Glossary of SRHR terms

Abortion-related stigma

According to the International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma, abortion-related stigma is a social process of devaluing those who have had abortions or those associated with abortion. It leads to the social, medical and legal marginalization of abortion worldwide.

Anti-rights movements

According to the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, anti-rights movements are highly organised, well-funded, transnational movements working to undermine women’s rights, LGBTQI+ rights, and civil society.

Bodily autonomy

According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), bodily autonomy means people have the power and agency to make choices over their bodies and futures, without violence or coercion.

Climate justice

According to the Mary Robinson Foundation, climate justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. The UN defines climate change as long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, ctivities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Essential Package of Health Services

A list of clinical and public health services that a government aspires to provide for their population.

Economic justice

According to the Centre for Economic and Social Justice, economic justice encompasses the moral principles which guide us in designing our economic institutions. These institutions determine how each person earns a living, enters into contracts, exchanges goods and services with others and otherwise produces an independent material foundation for a person’s economic sustenance.

Feminist movements

A series of collective efforts that demand gender equality and social justice at local, national, and international levels.

Femtech (female technology)

According to PC Magazine, femtech is an umbrella term for hardware, software and scientific procedures geared to female health and pregnancy. For example, femtech applications track menstrual cycles and fetal health.

Forced marriage

According to the OHCHR, it is a marriage in which one and/or both parties have not personally expressed their full and free consent to the union.

Duty-bearers

According to the UN International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), duty-bearers are actors who have a particular obligation or responsibility to respect, promote and realise human rights and to abstain from human rights violations. The term is most commonly used to refer to State actors, but non-State actors can also be considered duty-bearers.

Grantmakers

Organisations that make and allocate grants, including foundations, corporate giving programs, non-governmental organisations and government agencies.

Honour-related violence

According to Kvinnofridslinjen, honour-related violence is a form of violence and oppression against women and girls often carried out by several people together, for example parents, siblings, relatives, a current or previous partner, or other members of the family’s community. The main purpose of it is to control the sexuality of women.

Intersectional feminist perspectives

An analytical framework which seeks to make visible the complex ways in which power is organized and operates within a given society. It is aimed at bringing multiply marginalised groups, whose experiences are often rendered invisible, into the centre.

Labour rights

Human rights in regards to matters such as employment, remuneration, conditions of work, trade unions, and industrial relations.

Non-binary groups

According to the LGBT Foundation, non-binary groups are people who feel their gender cannot be defined within the margins of the gender binary.

Oppressive power structures

structures within society that allow inequities to exist and continue.

Racism

systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another.

Reproductive justice

According to SisterSong, reproductive justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. It is rooted in the internationally-accepted human rights framework created by the United Nations, and it combines reproductive rights and social justice.

Rights-holders

According to UNICEF, they are individuals or social groups that have particular entitlements in relation to specific duty-bearers. In general terms, all human beings are rights-holders under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular contexts, there are often specific social groups whose human rights are not fully realised, respected or protected.

Same-sex family formation

A family that consists of a same-sex couple, or same-sex parents and their child or children.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), SGBV is any act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and is based on gender norms and unequal power relationships. It includes physical, emotional or psychological and sexual violence, and denial of resources or access to services. Violence includes threats of violence and coercion.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)

RFSU subscribes to the integrated definition of SRHR by the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission, as follows. Sexual and reproductive health is a state of physical, emotional, mental, and social wellbeing in relation to all aspects of sexuality and reproduction, not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction, or infirmity. Therefore, a positive approach to sexuality and reproduction should recognise the part played by pleasurable sexual relationships, trust, and communication in the promotion of self-esteem and overall wellbeing. All individuals have a right to make decisions governing their bodies and to access services that support that right. Achievement of sexual and reproductive health relies on the realisation of sexual and reproductive rights.

Sexuality

According to the WHO, sexual health cannot be defined, understood or made operational without a broad consideration of sexuality, which underlies important behaviours and outcomes related to sexual health. The working definition of sexuality is: “…a central aspect of being human throughout life encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, role and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Sexuality is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors.”

Sex positive activism

Initiatives that promote and embrace open sexuality.

Shrinking civic space

According to European Alternatives and CIVICUS, the civic space is the set of conditions that allow civil society and individuals to organise, participate and communicate freely and without discrimination, and in doing so, influence the political and social structures around them. Shrinking civic space occurs when government and other actors close down spaces for civic engagement.

Social justice

Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

Spaces of solidarity

Spaces held online or in-person that embrace allyship and intersectionality, and enable opportunities for learning and/or unlearning.

Solidarity initiatives

Joint activities, projects or programmes in collaboration with other groups and organisations, with the aim to support our movements and strengthen our impact.

Sustainable development

According to the Brundtland Commission Report, sustainable development means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Theory of Change

A methodology and framework developed and used for planning and evaluation. It describes the change that a particular organisation wants to see, and how it plans to achieve such change.

Telemedicine

A term coined in the 1970s which literally means healing at a distance, the WHO defines it as the use of Information and Communications Technology to improve patient outcomes by increasing access to care and medical information. The delivery of health care services, where distance is a critical factor, by all health care professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of health care providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals
and their communities.

Universal healthcare

All individuals without discrimination receive quality health services without suffering financial hardship.