WUNRN
Henry
Armas -
2007
ISBN 1 85864 6693
24 pages
Price £12.95
IDS Working Papers - 294
Sexuality
and sexual rights have generally been treated as secondary to more important
matters such as poverty. The first part of this paper explores the linkages
between sexuality and other areas which are considered to be priorities in
development, such as health, education, work, migration and political
participation. It shows that sexuality is about so much more than sex. Social
norms around sexuality have a huge impact on other areas, for example feminine
boys and pregnant girls are more likely to drop out of school due to bullying,
social pressure and lack of support, and employers and colleagues discriminate
against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people at work. Rights based
approaches must maintain the principle of the integrality and indivisibility of
human rights, and recognise the interdependence of sexual rights with rights to
health, housing, food and employment. And if poverty is understood to be not
just material, but to also be about exclusion, illbeing, and restrictions on
capacities and freedom, then the lack of sexual rights in itself constitutes
poverty. A call is made for greater attention to sexuality from development
agencies. The second part of the paper shows how participatory approaches can
be a valid strategy to include sexual rights and wellbeing in the development agenda.
It is important to acknowledge that not every participation experience is
transformative, and to address the limitations of participation. Yet
participation in some cases does bring about both personal and social
transformation, including in relation to sexuality. Sexuality is an issue that
enables people to work with politics at a very personal level; the very
intimacy of working with issues of citizenship and rights through the lens of
sexuality makes space for a transformative process of selfreflection that can
lead to social action.
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