A young girl's experience as a child bride, illustrating the importance of maternal health and rights and the reality of many young girl's lives. This contribution is a result of our work in Amman, Jordan and is also featured in, and in support of, the What Women Want campaign.

What started out as an fundraising initiative that was founded by a Dutch minister, has grown into a global movement supported by 40.000 individuals and a thousand organizations. One year after SheDecides was launched, one of these organizations looks back on a very successful first year.

On 2 November we celebrated fifty years of Rutgers’ work in upholding the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all people, in the Netherlands and around the world. Rutgers’ 50th anniversary coincided with a global outcry against sexual violence, set off by the #MeToo campaign. As Rutgers revisited its work over the years, my thoughts brought me back to a meeting ten years ago. A meeting that imparted valuable lessons, and reshaped Rutgers’ strategies to end sexual violence.

One in three women is bound to experience violence at least once in her lifetime (WHO, 2013). That is equivalent to one billion women and girls! A statistic that is so overwhelming that we—as a collective—are committed to changing.

In countries where some forms of abortion are legal, access is still limited. This is the case in Kenya and Uganda where some health workers deny an abortion for fear of prosecution: to the detriment of girls’ and women’s health and lives. How to allay the fears of health workers to deliver to the reproductive needs of potential users are explained here.

The chances of knowing someone who had experienced sexual violence are high if you live in a small country such as Honduras. Few laws protect our girls and women, and current events show increased levels of impunity that are likely to undermine our rights. For the occasion of the Global Day of Action for Safe and Legal Abortion, Right Here Right Now Honduras is co-organising a nationwide campaign to wake up the public from its long slumber.

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!