Advocacy

Together with our members and allies we continue to seek to enhance implementation of obligations and commitments in HR treaties and International Conferences/Commitments such as ICPD PoA, Beijing PfA and MDGS. We work to ensure that policymaking is informed by the realities of grassroots communities.

We identify and develop strategic partnerships with SRHR international organisations (SRHRIO) and other networks for effective campaigning and joint advocacy to hold governments and policy makers accountable, to their global commitments and human rights obligations. In 2012, WGNRR was awarded ECOSOC special consultative status, giving us the opportunity to collaborate closely with our members and partners in different advocacy strategies before the UN, especially those related with Human Rights Mechanisms and the negotiations for the New Development Agenda.

Sexual Rights as Human Rights

We use the human rights framework to promote SRHR and achieve its programatic goals. While continuing to use the range of international treaties and conventions to hold governments accountable, we see human rights treaties and monitoring bodies as important legally binding mechanisms to report SRHR violations and to gain recognition

and justice for those whose rights are denied. This includes addressing and interpreting the denial of SRHR services, such as access to contraceptives or access to safe and legal abortion, as Violence against Women and other human rights violations recognised in international human rights treaties.We developed and disseminated advocacy tools on using HR frameworks for SRHR issues and continuously builds its capacity, as well as its members’, to use HR mechanisms in achieving SRHR and enhance protection strategies for SRHR advocates.

WGNRR in Post2014/2015 New Development Agenda

We engage in the post-2014/15 processes to push for a strong position and holistic definition of SRHR in a post-2014/15 development framework, ensuring that women’s SRHR is central to the discussion and is approached from a feminist and human rights perspective.We are an active member of several platforms and networks of regional and global SRHR actors and it is through these spaces that WGNRR is able to collaborate with main international and regional civil society actors and at the same time, reach out to members to support their participation in the post-2014/15 process. We have the unique opportunity to ensure that grassroots voices resonate throughout the discussion and outcome documents. It facilitates the flow of information, identifies opportunities for civil society engagement and enables the attendance of members and allies through its ECOSOC status. In addition, We provide capacity development sessions for grassroots members to articulate SRHR demands.