On the Phone
The Phnom Pehn Post,Cambodia, 1/31/2014
A new mobile phone service used by the Marie Stopes leaves six automated voice messages on clients’ phones once they’ve had an abortion, either advising them on family planning methods, prompting them to request a phone call with a counsellor or state that they have no problems. The system they use is called Verboice, and is created by the technology nonprofit InSTEDD. Abortion has been legal in Cambodia since 1997 and can be performed any time up to 12 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy. Because of the prevalence of unsafe abortions carried out behind closed doors, it’s impossible to give a figure to the number of abortions carried out in the country. However, according to the Asian Safe Abortion Partnership, abortion-related deaths contribute up to 29 per cent of maternal deaths in Cambodia.
Sex Workers Denounce Raids, Call on Govt to Regulate The Sector
Republica - Kathmandu, Nepal, 1/31/2014
With the appointment of Senior Superintendent of Police Ramesh Kharel as the chief of Kathmandu police, sex workers are feeling the heat as they recall the rampant police raid that took place during his last stint in Kathmandu. ‘The approach of the police may have been for the good cause. However, such sporadic interventions often do us more harm than good’, admits one of the sex workers. According to Sita Thapa, a field worker at Raksha Nepal - one of the prominent NGOs working to promote the status and rights of sex workers in the valley - Kharel´s second innings in Kathmandu has left many bar girls as well as the owners of restaurants and bars wary of what they should expect next.
Sex Workers to Protest Rising Violence Against Women
The Hindu, India, 1/30/2014
A six-day conference of sex workers, organised by the Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee, was inaugurated in Kolkata with participants taking a pledge to protest violence, particularly sexual assault, against women. Sex workers planned to participate in discussions on issues concerning their well-being as well as those relating to trafficking of minors and pension to old sex workers. Issues like female infanticide, pre-natal sex determination, and child marriage were discussed at the gathering. There was special focus on health-related issues, particularly prevention of diseases like AIDS. The theme of this year’s festival, which was expected to draw about 12,000 representatives, was ‘Pratibade Nari Partirode Nari’ (protests by women, prevention by women).
SC Can Still Reverse Ruling on Section 377 of IPC That Re-Criminalised Homosexuality
The Economic Times, India, 1/30/2014
The Supreme Court`s rejection of a review petition on its December 11, 2013 judgment, which effectively re-criminalised homosexuality, underlined the widespread disappointment over the SC`s stand. The next step in the battle against the archaic Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code would be filing a curative petition, which will be heard by a larger bench of the SC. It was still up to the SC, as and when a curative petition was filed, to reverse its retrograde ruling on a Section of the IPC which denied some citizens the equality and liberty enshrined in the Constitution of the country.
Gay Daughter of HK Tycoon Makes Plea to Dad
The China Post - Hong Kong, China, 1/30/2014
The lesbian daughter of a Hong Kong tycoon, who offered more than US$100 million to find her a male suitor, issued a heartfelt open letter urging him to accept her sexuality. In the letter, which started ‘Dear Daddy,’ socialite Gigi Chao asked her father Cecil to treat her partner Sean Eav as ‘a normal, dignified human being’ - the pair had been together for nine years and was reported to have married in 2012 in France. Her plea came after property developer Chao, 77, who refused to recognise that she was a lesbian, was reported last week to have doubled the ‘marriage bounty’ on his daughter to HK$1 billion (US$130 million), after an initial offer of HK$500 million two years ago.
Gay Sex Ban Stays, SC Rejects Plea to Review
The Indian express, India, 1/29/2014
The Supreme Court of India refused to reconsider its verdict that affirmed the legality of Section 377 and criminalised gay sex, dealing a severe blow to the government’s attempt to get the law changed. ‘We have gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed,’ a bench of Justices H L Dattu and S J Mukhopadhaya said, dismissing a bunch of eight petitions in chamber proceedings. Gay rights activists described the Supreme Court’s decision as disappointing.
Children, `Drop` Your Problems in School
The Times of India - Allahabad, India, 1/28/2014
The Health Department decided to set up `drop box` facility in educational institutes of the district to encourage adolescents to speak up about sexual problems and other queries that they often shied away from making in public. The officials of the department had so far identified 10 schools where the drop boxes would be installed in the first week of February, 2014. Additional director, Family Welfare and Health, Dr Abha Srivastava said the objective of the Adolescent Reproductive And Sexual Health (ARSH) programme was to mobilise adolescents not only for generating awareness among them regarding various adolescent issues, but also providing easy access to a comprehensive health services to them.
Court Upholds Right to Hold Reproductive Health Conference
The Philippine Star, Philippines, 1/28/2014
Pro-life advocates attempted to stop the holding of the conference 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights (APCRSHR) by filing a petition for a Temporary Restraining Order with the Regional Trial Court, Pasay City. The court turned down the petition, the day after it heard the argument of the pro-life group. The Pasay City court order set an important precedent on the matter of discussing controversial issues such as abortion. It made it very clear that discussing abortion and related matters was not the same as doing abortion, and therefore, perfectly legal in this country where abortion was legally prohibited.
Lack of Funding, Govt Apathy May Hit Experiment of Sexuality Education
The Indian Express, India, 1/26/2014
Lack of funding and government apathy may result in drawing the curtains for a unique experiment, which had resulted in the scientific training of more than thousand men as peer educators in the field of sexuality education. Although the state government had formed a special committee to prepare a tentative curriculum for the subject, nothing concrete has come out of it yet. In order to address the issue, the state government had formed a committee headed by Professor Ram Rishi to prepare the study material. Sexologist Dr Vitthal Prabhu, who was a part of the committee, said the mandate before the committee was to prepare the ways to teach psycho-bio-social aspects of sexuality education.
Horror in Philippine Online Child Sex Abuse Village
New Straits Times - Ibabao, Philippines, 1/26/2014
In a remote Philippine village, toddlers played oblivious at a nursery as the house next door became part of a horrifying child pornography ring, with live footage of children performing sex acts being streamed online to paedophiles around the world. Andrey Sawchenko, Philippine head of the Washington-based International Justice Mission (IJM) who helped in the arrests, said 39 children had been rescued in Ibabao and elsewhere in the Philippines.
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