In March 2021, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights convened a virtual forum as part of the Rights from the Start project, funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada. This report describes the lessons learned and impacts of the event titled Sexual and Reproductive Rights: Cross-Regional Dialogues to Advance and Amplify Our Movement.
The dialogues covered four key themes:
- Opportunities and limitations of strategic litigation as a tool for holding states accountable for sexual and reproductive rights;
- Intersectionality, contexts of marginalization, and the application of a lens of reproductive justice;
- Innovations in service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic; and
- The role of arts and culture to advance advocacy and activism for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
During the dialogues, experts, activists, and human rights defenders shared knowledge, practices, thoughts, and feelings, culminating in a closing panel led by youth to reflect on the amplification of youth voices in cross-regional movement building.
The dialogues aimed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, render visible various struggles, memories, and experiences, and identify points of convergence, challenges, and opportunities to build synergies, strengthen, diversify, and expand the feminist movement. After the dialogues, participants were invited to collaborate in five working groups to generate strategies and recommendations for activists, organizations, and governments across the Americas.
Report Objectives:
- Identify commonalities in cross-regional needs, challenges, and opportunities. Analyze linkages, common themes, and shared strategic priorities.
- Facilitate the sharing of knowledge and resources. Identify feminist and rights-based approaches that are being mobilized to defend the right to health and to claim sexual and reproductive rights.
- Make recommendations on SRHR to governments, civil society organizations, and individuals.