CONTENTS
I. SPW ACTIVITIES / EDITORIAL
Since late September 2009, the SPW executive team has been engaged in a wide variety of activities. First and foremost, we made further progress on preparation for the Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics. Following the recommendation of the Latin American Regional Dialogue (held in Rio de Janeiro in August 2009), we have added our voices to a global campaign that has been underway since May 2009 by developing, together with partners, a statement calling for the de-pathologization of transexuality. Another major project we wish to highlight is the Brazil case study on Internet regulation, gender and sexuality, which is part of EroTICs, a global research project that is being coordinated by the Women’s Networking Support Programme of the Association for Progressive Communications (WNSP/APC) and implemented in partnership with CLAM, the Latin American Center for Sexuality and Human Rights.
1.1 SPW organizes the African Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics
1.2 Calling for the de-pathologization of transexuality
1.3 The EroTICs Brazilian case study
1.4 The contents of the Latin American and the Asian Dialogues on Sexuality and Geopolitics are available
II. SEXUALITY AROUND THE WORLD: MAIN DEBATES
Since its very first issue, this section of the SPW newsletter has underlined the sharp paradoxes of sexual politics in our times, when major breakthroughs in policies, laws and mobilization coexist and contrast with regressive measures that curtail further erotic justice. In this issue, such a paradox is illustrated, on the one hand, by the regressive legislation proposed in Uganda, which aims to further criminalize “homosexual” behavior and which includes a provision for capital punishment of persons prosecuted for having infected others with HIV. On the other hand, we highlight the same sex marriage legislation recently approved in the Federal District of Mexico, as it goes beyond other Latin American countries’ laws and court decisions on the matter.
In SPW’s view, however, the Ugandan law provision should not be analyzed as mere regression. It must be understood as a culmination of a series of regressive laws — on marriage, same sex relations and the criminalization of HIV infection — that have been proposed in Africa, and elsewhere, since the early 2000s. However, it should be reminded also that these regressive propositions, to a large extent, materialized as a response to political mobilizing around sexuality and rights (read the article Draconian laws against homosexuality in Africa, by Cesnabmihilo Aken’ova). More importantly, what is particularly remarkable in the recent Ugandan case is that it has triggered a broad mobilization, both internally and internationally, which has extended far beyond the boundaries of LGBT and human rights communities that have expressed their voices when similar episodes have occurred elsewhere in recent years. Read this complete analysis.
2.1 The Uganda case
2.2 The same sex marriage debate
2.3 Global and regional relevant events
2.4 Laws, policies and politics
2.5 Sexuality and religion
2.6 Human Rights violations
2.7 Genital mutilation
2.8 The abortion front lines
2.9 Also in the news
III. ADVOCACY: KEEP AN EYE
3.1 The 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) from March 1-12, 2010 (Beijing+15)
3.2 News on the Human Rights Council
IV. SEXUALITY IN ART
4.1 The photographer Zanele Muholi’s artwork
V. CHECK IT OUT!
5.1 Upcoming events
5.2 Scholarships
5.3 Job opportunities
VI. WE RECOMMEND