Recognition of sexual pleasure as a human right : a critical analysis of the Maputo Protocol

Abstract

This research examines why women are having bad sex and the role that human rights law can play in acknowledging, challenging and potentially changing it. This paper argues that sexuality is political and that it is affected by societal structures and systems of power. Sexual pleasure is seen as a fundamental human right that these gendered systems of power threaten. The evolution of sexual health, sexual rights and sexual pleasure is studied to ascertain the connections between the three concepts. International and regional human rights documents are analysed to argue that sexual pleasure is a human right. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, otherwise known as the Maputo Protocol, is analysed in greater detail to determine whether sexual pleasure as a human right can be read into it. Although there is no express mention of the right to sexual pleasure in international or regional human rights instruments, we can infer the right to sexual pleasure through the rights to equality and non-discrimination, autonomy and bodily integrity, the highest attainable standard of health, and freedom of expression. Obstacles to the realisation of sexual pleasure as a human right are also explored.