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This November, the Nairobi Summit took place in Kenya. Young advocate, Ligia DeStephen from Honduras attended, as part of our Right Here Right Now (RHRN) programme. Ligia looks back at an inspirational experience in Nairobi, and will continue to hold her government to account for the commitments it made during the Summit.

It's two years since the #MeToo movement started. From Monday, 25 November, organisations all over the world, under the name 'Orange the world', will campaign for 16 days for the prevention of violence against women. Rutgers will also colour orange and will advocate for more focus on the prevention of sexual harassment and violence, in the Netherlands and abroad.

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 17 October 2018--The global trend towards smaller families is a reflection of people making reproductive choices to have as few or as many children as they want, when they want. When people lack choice, it can have a long-term impact on fertility rates, often making them higher or lower than what most people desire, according to The State of World Population 2018, published today by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.

National coordinators (NC) from the Right Here Right Now strategic partnership have successfully completed a three-day course on leadership in Utrecht. Meaningful youth participation and youth leadership are core principles of the SRHR advocacy partnership, and with their new skills the national coordinators are now able to lead and manage their national platforms more effectively.

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 17 October 2018--The global trend towards smaller families is a reflection of people making reproductive choices to have as few or as many children as they want, when they want. When people lack choice, it can have a long-term impact on fertility rates, often making them higher or lower than what most people desire, according to The State of World Population 2018, published today by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.

Part of the Right Here Right Now strategic partnership, is that representatives of country platforms attend high-level, international events to advocate for better sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Solange Mbaye, the National Coordinator of the RHRN platform in Senegal, took part in the United Nation’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York. This event aims to follow up on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and Solange was able to accompany the official Senegalese delegation to many side events.

“Dialogue is not possible when we criminalise human rights.” This was the message of Victor Madrigal, the UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) and main speaker at Right Here Right Now’s High Level Event on human rights of LGBTI people. The event, organised by Hivos in collaboration with all Right Here Right Now partners and the Costa Rican Ministry of Health, was aimed at finding best ways to benefit from a recent Inter-American Court of Human Rights advisory opinion.

Patriarchal norms are deep-rooted and pervasive throughout Pakistani society and demand interventions at all levels. The ground-breaking International Men and Gender Equality Survey – Pakistan (Pak-IMAGES) study, presented by Rutgers Pakistan today, confirms this and provides insights in the norms and values. The new research is one of the most comprehensive household studies on men’s attitudes and practices on a wide variety of topics related to gender norms and equality in Pakistan to date.

In the Netherlands young people these days start to have sex later, according to the research ‘Sex under 25’ carried out last year. Recent qualitative research by Rutgers among young people showed that social media in many ways plays an important role. The fact that the legal drinking age was raised in the Netherlands is also of influence. It appears that young people also attach great importance to the experience of first-time sex, and would rather experience this within a relationship.

The chances of knowing someone who had experienced sexual violence are high if you live in a small country such as Honduras. Few laws protect our girls and women, and current events show increased levels of impunity that are likely to undermine our rights.

This statement has been jointly prepared by 81 sex worker rights, women’s rights, and human rights organizations (list still in formation). We are writing this statement in response to UN Women’s call for submissions in an e-consultation about the development of a UN Women policy on sex work. A number of sex workers’, women’s and human rights organizations have been engaging with UN Women for some months about this proposed policy, stressing the importance of a process that meaningfully engages with a broad range of sex workers’ and women’s rights organizations as essential to the process of developing a policy. Rutgers is one of the organisations which endorses this statement.

Ton Coenen was elected chair of EuroNGOs at the Annual General Meeting, October 2016

We have launched a campaign #HappyBirthControl asking public to show support for contraceptive access worldwide.

A lot has been achieved for the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young people, but there are still mountains to be moved. On 17 May, the Dutch SRHR Alliance and youth leaders from all over the world presented the results of two large-scale youth programmes and called for action. As Ayantu Terefe from Ethiopia put it: “More dreams need to come true.”

On May 19th Rutgers will give a special lesson on sexuality education to a committee from the Dutch Parliament, which has caused quite a stir. Rutgers will be accompanied by sexologist and television personality Goedele Liekens and a group of students. During the lesson Rutgers will promote the idea that empowerment should become an integral part of the primary goals i in education regarding sexuality and relationships. Rutgers hopes that the Netherlands will continue to encourage other countries to address this issue as well.

April 15th, at the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD), governments from across the world renewed their commitment to realising the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action to improve the lives of women and girls.

As spring is setting in, we know it is time again to meet for the annual Commission on Population and Development (CPD). Between 11 and 15 April 2016, United Nations member states will come together in New York to discuss to what extent they are able to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. This includes sexual and reproductive rights and the rights of people who may need our particular attention today such as women, girls, youth and migrants.