For Immediate Release:
August 18, 2006

Contact: Adrienne Verrilli at 212-260-1520

New York, NY - As the 16 th International AIDS Conference closes in Toronto and eyes turn to the 2008 meeting in Mexico City, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) is pleased to announce the release of its case study of collaborative work with Mexican partners: A Common Border, A Shared Goal: Lessons and Inspiration from Mexico for Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.

During the past decade, Mexico has made great strides in reducing HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies. For decades, a national, collaborative effort among the Mexican government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has focused on advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, and, more specifically, on comprehensive sexuality education and sexual health services for adolescents. Recently conservative forces within Mexico and from the U.S. are threatening this progress by attempting to implement abstinence-only and marriage promotion programs. In response to these new threats, SIECUS began a collaborative relationship with Demysex, a network of NGOs in Mexico working on issues of sexuality education, gender, sexual orientation, and reproductive health issues affecting women and girls, to develop and implement a proactive, long-term advocacy plan to protect and continue to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights in Mexico.

"With Mexico as the host of the International AIDS Conference in 2008, SIECUS is thrilled to have an opportunity to highlight the great work undertaken in Mexico to tackle sexual and reproductive health and rights issues, including HIV prevention," said William Smith, vice president for public policy at SIECUS. "Prevention has taken on new life at the Toronto AIDS Conference and we hope this case study from the next host country will provide valuable information on the importance of advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS," Smith continued.

Mexico has a history of advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights. In the 1970s, Mexico implemented a progressive family planning policy. In 1993, the Mexican government and civil society partnered to create national, school-based health textbooks, making them universal in the country's primary and secondary schools. A network of adolescent-friendly health centers was also created. In 1994, Mexico was the second country in the world to adapt national strategies as outlined in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (POA), and the first in Latin America . Yet, Mexico 's fight against HIV remains an uphill struggle against stigma and rising new infections. In 2001, there were 3,721 persons with HIV infection compared to 4,037 in 2005.

However, Mexico has begun to face challenges from conservative forces both within the country and from the U.S. For example:

• In 2001, sexuality education under the Fox Administration began to look more like U.S. abstinence-only and marriage promotion programs than an extension of the decades of successful sex education in Mexico .
• President Fox's wife created Let's Go Mexico a parent guide that includes 1950s style gender roles and stereotypes, running counter to 30-years of progress in Mexico .
• President Fox's daughter advocates for an abstinence-only-until-marriage teen pregnancy prevention program.
• In 2003, the extreme right wing World Congress on Families held its conference in Mexico City with an influx of U.S.-based conservative groups and Bush Administration officials.

As it became increasingly clear that politics were changing and opposition was gaining strength in Mexico , SIECUS and Demysex collaborated to develop a long-term advocacy strategy. The following is a snapshot of the work completed:

• Created on-going mechanisms to monitor activities of the opposition forces in Mexico and in the U.S.
• Conducted advocacy and media training and developed resources for sexuality education.
• Assisted with a long-term proactive and reactive advocacy plan, including a national public education campaign, advocacy capacity, and voter mobilization.

View the English language version of the publication.

View the Spanish language version of the publication.

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