back to Chapter Five Contents
What are some examples of effective human rights programming in the area of sexual health for LGBT and sex workers?
Introduction
In this section, you are presented with four examples of effective activities in the area of sexual health and human rights. These are:
- Reforming Federal Prostitution Laws in New Zealand
- Organizing to End Abuse of Sexual and Gender Minorities in India
- Gay Rights Advocacy in Romania
- Lesbian Rights as Women’s Rights in Namibia.
Right-based programming
As you review each activity, ask yourself whether it incorporates the five elements of “rights-based” programming:
- Participation
Does the activity include participation by affected communities, civil society, marginalized groups, and others? Is it situated in close proximity to its intended beneficiaries?
- Accountability
Does the activity identify both the entitlements of claim-holders and the obligations of duty-holders? Does it create mechanisms of accountability for violations of rights?
- Non-discrimination
Does the activity identify who is most vulnerable, and how? Does it pay particular attention to the needs of vulnerable groups such as women, minorities, indigenous peoples, and prisoners?
- Empowerment
Does the activity give its beneficiaries the power, capability, capacity, and access to bring about a change in their own lives? Does it place them at the center of the process rather than treating them as objects of charity?
- Linkage to rights
Does the activity define its objectives in terms of legally enforceable rights, with links to international, regional, and national laws? Does it address the full range of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights?
Finally, ask yourself whether the activity might be replicated in your country:
- Does such an activity already exist in your country?
- If not, should it be created? If so, does it need to be expanded?
- What steps need to be taken to replicate this activity?
- What barriers need to be overcome to ensure its successful replication?
back to top
Example 1: Reforming federal prostitution laws in New Zealand
In 2003, New Zealand, an island country of about 4 million persons, reformed its sexual offences law to legalize some forms of prostitution and brothel-keeping. Leading the effort were the members of New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective, an organization made up of current and past sex workers.
Project type
Law reform
Health and human rights issue
Sex workers in New Zealand sought a safe work environment to protect their rights. Health and human rights advocates argued that criminal laws encouraged operators of massage parlours, escort agencies, and brothels to go underground. This made operators unwilling to display safer sex literature and other products, impeded sex workers’ access to sexual health information, and allowed unacceptable working conditions—including unfair dismissals, withholding payment, and denial of the right to refuse clients—to persist.
Actions taken
NZPC took a series of actions to reform the law to allow some forms of prostitution and brothel-keeping. Specifically, they:
- Formed a participatory law reform coalition made up sex workers, health professionals, HIV/AIDS groups, human rights groups, some professional women’s groups (including the YWCA), parliamentarians, and civil servants
- Developed carefully-researched arguments for how reforming prostitution laws would contribute to the protecting the rights of people in prostitution, ending the exploitation of adults, and keeping children out of prostitution
- Developed relationships with the media, so that journalists asked NZPC for its opinion anytime they reported on the reform of prostitution laws.
Results and lessons learned
- The coalition recruited a diverse membership, proving that sex workers can be leaders in a law reform effort. However, the coalition had difficulty attracting street-based (as opposed to brothel-based) sex workers.
- NZPC emerged as a respected voice in the media on the issue of prostitution laws in New Zealand. However, sensational stories about prostitution continued and undermined the case for law reform.
- In 2003, the national law was reformed to allow some forms of prostitution and brothel-keeping. However, the intent of the reform has been undermined at the local level, as municipal authorities have resisted its implementation and found other ways to crack down on sex work.
back to top
Example 2: Organizing to end abuse of sexual and gender minorities in India
SANGAMA, a queer resource centre in Bangalore, and the People's Union for Civil Liberties-Karnataka (PULC-K), a well-known human rights group in India, released two reports that became the basis of a many different actions in support of the health and human rights.
Project type
Documentation and advocacy; legal services
Health and human rights issue
Sexual and gender minorities in Bangalore, India faced ongoing police abuse, discrimination, and criminalization under anti-sodomy and anti-trafficking laws. Particularly vulnerable were hijras,a group of people born as men but who dress as women and enact some women's roles as well as a culturally-specific third-gender role. Outreach workers providing these communities with HIV-prevention services were also targets of police abuse.
Actions taken
With leadership from affected communities, SANGAMA and PULC-K undertook a documentation project to build the case for human rights protections for sexual and gender minorities and sex workers. Specifically, they:
- Formed effective collaborations with a human rights organization, a feminist collective, and lawyers working with sexual and gender minorities
- Conducted extensive interviews with victims and perpetrators of human rights abuses, and documented human rights violations
- Initiated direct interventions such as providing legal services “on-call” to persons in detention and persons facing abuse.
Results and lessons learned
- Due to the participatory and collaborative nature of the project, new leaders from the LGBT and hijra communities began to emerge and to influence prominent national campaigns for the repeal of sodomy laws. Advocates from diverse fields—health, women’s rights, Dalit rights—began to work together for the first time. This leadership was difficult to sustain, however, due to low budgets, stigma, and the mobility of marginalized groups.
- Through interviews, many human rights violations that had not previously been documented were finally exposed. This placed several human rights issues—such as rape of sexual minorities and the right to sexuality information—“on the map.” Researchers and advocates began to criticize a range of laws affecting the health and rights of marginalized groups.
- At the local level, the conduct of police, family members, and medical professionals was publicly challenged. However, health professionals were reluctant to accept that their conduct toward sexual minorities was abusive. Local challenges, moreover, were not enough to influence national and international laws and policies.
back to top
Example 3: Gay rights advocacy in Romania
Through a pair of influential human rights reports, as well as leveraging European Union accession and HIV/AIDS arguments, a gay rights group in Romania won reform of the penal code and the adoption of legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Project type
Law reform, documentation and advocacy
Health and human rights issue
LGBT persons in Romania faced rampant discrimination and state-sponsored homophobia. Until 2001, the Romanian Penal Code penalized same-sex relations with 1-5 years in prison, with the support of religious and nationalist groups. One of the effects of the law was to drive same-sex activity underground and to impede HIV-prevention and outreach efforts among men having sex with men.
Actions taken
Romanian and international groups working to protect the rights and health of LGBT populations developed a range of claims within European and international rights frameworks. Specifically, they:
- Issued two major reports on LGBT rights in Romania, one by Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and the other commissioned by UNAIDS
- Registered the LGBT rights group, ACCEPT, as a non-governmental organization (the NGO had to register as a human rights organization, not an LGBT organization, because the law denied LGBT persons the right to freedom of assembly and association)
- Pressured Romania to conform to European Union and Council of Europe standards on non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as part of Romania’s process of accession to the EU.
Results and lessons learned
- The penal code of Romania was amended in 2000 and further revised again in 2001. With guidance from the EU, Romania adopted comprehensive anti-discrimination mechanism that includes protection from discrimination on the grounds of both sexual orientation and HIV status.
- ACCEPT successfully registered as a human rights group. While it was illegal to advocate for LGBT rights, it made arguments and alliances with other human rights groups around freedom of expression and association. It has been less successful at connecting to advocacy against gender inequality, violence against women, and transgender rights.
- Accession to the EU and pressure to prevent HIV/AIDS—especially when voiced by international agencies—provided important leverage for reforming the penal law. However, some religious and political leaders continue to foment anti-gay prejudice and violence.
back to top
Example 4: Lesbian rights as women’s rights in Namibia
In the Southern African country of Namibia, a network of women’s organizations led by the NGO Sister Namibia included lesbian rights in a national Manifesto on women’s rights. Many political attacks followed, but the network continued to advocate for lesbian rights as part of women’s rights.
Project type
Networking and coalition-building
Health and human rights issue
The elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the protection of gender equality, and the promotion of women’s health must include lesbian as well as heterosexual women. Yet it can be challenging to include lesbians in the women’s movement, particularly when they are politically useful targets for politicians claiming to protect “national values.”
Actions taken
Sister Namibia, a collective of women committed to gender and racial equality, undertook a series of actions to include lesbian rights in their advocacy. Specifically, they:
- Included references to lesbian rights in a 90-page Manifesto on women’s rights, following a broad national consultation beginning in 1999
- Challenged numerous attacks by the dominant political party in Nambia (SWAPO, the South West African People’s Organization) that lesbians and homosexuals are selfish, individualistic, and anti-Namibian—including from women’s rights advocates in the government
- Continued to advance the rights of lesbians, including by creating a lesbian working group to work with Black women in townships, beginning a continent-wide Coalition of African Lesbians, and exploring how the Women’s Protocol to the ACHPR can be used to advance lesbian rights.
Results and lessons learned
- The government attacks had the ironic effect of creating more support for lesbian rights, and increasing solidarity among women’s rights and lesbian rights advocates. At workshops in rural areas, participants found new and creative arguments to defend the Manifesto and the rights of lesbians.
“They are our daughters, our mothers and our sisters, we can’t just throw them out; they pay taxes like everyone else; we know who is leading the women’s movement here and fighting for all women’s rights.”
- However, advocacy for lesbian rights has not attracted the same attention in Africa as advocacy against sodomy laws and for the rights of gay men.
- Lesbians become politically useful targets when governments—including some feminist-identified government officials who are anti-lesbian—want to claim to protect “African values.”
