The book Sexuality, Health and Human Rights intended as a companion volume to the 2007 e-book SexPolitics: Reports from the front lines, provides a critical analysis of shifting theoretical perspectives and activist strategies regarding sexual politics and their larger geopolitical context in the twenty-first century. Long in the making, the book surveys the “Global ‘Sex’ Wars” in the shadow of both religious resurgence and political conservatism; new research agendas in the face of biomedical discourses and HIV/AIDS; and “The Promises and Limits of Sexual Rights,” both from within international LGBTQI and feminist human rights activism and beyond.
Each of the authors is a leading scholar and advocate of sexual rights. Sonia Corrêa is research coordinator for sexual and reproductive health and rights at Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (Brazil); Richard Parker is professor of sociomedical sciences and director of the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Health at Columbia University (USA); and Rosalind Petchesky is distinguished professor of political science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York (USA). In addition, all share a commitment to, and have leadership roles in, the global forum Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW), which consists of researchers and political activists from around the world who seek to strengthen sexual health and rights through policy-oriented research and analysis. Of central importance to SPW— and in many ways also hallmarks of Sexuality, Health and Human Rights—are protecting sexual diversity and freedom, understanding sexuality and the body through the lens of political economy, and building transnational and multisectoral alliances.