This month the USC Program on Global Health & Human Rights, in partnership with Occidental College, hosted a two-day event, “Sexuality, Health and Human Rights: Fulfilling the Promise of Health and Human Rights for All.” It commenced at Occidental College Nov. 1 and culminated Nov. 2 at USC, where it was introduced by City of West Hollywood Councilmember John Heilman and moderated by Professor Laura Ferguson as part of the USC Global Health Lecture Series.
Participants included academics, policymakers and activists Sofia Gruskin, director of the USC Program on Global Health & Human Rights; Susana Fried, fellow at the Yale University Global Health Justice Partnership; Alice Miller, co-director of the Yale University Global Health Justice Partnership; Cynthia Rothschild, independent activist and consultant with the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights; Ignacio Saiz, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights; and Margaret Satterthwaite, faculty director of the New York University Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.
During their panels, they reflected on their collective work starting in the 1980s in the context of Amnesty International building towards a range of research, programmatic and advocacy work in the sexual rights arena. At USC they focused on the continued evolution of work on sexual orientation and gender-related rights moving forward to address how change happens, what it takes for movements to sustain themselves, and future issues for academics’ and activists’ work at the intersection of sexualities, genders and rights.
