Human Rights, Gender and Sexuality: A Minister Who Does Not Play Around
by Rajnia de Vito and Marco Aurélio Prado In a political scene that is thoroughly saturated with sex and gender tropes and memes, Damares Alves, head of the new Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, is an icon and spokesperson for the new government’s sexual politics.[i] “Terribly Christian”, as she called herself on January […]
Read moreLena Lavinas: “We’re watching a politics of dismantling”
Lena Lavinas is an economist and full professor at the Economics Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, she published the book Takeover of Social Policy by Financialization. The Brazilian paradox, (Palgrave Macmillan). Here, in a long conversation with Fábio Grotz, she analyzes the directions and effects of the Bolsonaro government’s […]
Read moreHealth policy: From lull to cataclysm
by Fábio Grotz With regards to the trajectory of the policy response to HIV and reproductive health in Brazil — which, between 1980 and the first decade of the 21st century was very positive – it was inevitable that the incoming Bolsonaro government would cause damage, particularly with regards to sexual health. It must be […]
Read moreResearch Report on the Right to Education for Transgender People in China
The right to education is a fundamental right of citizens in all countries. Educational institutions play an essential role in shaping the attitudes of individuals and society. At the same time, education is a vital basis for all individuals to obtain social opportunities and resources. In China, the right to education and quality education for […]
Read moreSexual politics in April 2019
Highlights Algeria and Sudan: A revived Arab Spring? – Almost six years after the Arab Spring waned under the shadows of the Sissi regime, political upheavals revived in the Arab World. In Algeria, after six weeks of persistent demonstrations, President Bouteflika, in power since 1999, was forced to withdraw from reelection and then to resign. […]
Read moreA historical debt for Costa Rita: Ministry of Health finally registers Emergency Contraception
The 25 April 2019 was a historical day for sexual and reproductives rights in Costa Rica. On this date, the Ministry of Health published a note informing that it would allow the registration of a dedicated oral drug for emergency contraception. The Ministry had until then systematically rejected pharmaceutical companies applications and it was not […]
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SexPolitics: Trends & Tensions in the 21st Century
Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) would like to re-launch the fourth publication of its most recent cycle of transnational analyses on sexual politics that started in 2015 after some corrections were made. Volume 2 of the collection SexPolitics: Trends and Tensions in the 21st Century – Contextual Undercurrents comprises seven chapters chartering main trends and debates […]
Read moreJudith Butler: “To deny the humanities leaves us adrift in a world driven by economic forces alone”
First of all, could you please tell me briefly about the creation of GENDER INTERNATIONAL? Why have you come with this idea? How many people are part of it? What are its main goals? Many scholars who work within the diverse fields gender and sexuality studies decided to form an organization to counter the public misunderstandings […]
Read moreSexual politics in March 2019
The Christchurch attack In Christchurch, New Zealand, a solitary white male Australian sniper killed fifty people who were praying in two mosques. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was appraised for the compassionate but firm handling of the tragedy, in particular because the policy measures immediately proposed to ban semiautomatic weapons among other actions (read more). The […]
Read moreHow sexual politics intersect with a shifting global landscape
SPW republishes the article “Reflecting on 2011 events: scattered notes on how sexual politics intersect with a shifting global landscape“, written by Sonia Corrêa, who analyzed the intertwine between the sexual and wider political contexts. She focuses on a myriad of noteworthy events in the year of 2011 and that to this day reflect […]
Read moreBrazilian presidential election: a perfect catastrophe?
by Sonia Corrêa Time to mourn Politics is both reasoning and affect. This is how the first version of this essay, written in the immediate aftermath of the Brazilian 2018 elections, began. The reasonable charting of what happened in Brazil was urgent, but also extremely painful. Having watched, for many years, the building up of […]
Read moreSexual Politics in January and February 2019
#Hail International Women’s Day 2019: struggle, endurance, resistance! #Eyes on Brazil From an insider´s point of view, observing Brazilian politics after January 1st is like being caught in liquefier trying to make sense of the wind whirl turning one into pieces. SPW is planning a thorough assessment of the first 100 days of the new administration. For […]
Read moreBolsonaro’s Brazil
The teratology of the contemporary political imagination – plentiful enough: Trump, Le Pen, Salvini, Orbán, Kaczyński, ogres galore – has acquired a new monster. Rising above the ruck, the president-elect of Brazil has extolled his country’s most notorious torturer; declared that its military dictatorship should have shot thirty thousand opponents; told a congresswoman she was too […]
Read moreUN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders on “Gender Ideology”
On February 25th, Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders has delivered his report on the situation of human rights defenders. The report “describes the challenging environments in which they operate and analyses the impact of patriarchy and heteronormativity, ´gender ideology´, fundamentalisms, militarization, globalization and neoliberal policies on the rights of such […]
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