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Introduction: A Confusing Beginning
Pakistan's approximately 40 million adolescents, like untold hundreds of millions the world over, receive mixed messages about sexuality. At home, many of them learn that sex is shameful. Their parents fear that providing even the most basic information about reproduction will unleash their sexual desires. Yet on television, teens see sex used overtly to sell items like deodorant and chewing gum. In their neighborhoods, especially in the cities, many are exposed to pornography or perhaps to a poverty-stricken neighbor who must sell sex to feed her children. Many of their peers may experiment sexually, while their teacher skips the chapter in their biology textbook on reproductive processes out of embarrassment or shyness. Religious leaders seldom discuss sex, and when they do their emphasis is usually on the dangers of premarital sex. Furthermore, as Pakistani boys and girls undergo physical changes, the world around responds with a new set of expectations—expectations of roles and responsibilities that are defined strictly on the basis of whether they are male or female. Along with the hormonal changes that accompany puberty, how can these adolescents be anything but confused about their bodies and their sexual feelings?

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Summary: By Françoise Girard and Wanda Nowicka (Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 10, No. 19, May 2002). Describes the findings of the July 2001 Tribunal on Abortion Rights in Warsaw, which was organized by the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning in response to the Polish Anti-Abortion Act of 1993. A panel of Polish and foreign experts heard testimonies from seven women and, based on their stories, concluded that restrictive abortion laws do not decrease the incidence of abortion but rather push it underground, endanger women's health, create a climate where even those services that are allowed by law become unavailable, and contravene standards set by international human rights law. The Tribunal brought the issue of abortion into the media and galvanized Polish and other Eastern European women's groups to become more active in defense of abortion rights (9 pages). 

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>>Available from WHO

Summary: In 2002, IWHC made pivotal contributions to an international technical consultation on sexual health organized by the World Health Organization (WHO). Among other outcomes, the consultation produced affirmative definitions of sex, sexuality, sexual health, and sexual rights, available on WHO’s website at the link above. These definitions will serve as a basis for designing future policies and programs, and are an important step toward a broader, more comprehensive understanding of sexual health and rights.

The New York Times, June 20, 2001

Op-Ed

By Pascoal Mocumbi

MAPUTO, Mozambique—In the special United Nations session on AIDS next week, there will be much discussion about international aid, about drugs and vaccines. But there is likely to be too little said about what is the primary means by which AIDS is spread in sub-Saharan Africa: risky heterosexual sex.