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A Landmark Publication:
Sexual Justice and the Future of Sexual Rights:
A Call to Action
The World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) is proud to announce the publication of a major position paper
in the International Journal of Sexual Health:
Sexual Justice and the Future of Sexual Rights:
A Call to Action.
International Journal of Sexual Health, 1–22.
Giami, A., Corona, E., Welsh, L., Hernandez Forcada, R., Stardust, Z., Islam Khan, M. S., Pirotte, M., Parker, R. G., El Feki, S., Gómez Regalado, A., Medico, D., Loewe Kurilla, A., Perelman, L., de Klerk, R., Janssen, E., Nobre, P., & Rudolph, E. (2026).
This paper represents the culmination of four years of sustained, global work by the WAS Sexual Justice Initiative, a project that brought together activists, scholars, clinicians, community leaders, and policymakers from across the world to develop a shared framework for action on sexual health, rights, and justice.
What the paper does
The paper introduces sexual justice as an urgent and transformative framework for addressing the structural inequalities that shape global and local experiences of sexuality, gender, health, and rights. It argues that while sexual and reproductive rights are recognized in international frameworks, they remain unevenly realized, particularly for people living at the intersections of socioeconomic injustice, exclusion from cultural and artistic activities, structural violence, colonial legacies, and authoritarian retrenchment.
Drawing on feminist, queer, disability, sex worker, social justice, HIV activist, Indigenous, and Global South movement traditions, the paper traces the history and genealogy of sexual justice, sets out its conceptual foundations, suggests potential ramifications, and offers concrete recommendations for governments, health systems, educators, civil society, and international bodies.
It builds directly on the WAS Declaration on Sexual Justice, proclaimed at the 27th WAS Congress in Brisbane, Australia on 18 June 2025, and sits alongside the Porto Proclamation on Sexual Health, Rights, and Justice (2026), the WAS Declaration on Sexual Pleasure (2019), and the WAS Declaration on Sexual Rights (2014).
The work behind the paper
This publication is the result of a multi-year consultative process that began at the 25th WAS Congress in Cape Town in 2021, under the slogan Leave No One Behind.
The Sexual Justice Initiative (SJI) held regional consultations, engaged partner organizations across WAS's global federations, and convened its Steering Committee 18 times over four years to shape both the Declaration and this position paper.
The initiative was co-chaired by Alain Giami (WAS Vice President, 2021–2025) and Esther Corona (current WAS Vice President), and project managed by Lisa Welsh, with a global Steering Committee including Shereen El Feki, Amaranta Gomez Regalado, Ricardo Hernández Forcada, Md Sharful Islam Khan, Eszter Kismodi, Agata Loewe Kurilla, Richard Parker, Luis Perelman, Magaly Pirotte, Lebo Ramofoko, and Zahra Stardust.
The paper is endorsed by WAS and offers as both an intellectual framework, a political compass and a call to action for all those working toward a more just, inclusive world.
The WAS Sexual Justice Initiative
Amid various types of inequalities, our Sexual Justice Initiative (SJI), a project by the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS), aspires to bring transformative changes in political, health, educational, and judiciary systems.
It aims to lessen inequalities in access to citizenship and health systems, focusing on the most underprivileged, oppressed, and discriminated populations, covering a range of aspects including social class, gender identities, sexual orientations, age, disabilities, migrant status and more.
SJI Coordination Committee
SJI Steering Committee
The World Association for Sexual Health
The World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) is actively creating a world in which all people have access to Sexual Health, Rights, Justice and Pleasure. WAS achieves this through its regional federations, global memberships and strategic collaborations with international partners.
c/o Alain Giami (Sexual Justice Initiative Committee Chair)
World Association for Sexual Health
1300 S. 2nd Street, suite 180
Minneapolis, MN, 55454
USA
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