ABSTRACT
Introduction The mid-1990s were a turning point in the way sexuality was debated and constructed worldwide. The arrival of reproductive rights, and later sexual rights, in the United Nations (UN) conferences challenged reductionist visions of health and population that had dominated development politics for decades (Pecheny and de la Dehesa 2011). The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 articulated an innovative perspective by emphasizing reproductive rights as human rights. The freedom of individuals and couples to make decisions regarding their reproductive and sexual health became a primary dimension of a vision of human development “concerned with justice, equality and dignity” (Sweetman 2008: 220). The trajectory of sexual rights was more complicated. However, there are important milestones like the Yogyakarta Principles in 2007, a UN declaration in 2008 and a Human Rights Council resolution in 2011. Each of these milestones, with different impacts and levels of formalization, recognizes sexual orientation and gender identity as central to human rights debates. Despite some contradictions, areas of disagreement and limitations (Miller 2010), the introduction of sexual and reproductive rights inaugurated, at least symbolically, a new stage in development politics. In tension with other approaches (such as population control, sexual violence, and health), the construction of sexuality came to revolve around a “complete state of physical, mental and social well-being” (UNFPA 1994).
