From July 21 to July 27, Rutgers attended the 22nd International AIDS Conference 2018 in Amsterdam. We've led multiple side events on linking the HIV response to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Our Aids2018 experiences were collected in a live-blog, which resulted in an interesting recap of world's largest conference on any global health or development issue.

Next week, Rutgers will be at the 22nd International AIDS Conference 2018, which takes place in Amsterdam from 23-27 July. This year’s theme Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges draws attention to the need of rights-based approaches to reach key populations more effectively. Rutgers’ role will be to underline the life-saving approach to integrate work on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV/AIDS.

Patriarchal norms are deep-rooted and pervasive throughout Pakistani society and demand interventions at all levels. The ground-breaking International Men and Gender Equality Survey – Pakistan (Pak-IMAGES) study, presented by Rutgers Pakistan today, confirms this and provides insights in the norms and values. The new research is one of the most comprehensive household studies on men’s attitudes and practices on a wide variety of topics related to gender norms and equality in Pakistan to date.

“Dialogue is not possible when we criminalise human rights.” This was the message of Victor Madrigal, the UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) and main speaker at Right Here Right Now’s High Level Event on human rights of LGBTI people. The event, organised by Hivos in collaboration with all Right Here Right Now partners and the Costa Rican Ministry of Health, was aimed at finding best ways to benefit from a recent Inter-American Court of Human Rights advisory opinion.

The United Nation’s Human Rights Council (HRC) is meeting in Geneva this week for its 38th regular session, where Rutgers is showcasing its Prevention+ programme with partners, on what engaging men and boys in violence prevention looks like in practice.

Across the Prevention+ programme, we engage men and women to end the cycle of gender-based violence (GBV). Fathers can play an important part in that process. We see this in rural Uganda, where 61% of women experience GBV. Our partner Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) engages fathers in positive parenting trainings and encourages them to support women’s economic empowerment. Sharing the realities of family life together, helps change attitudes these men may have and ultimately strengthens gender-equal parenting.

After long negotiations, the 51st Commission on Population and Development unfortunately ended without the adoption of a resolution. The 2018 edition, which took place from April 9 to 13 in New York, focused on urbanisation and international migration. Member States tried their best to close the gaps in views on migration and SRHR – which were the most contentious topics during this year’s debates.

New research in Rwanda reveals engaging men as they become fathers helps to transform male attitudes towards women, reduce gender-based violence (GBV) and increase time spent on unpaid care work. These promising results come two years after the MenCare+ programme, the precursor of Rutgers’ current Prevention+ programme that engages men and boys to end GBV.

Explore4Action is a pioneering research programme, exploring how adolescents experience ‘growing up’ at three locations in Indonesia (Sumatra, Bali and Java) and what can support their positive and healthy sexual development. These important insights will be used to make the case for better services and health education. Young people will be at the forefront of the research and play a central role in the advocacy for better services and health education.

In the Netherlands young people these days start to have sex later, according to the research ‘Sex under 25’ carried out in 2017. Recent qualitative research by Rutgers among young people showed that social media in many ways plays an important role. The fact that the legal drinking age was raised in the Netherlands is also of influence. It appears that young people also attach great importance to the experience of first-time sex, and would rather experience this within a relationship.