The (mis)use of evidence in contested rights: commentary on the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls' report on "prostitution and violence".

Readers of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matter are no strangers to interrogating evidence in all its forms, assessing which claims it can support, and about challenges and uncertainties in international norms in the fields of sexual and reproductive rights and health. Questions of evidence, positionality and the role of testimony are particularly live in the context of sex work and human rights. As an exploration about good and bad practices in research and evidence, in this Commentary we highlight the errors, mistakes and wrongly shaped conclusions arising in the recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls about prostitution law, sex worker health and rights, and the status of international human rights law on sex work and trafficking.

Reimagining young people's rights in South Asia: Learnings from #FlawsInLaws.

While the criminal justice system is an essential pillar in ensuring human rights for young people, especially their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), laws and regulations are often overused or misused regarding rights related to gender and sexuality. Sometimes this is explicit, but other times it works in less overt ways to undermine young people's rights. Therefore, in 2019, CREA joined with seven partners in South Asia to launch a campaign focusing on the impact of criminalisation of young people's sexuality - rethink young people's freedoms, reimagine their rights, and help them to realise their futures.

Gender equality and human rights approaches to female genital mutilation: a review of international human rights norms and standards.

Two hundred million girls and women in the world are estimated to have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), and another 15 million girls are at risk of experiencing it by 2020 in high prevalence countries (UNICEF, 2016. Female genital mutilation/cutting: a global concern. 2016).

Universal health coverage: necessary but not sufficient.

In this article, we highlight key considerations for better addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights issues within universal health coverage (UHC), particularly in the context of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. We look at UHC as a health, development and health care financing issue, and its history. We discuss its limitations as currently understood from a human rights perspective, and show why structural barriers to health and the legal and policy environment, which are essential to health (particularly to sexual and reproductive health and rights), require critical consideration in current discussions about health in the post-2015 development framework and must be taken into account above and beyond UHC in any future health goal.

Gender, race + geography = jeopardy: marginalized women, human rights and HIV in the United States.

Across the United States, laws, policies, and practices put women living with HIV in jeopardy. In particular, the dignity, health, and well-being of women living with and at risk for HIV as well as the health and well-being of their families and communities is hampered by punitive laws and policies. Laws and policies that do not meet, or worse, criminalize women's sexual and reproductive rights result in the economic, social and political deprivation of marginalized women and girls-and especially those living with and at risk of HIV.

Sex and the global fund: how sex workers, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and men who have sex with men are benefiting from the Global Fund, or not.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has allowed countries to bring their response to HIV/AIDS to an unprecedented scale, resulting in innovative projects that reach otherwise underserved communities with HIV prevention, treatment, and care. But in regions and countries where sex workers, men who have sex with men, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons are criminalized or stigmatized, organizations that are led by or work with these groups face challenges participating in Global Fund processes and accessing funding. This article explores the potential of the Global Fund to create space for the participation of these groups in decision-making and to increase their access to resources; examines barriers that hinder their participation; and proposes measures to overcome them.