal aspects of couple relationships. Part 3 considers parenting and families. Part 4 discusses practical tips for professionals working with this client group, including specific content for lawyers and mediators. As a whole, this book both questions the presumed neutrality of the law, yet insists that it is possible for the law to play a key role in challenging cisgenderism and heterosexism."--Back cover.




Gender, Sexuality, and the Law


Book Description

This volume examines the role of law as a tool for advancing women’s rights and gender equity in local, national, and global contexts. Many feminist scholars note a marked failure of law to achieve goals connected to women’s rights and gender equality. Despite its limitations, law provides aspirational norms that can be mobilized to hold institutions accountable and to provide material benefit to those excluded from systems of power. In conversation with each other, the chapters in this volume help to advance understanding of both the limitations and the potential of law as a tool for advancing democratic participation, rights, and justice around issues related to gender and sexuality. Contributors acknowledge, to varying degrees, that law has important symbolism and may be used as a lever to mobilize change. At the same time, some offer cautionary notes about the potential downside risks and unintended consequences of relying upon law in pursuit of women’s rights and gender equity. Collectively, the chapters in this volume explore the disjuncture between the promise and expectation of legal reform and the lived experience of those laws by people intended as the beneficiaries of legal change. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Discourse.




Sexuality, Gender and Rights


Book Description

This volume analyzes and documents the groundbreaking work done by many organizations to bring issues of sexuality and rights to public attention, to expand the freedoms of women and sexual minorities and to highlight the unfair distinctions faced by those not conforming to gender and sexual norms across a range of expressions, behaviours and identities in Asia. This volume covers eight countries in South and Southeast Asia. The contributors address issues of power and social hierarchies by using the principles of justice, equality, non-discrimination, and access to rights and services. They cover diverse issues like sexual rights, sexuality education, sexual health services, transsexuals and other sexual minorities, HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as sex work and the representation of sexuality in popular culture. The contributors argue that neither gender nor sexuality can be addressed in isolation from human rights and demonstrate how linking sexuality and gender with human rights has an impact on people`s lives across intersecting issues and contexts. Moving beyond theoretical discussions of sexuality, gender and rights, this volume looks at what these ideas mean in practice and offers examples of the diversity of effective approaches that can be adopted in varied settings. Moreover, it illustrates how sexuality ties in with wider issues—health, personal relationships, economic well-being, equitable access to public services, and the freedom to think, speak and associate without fear of discrimination.




Gender, Pleasure, and Violence


Book Description

Behind the Iron Curtain, the politics of sexuality and gender were, in many ways, more progressive than the West. While Polish citizens undoubtedly suffered under the oppressive totalitarianism of socialism, abortion was legal, clear laws protected victims of rape, and it was relatively easy to legally change one's gender. In Gender, Pleasure, and Violence, Agnieszka Kościańska reveals that sexologists—experts such as physicians, therapists, and educators—not only treated patients but also held sex education classes at school, published regular columns in the press, and authored highly popular sex manuals that sold millions of copies. Yet strict gender roles within the home meant that true equality was never fully within reach. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and archival work, Kościańska shares how professions like sexologists defined the notions of sexual pleasure and sexual violence under these sweeping cultural changes. By tracing the study of sexual human behavior as it was developed and professionalized in Poland since the 1960s, Gender, Pleasure, and Violence explores how the collapse of socialism brought both restrictions in gender rights and new opportunities.




Sexuality and Human Rights


Book Description

Finally—a comparative overview of sexuality and human rights issues and law! Human rights issues exist globally, particularly when they have to do with sexuality. Sexuality and Human Rights: A Global Overview focuses on the controversial issues of human sexuality and the legal challenges that LGBT individuals face. Internationally recognized legal experts thoroughly discuss the status of important human rights laws pertaining to sexuality from around the world. Reviewing the progression from historical foundations and shifting public opinions through the most recent landmark legal cases, this is an essential resource on the present state of human rights laws and sexuality. This unique, up-to-date examination of the legal issues involving LGBT individuals’ rights around the world reviews the latest rulings, such as the adoption of minors by homosexual or bisexual parents, the legal acceptance of marriage between same-sex couples, whether the gender-reassigned can be legally considered their true gender identity, and much, much more. Sexuality and Human Rights: A Global Overview illustrates the journey our worldwide legal systems have traveled, and the path stretching before them, until the destination of equality and acceptance in sexuality may finally be reached. Well-referenced, comprehensive, and yet accessible to the general reader, this book provides a crucial, provocative look at just what basic sexual human rights means in today’s laws. Some of the topics of Sexuality and Human Rights: A Global Overview include: perspectives and objectives to challenge discrimination sexuality and international human rights law sexuality and human rights in Australian law transsexuals issues in European human rights law sexual orientation and gender identity legal issues in North America the present state of sexuality and human rights in European law the Asian legal perspective on sexuality and human rights laws pertaining to sexual identity issues Sexuality and Human Rights: A Global Overview is a vital reference source for law educators, law students, gay rights activists, and law reformers.




Because We Are Human


Book Description

Offers a complete empirical account of US government programs, policies, and interventions outside the United States on behalf of the human rights of LGBTQ people. Around the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people continue to be threatened, attacked, arrested, tortured, and sometimes executed just for being sexual or gender minorities. Since the final months of the Clinton administration, agencies and officials of the US government have been engaging in programs and projects whose stated purposes are to serve goals of justice and equity for LGBTQ people outside the United States. Because We Are Human gives readers an inside look at US sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) human rights assistance programs. Cynthia Burack explores settings where indigenous and transnational human rights advocates meet to fund and strategize SOGI human rights movements. This book also examines key arguments against these programs, policies, and interventions that originate on both the conservative right and the progressive academic left. Burack ultimately recommends support for a US commitment to SOGI human rights and programs that serve the needs of LGBTQ people. “Thorough and thought-provoking In Because We Are Human, Cynthia Burack’s insights help to shape a smart, comprehensive picture of US involvement in the global fight for LGBTQ rights.” — Foreword Reviews




Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights


Book Description

Thoroughly updated with over 30 newly written chapters, this edition of the Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights brings together academics and practitioners from around the world to provide an authoritative and up-to-date account of the field. Social researchers and their allies have worked hard in past decades to find new ways of understanding sexuality in a rapidly changing world. Growing attention is now given to the way sexuality intersects with other structures such as gender, age, ethnicity/race and disability, and increasing value is seen in a positive approach focused on ethics, pleasure, mutuality and reciprocity. This Handbook explores: theory, politics and early development of sexuality studies ways in which language, discourse and identification have become central to research on sex, sexuality and gender key issues across the broad media and digital ecology, demonstrating the centrality of representation, communication and digital technologies to sexual and gender practices research focusing on the body and its sexual pleasures work on forms of inequality, violence and abuse that are linked to sex, gender and sexuality The Handbook is an essential reference for researchers and educators working in the fields of sexuality studies, gender studies, sexual health and human rights, and offers key reading for mid-level and advanced students.




Legislating Gender and Sexuality in Africa


Book Description

In recent decades, a more formalized and forceful shift has emerged in the legislative realm when it comes to gender and sexual justice in Africa. This rigorous, timely volume brings together leading and rising scholars across disciplines to evaluate these ideological struggles and reconsider the modern history of human rights on the continent. Broad in geographic coverage and topical in scope, chapters investigate such subjects as marriage legislation in Mali, family violence experienced by West African refugees, sex education in Uganda, and statutes criminalizing homosexuality in Senegal. These case studies highlight the nuances and contradictions in the varied ways key actors make arguments for or against rights. They also explore how individual countries draft and implement laws that attempt to address the underlying problems. Legislating Gender and Sexuality in Africa details how legal efforts in the continent can often be moralizing enterprises, illuminating how these processes are closely tied to notions of ethics, personhood, and citizenship. The contributors provide new appraisals of recent events, with fresh arguments about the relationships between local and global fights for rights. This interdisciplinary approach will appeal to scholars in African studies, anthropology, history, and gender studies.




Development with a Body


Book Description

'We used to talk about development with a human face. We should be talking about development with a body' Arit Oku-Egbas, African Regional Sexuality Resource Centre, Nigeria Sex and sexuality have always had a place at the heart of the development agenda - from concerns regarding population and environment, to practices in education and efforts for protecting reproductive health and rights. Yet this agenda has largely focused on negative dimensions of sexuality - disease, risk, violation - rather than positive aspects, including rights to sexual fulfillment, wellbeing and pleasure. The shift towards a rights-based approach to development has brought the human rights dimensions of sexuality into clearer view, and consequently the need to address discriminatory laws and violations of the human rights of those whose sexual identity and practices diverge from dominant sexual orders/norms. This book offers compelling insights into contemporary challenges and transformative possibilities of the struggle for sexual rights. It combines the conceptual with the political, and offering inspiring examples of practical interventions and campaigns that emphasize the positive dimensions of sexuality. It brings together reflections and experiences of researchers, activists and practitioners from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and Zambia. From political discourse on sex and masculinity to sex work and trafficking, from HIV and sexuality to struggles for legal reform and citizenship, the authors explore the gains of creating stronger linkages between sexuality, human rights and development.