Resource

For more than a decade, South Africans have been advocating a reform of the country's laws on sexual offences. South Africa has one of the highest levels of reported rape in the world, and legislative reform was seen as an essential step towards shifting the understanding of rape and its treatment within the criminal justice system. Since 1996 the activism has focused on the South African Law Reform Commission's investigation into sexual offences, and the parliamentary process, which culminated at the end of 2007 in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act.

Have you had "the talk" with your kids yet?  I remember getting the talk when I was about 12, and over the years I've discovered that not very many of my friends got one.  

Amy Lang says that sex education should start early and be a natural part of conversations to take away the mystery and make it a basic fact of life.  She also knows parents are the best resources for this kind of information because they can also transfer their values along with the facts.

Amy's business - www.birtdsandbeesandkids.com - helps parents learn how to talk about sexuality with their kids, from toddlers through teenagers.  I had the opportunity to interview Amy and you can get a sense of her no-nonsense approach in the audio below. 

The Stop Violence Against Women website (STOPVAW) is a forum for information, advocacy and change.  The Advocates for Human Rights developed this website as a tool for the promotion of women's human rights in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU).

Strengthening Resistance focuses on the points of intersection in the social, political and public health crises of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. The report uses a human rights lens to focus on critical political challenges and on innovative strategies used by activists worldwide as they respond to the links between violence and HIV/AIDS. From street theater to telenovelas/soap operas to traditional lobbying, activists in both VAW and HIV/AIDS communities are beginning to work together to focus attention to ways both crises are causes and consequences of each other. Neither can be addressed adequately without taking into account the links between them and the human rights implications of each crisis on its own, and in conjunction with the other.

The European Union plays a major role in leading the promotion of gender equality, women's human rights and the empowerment of women in development policies of the international donor community.Since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus (2002) and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), the EC and Member States have reflected their commitment to gender equality in a number of crucial documents--such as the 2005 EU Consensus on Development and the 2007 EC Communication on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development Cooperation-that commit EU donors to ensure the effective implementation of strategies and practices that genuinely contribute to the achievement of gender equality and women's rights worldwide.

In many parts of the world, sex workers have been among the groups most vulnerable to and most affected by HIV since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic. After more than a decade of research and intervention in sex work settings there is a substantial body of knowledge on the behaviours that put sex workers, their clients and regular partners at risk and on the contextual factors that create vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. In addition, much has been learnt about what works to prevent HIV transmission in sex work settings, about how to provide care and support services, and to empower sex workers to improve their health and well-being. 

Certain predicted technological revolutions are more myth than reality.

After all, TV phones and laserdiscs were hailed as the wave of the future and yet, despite influencing today's technology, they've gone by the wayside.

Social networking sites might have seemed as if they'd follow the same route, but all signs suggest they're here for the long haul.

Employers are checking job applicants' profiles on sites like Facebook, Brightfuse and LinkedIn, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey.

Twenty-two percent of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating job candidates, and an additional 9 percent intend to do the same soon. Yet, only 16 percent of workers with social networking profiles have modified their pages with potential employers in mind.

Why is it that most adults, even though they now know of the risk associated with unsafe sex, still refuse to use condoms on a regular basis? Because condoms allegedly "interfere with sensation, take away from the warmth of the real thing, and are smelly, inconvenient and simply...no fun." But wait!

Condoms are also about "Attitude." Yes, they do take away some from sensation, but they no longer have to be a bother, ugly or smelly. There are far too many new ones on the market that have done battle with those old stereotypes.

San Francisco Sex Information (SFSI) trains people to become sex educators and operates a free information and referral switchboard. We provide free, confidential, accurate, non-judgmental information about sex and reproductive health. If you have a question about sex, we'll either answer it or refer you to someone who can. Our volunteers undergo extensive training in all aspects of human sexuality, including reproduction, birth control, safer sex practices, HIV and other STDs, sexual identity, and gender identity.

This is a collection of papers presented at the Harold Wolpe Trust's Colloquium on Masculinities, Crime and Violence. Elaine Salo, of the  African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town, presents:  ‘Ek’s ʼn ou’: The social and cultural construction of masculinities in Manenberg on the Cape Flats. Sasha Gear, from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)presented "Productions of sex, gender and violence in South African men’s prisons" while Adelene Africa, from the Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town looked at "Violent women: Findings from a Sample of Female Offenders".