This document discusses gender, sexuality, and sexual rights. It covers several key topics: 1) Gender and sexuality are influenced by many social and cultural factors and norms around them can cause suffering if people's sexualities do not conform or fit into limited channels. 2) A sexual rights framework promotes justice around sexuality and gender, including the right to pursue safe and pleasurable sexual lives. 3) Movements have advocated for greater recognition of sexual rights through international agreements, but political and cultural opposition remains in some contexts.

1. GENDER &
SEXUALITY:
OVERVIEW
Pinar Ilkkaracan and Susie Jolly
January 2007
WD 227 Report – Clarissa M. Camaya

2. Central ideas
■ Gender and Sexuality Dimension
■ The Sexual Rights Framework
■ Alliances and Inclusive Movements

3. GENDER &
SEXUALITY
DIMENSION
Societal problems rooted in norms on gender and sexuality

4. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Sexuality is influenced by gender.
– Expectations, Right and Wrong
– Norms may cause suffering to fit
sexualities into limited and unequal
channels.
– Non-conforming may result to
violence and discrimination.
– Pressures are present.
(Marriage, Pleasures, Stereotypes)
– Social stigma and legal penalties
discourage non-conformity.
Sexuality is a central aspect of being human
throughout life and encompasses sex, gender
identities and roles, sexual orientation,
eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction.
Sexuality is experienced and expressed in
thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes,
values, behaviors, practices, roles and
relationships. While sexuality can include all of
these dimensions, not all of them are always
experienced and expressed. Sexuality is
influenced by the interaction of biological,
psychological, social, economic, political,
cultural, ethical, legal, historical, religious and
spiritual factors.
(World Health Organization, 2004)

5. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Ideologies around sexuality are used to
control women.
– Limiting women to “protect” them or
to “control” them?
– Control of women’s sexuality
controlling them more generally
– Social rules restricting “cholaphera”
(physical movement)
– Norms centered around bodies
■ ‘Honor’ = bride price (Turkey)
■ ‘Improper Women’  undermining
women’s movements to curb their
political power and impact
■ Keeping women “vulnerable”
…in recognizing women’s sexual and
reproductive autonomy rather than
protecting women’s sexual purity, one can
tackle the roots of gender-based violence.
(UN Special Rapporteur on Violence
against Women Radhika Coomaraswamy,
2003)

6. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Sexuality is linked to poverty.
– Both a cause and consequence of
poverty
– Taboos and norms  lack of
information, no encouragement to
access appropriate sexual and
reproductive services
– Discrimination in the labor market,
limiting livelihood
– Familial burdens
– Sex work = source of income but
also a site of exploitation
Women’s failure to marry may limit their
access to land, housing, inheritance, and
social networks.
(Kapur 2005)

7. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Gender inequality fuels transmission of
HIV/AIDS
– Men who have sex with men (MSM)
are marginalized and have less
information and access to safer
sexual behaviors.
– Sex workers are stigmatized,
penalized by law, and harassed by
police.
– Women are drawn either as victims or
promiscuous themselves.
■ Sexuality is a survival issue
– Maternal deaths, HIV/AIDS, Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM)
– Sex outside marriage = fornication
– A woman can be charged with
fornication even when raped.
(Pakistan)
– Penalties and discrimination worse for
the poor.
– Persecution of LGBT
Men are expected to know about and take
control in sex; they may be discouraged
from admitting ignorance and vulnerability
and seeking information about safer sex,
thus practice behavior which puts them and
their partners at risk.
(Ilkkaracan and Jolly, 2007)

8. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Attention to sexuality is key to meeting
the Millennium Development Goals.
– Presence and accessibility of quality
sexual and reproductive health
services
– Information and education in relation
to sexuality
– Protection of bodily integrity
– Guarantee of the right of people to
freely choose sexual and marriage
partners
– Right to make decisions about child
bearing
– Pursue satisfying, safe, and
pleasurable sexual lives
MDG 2: Access to primary education,
particularly for girls
MDG 3: Gender equality and the
empowerment of women
MDG 4: Reduction of infant and child mortality
MDG 5: Improvements in maternal health and
mortality threats
MDG 6: Decreasing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS,
sexually transmitted infections and other
health threats
ULTIMATELY --- MDG 1: Reduction of poverty

9. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Sexuality can contribute to
empowerment and well-being.
– Enjoyment, fulfillment, well-being,
enhancing human relations with
shared intimacy or pleasure
– POSITIVE
– Empowering those who have been
taught to feel shame in their bodies
and their sexualities
– Not the power to say ‘no’, but having
your decision ‘respected’.
“Sex can be oppressive, but it can also be a
place where women can gain power, where
men let themselves enjoy being vulnerable,
where transgender affirm their sense of self
with lovers who see them as they wish to
be seen.”
(Ilkkaracan and Jolly, 2007)

10. Gender &
Sexuality
Dimension
■ Sexuality is a site of political struggle.
– (2005) Protocol on the Rights of
Women in Africa
■ Providing for the right to abortion in
cases of rape, incest, and health
risk
■ Call to prohibit FGM
– (2006) Repealing Article 377 in
India
■ Law instated by British colonial
government
■ Criminalizes carnal intercourse
against the order of nature and is
used to censure homosexual
relations.
“Because sexuality has such implications
for policy, and likewise policy for sexuality, it
is an issue for activists, for development,
for governments, and international
institutions”
(Ilkkaracan and Jolly, 2007)

11. THE SEXUAL RIGHTS
FRAMEWORK
Approach to promote justice around sexuality and gender

12. World Health Organization (WHO)
Definition of Sexual Rights
The right of all persons, free of coercion, discrimination and violence to have:
■ The highest attainable standard of sexual health, including access to sexual and reproductive health
services
■ Seek, receive and impart information related to sexuality
■ Sexuality education
■ Respect for bodily integrity
■ Choose their partner
■ Decide to be sexually active or not
■ Consensual sexual relations
■ Consensual marriage
■ Decide whether or not, and when, to have children
■ Pursue satisfying, safe, and pleasurable sexual life

13. GOALS
■ Move beyond identity politics
■ Identify structures of oppression –structures
of power existing around different forms of
gender and sexuality (Stratification of
Sexuality)
■ Forge alliances to challenge the hierarchy
itself

14. Good Sex
• Normal, Natural, Healthy, Holy
• Heterosexual, married, monogamous,
reproductive, at home
Major
Areas of
Contest
• Unmarried heterosexual,
Promiscuous, Masturbation, Long-
term stable lesbian and gay male
couples, Lesbians in the bar,
Promiscuous gay men, out of home
Bad Sex
• Abnormal, Unnatural, Sick, Sinful,
“Way Out”
• Transvestites, transsexuals,
fetishists, sadomasochists, for
money, cross-generational

15. Movements
towards
sexual rights
■ Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – 1979
– Right to reproductive choice, minimum age
for marriage, suppression of traffic in women
and exploitation and prostitution of women
■ World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna –
1993
– Explicit reference to sexuality
– Eliminate gender based violence and all
forms of sexual harassment and exploitation
■ International Conference on Population and
Development, Cairo – 1994
– Recognizes interconnections between gender
and sexuality
– Reproductive health is a state of complete
physical, mental, and social well-being and
not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
– Implication that people are able to have
satisfying and safe sex.
■ Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing –
1995
– Sexuality – especially sexual orientation,
women’s control of their bodies and abortion
– The Beijing Platform for Action
■ Other UN Actions
United Nations, 1990s and beyond

16. Sexual
violence and
beyond
■ UN International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (1998)
– Rape = act of genocide aimed at
destroying a population group, Crime
by international law
■ Link between control of female sexuality
and violence against women (Radhika
Coomaraswamy, 2003)
■ UN Human Rights Committee decision on
Toonen vs. Australia (1994)
– Prohibition of same-sex sexual
relations to be in breach of the right to
privacy, a violation of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR)
■ UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial,
Arbitrary, and Summary Executions Asma
Jahangir
– Condemnation of state-sponsored
violence against sexual minorities,
threats against defenders of the right
to sexual orientation, and death
penalty for consensual sexual
relations
AUTONOMY > PURITY
Visibility for the issues in
the international fora

17. POLITICAL
CONTEXT
■ Sexual violence as a weapon of war
■ Sexual rights – not our culture!
■ The US neo-conservatives and sexual
rights headed by the US Christian Right
– Conditions of aid:
■ ABC Strategies (Abstain, Be
faithful, Use Condoms)
■ Loyalty oath condemning
prostitution
■ Global Gag Rule (On Abortion)
■ Rejection of harm-reduction
strategies for drug users
■ Work is being done to reclaim more
progressive notions of gender and
sexuality from within religious institutions
and contexts.
ALTERNATIVE TO ABC: SAVE
Safer practices including condoms, sterile
needles and syringes, and safe blood
transfusion
Available medications – Antiretroviral (ARV)
therapy and treatment for HIV associated
infections
Voluntary counseling and testing
Empowerment through education, to counter
inaccurate information, ignorance, and
stigma

18. NEW THINKING
■ Sexual rights for minorities and majorities
■ Sexual rights go beyond freedom from violence
■ Sexuality is more than a health issue
■ Sexual rights include positive rights and pleasure

19. IN PRACTICE
■ Go beyond narrow health and violence approaches, to approach sexuality more
holistically and take into account gender and other power dynamics
■ Go beyond negative approaches to support positive rights and pleasure
particularly for those whom gender norms obstruct opportunities to seek
pleasure and fulfillment
■ Take an inclusive approach to sexual rights open to all
■ Build strength for inclusive sexual rights movement

20. WE WANT ORGASMS
NOT SEXUAL
HARASSMENT!
Slogan of the campaign against sexual harassment, Taiwan (1990s)

21. PARTIES
■ Women: concept of honor, positive rights, pleasure
■ Men: allies, also have sexual rights, positive male
involvement
■ Transgender: inclusion, not classifying them into the
binary
■ Sexual workers: access and positivity, fighting trafficking
■ Disabled: “The Night of Senses”

22. PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO
PLEASURE, DESIRE,
SEXUALITY, AS WELL AS A
RIGHT NOT TO EXPERIENCE
THESE IF THEY DON’T WANT
TO.
Henry Armas, 2006