SRHR in war and armed conflict

On 8 October 2024, Eszter Kismödi, Chief Executive of SRHM, talked to Dr. Faysal El Kak in view of the escalated bombing and airstrikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon during the last 3 weeks.
Dr. El Kak discusses the devastating effect on every aspect of life, including massive displacement, and its impact on sexual and reproductive health and human rights.

We add our voices to the call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and Palestine.
SRHM is also calling for papers related to SRHR in war and armed conflict, please see details below.

This 15 minute interview is available below and on the SRHM podcast through Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The video interview is available on YouTube and the SRHM blog.

Interview between Eszter Kismödi, Chief Executive of SRHM, and Dr. Faysal El Kak, Director of Women Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) Program, American University of Beirut, President of the Eastern Mediterrean Federation of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) and Editorial and Advisory Board Member for SRHM.

CALL FOR PAPERS

In the recent editorial by Laura Ferguson and Sapna Desai, 'Sexual and reproductive health and rights in Palestine – securing spaces to speak out', SRHM calls for a wide range of forms of evidence, including perspectives from those involved, service delivery accounts, rapid qualitative and quantitative research, critical analyses and testimonies related to SRHR in conflict.

"Human rights violations, including SRHR violations, need immediate documentation and investigation. Where human rights, including SRHR, are violated, we must bear witness.

For SRHM, egregious human rights violations and their associated SRH impacts cannot be left unaddressed. As a knowledge platform, it is our responsibility to share information on any situation where SRHR are impacted, to increase awareness of the issues and to highlight the need to uphold international human rights law as a critical tool for improving SRHR.

We urge our community, readership and partners to continue to speak out on health and human rights violations, and to use this critical platform to highlight the often less-recognised implications for SRHR. The journal is committed to publishing a wide range of forms of evidence, including perspectives from those involved, service delivery accounts, rapid qualitative and quantitative research, critical analyses and testimonies. The current situation highlights the importance of multiple approaches to evidence generation to ensure the voices of the vulnerable are heard and counted – and that SRHR impacts are not ignored.

We acknowledge the potential challenges in speaking out about these issues and we endeavour to work closely with authors to ensure that these voices can be safely heard; to this end, we encourage contact with the journal at editorial@srhm.org.

As an SRHR community, we must continue to document the rights violations, to amplify the specific SRH harms being caused and to mobilise for action to ensure SRHR are protected, especially in times of crisis and for generations to come".

Read the full editorial