Sometimes, in the fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), we forget to look in our own backyard. The debate on paternity leave in the Netherlands continues to be a hot-button topic, especially with the upcoming elections. Whereas maternity leave is considered to be an inalienable right, many people are divided or even undecided about the same rights for fathers. In trying to maintain a dialogue about this subject, it’s clear that a political, cultural and economic shift is needed in our country.

Should elementary schools be allowed to concern themselves with children’s sexuality education? This is the issue that has currently captivated America. An item on “The Dutch Approach” was broadcast on PBS Newshour, America’s biggest news channel. An American journalist had visited a Dutch elementary school during the so-called “Week of Spring Fever”. Rutgers, Expert Centre on Sexuality, together with municipal health centres in the Netherlands, annually conducts a national campaign promoting schools to teach comprehensive sexuality education lessons during this week in March. She describes how the Dutch start sexuality education as early as age 4 when children are still in nursery school. What are the reasons behind this policy?

The annual meeting of the CPD is one of the busiest periods for international Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights advocates. From 13-17 April 2015, the 48th session of this United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD) took place in New York. Every year, Rutgers is intensively involved in this conference. Follow the conversation through our blog series and on twitter @RutgersWPF #CPD48. The final update was published on 20 April 2015.

Imagine you could only have safe sex nine times a year. At other times you would have to control yourself, or just accept the risks. This is the reality in sub-Sahara Africa where only nine condoms a year are available for each sexually active man or woman, not to mention that only one female condom per year is available for every eight women!

On the 10th of December, we celebrate Human Rights Day which marks the end of this year’s 16-day campaign (#16Days) to eliminate violence against women. It is a bitter-sweet day. Even where human rights treaties and standards address gender based violence and protect women's rights, national laws dictate the daily lives of women.

Last week in Nairobi, Kenya, a young lady wanted to get inside a matatu – a minibus commonly used for public transport in East Africa. Before she knew what was happening to her, she was stripped naked by a group of men. Tossed around, hands tearing her clothes and grabbing and touching skin and intimate body parts. Her miniskirt and top were shredded until nothing was left but her underwear. It was all filmed and shared across Kenya and the world.

Girls are so foolish and silly, that they have to be beaten so they can get some good ideas in their brains. That’s what an 8 year old boy from India learned from his father and older brothers. He added that he was confused because his mother and sisters had told him: ‘All men beat their wives, one day you will do the same, and it’s what men do to be manly’.

Rwanda was the proud host of the second international MenCare+ partnermeeting in May 2014. This year the “country of a thousand hills” is commemorating that two decades have passed since the genocide took place. It is hard to comprehend that in this beautiful, friendly and peaceful country approximately one million people were killed within one fatal month in 1994. After the brutality Rwanda had no option but peace and forgiveness.

From 7 to 11 April, the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) is held in New York. This is a yearly conference that monitors, reviews and assesses the implementation of the agreements made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. These agreements are set out in the Programme of Action (PoA), which is a rights-based development framework.

Preventing a fist-fight in a township was my first introduction to South Africa. With a group of community mobilisers promoting the MenCare+ fathers’ groups, we went into the Township of Kayelitsha near Cape Town to talk to men. We turned a corner and stood in the middle of a fist-fight of what seemed to be high-school ex-lovers. He was on the verge of hitting her.