Quotations

Sexual and reproductive health and rights was such a new idea in Cairo, and now it's very challenged in many places. And the reason [it's being] challenged is because it has been so successful, you know. There [is] practically no country in the world today where there is not some movement in that regard. But there is a lot of backlash, and the backlash is not only to SRHR, to sexual and reproductive health and rights, but it's to the whole human rights agenda, to the whole social justice agenda. It is, basically, this broad nationalist, populist movement that is taking many countries, in Europe, in  the U.S., in Latin America, in Brazil, my country. And it's very easy for us who care about sexual and reproductive health and rights, those of us who care about the rights of women in general, it's easy for us to fall into despair, but that would be a big mistake, because if there are big challenges, it's because we also have big strength. And all over the world, the cultural transformation that occurred in the last decades is huge. There is much more… wider acceptance of the basic ideas that women have a right to control their bodies and their lives. This is something that’s not really contested on many, many grounds, in many, many places. And this is to be celebrated and to be capitalized [on]. So, it's important not to fall into despair, but to keep the hope and to keep fighting and keep resisting, and moving forward and making new gains. 

—Carmen Barroso