In support of the September 28 Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion the Sexual Rights Initiative, Center for Reproductive Rights, Ipas, Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, ARROW, AWID and the Swedish Association for Sexuality and Education have developed a joint statement on abortion rights. The statement endorsed by 223 non-governmental organisations from across the Globe was delivered at the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 24th.

The focus of this statement is abortion rights defenders (including service providers) and abortion stigma. This initiative builds on last year’s successful joint CSO statement to the Council when over 285 organizations signed onto the statement.