Eunice García, Executive Director
Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights
As the ED of the YCSRR, being a SheDecides champion represents an opportunity to show how powerful, resilient and caring youth leadership can be in the fight to conquer bodily autonomy for all! It also means approaching the work that I do from an anti-oppressive lens, taking care to dismantle systems of oppression -like sexism, ageism, racism, colonialism, and others- that limit the engagement of young people in advocacy spaces.
Why is bodily autonomy a priority for Youth Coalition?
Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights works to defend sexual and reproductive rights from a bodily autonomy perspective because we believe that, at the heart of our common fight, is the respect for the intrinsic human right to make choices about our own lives and bodies. All young people, everywhere, should have the right to choose! In order to achieve bodily autonomy, we need to work from an intersectional perspective and dismantle the systems of oppression that stop those at the margins from making informed choices, free from violence and coercion.
How does Youth Coalition work towards a world where SheDecides
The Youth Coalition works through movement and partnership building, knowledge generation & sharing, capacity building, and advocacy. We believe that the youth movement needs to be strong in order to place our concerns on the table, and that young people are the experts in our own realities! Check out our advocacy priorities below:
Safe Abortion
We advocate for increased awareness on the barriers that young people and adolescents face when trying to access abortion, particularly youth at the margins. Our recent work touches on self-managed abortion as a tool for bodily autonomy, for resisting the restrictions imposed by the state on the right to choose, and for preventing the violence that people face, too, within the health systems. Abortion is essential healthcare, and we defend the access of all young people to the right to choose and their right to interrupt their pregnancies in a caring environment of their choice.
More information
Comprehensive Sexuality Education
As Youth Coalition, advocating for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is one of our advocacy priorities! Young people must be at the center of CSE because an approach that understands the lived realities of young people is the most effective way of realizing young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. We advocate for intersectional youth leadership and meaningful youth engagement on CSE policy, curriculum design, implementation, and accountability across all spheres. We must listen to young people in the conversation around CSE because it directly affects their lives!
More informationClimate Crisis and SRHR
Bold, transformative, youth-centered analysis and actions that foreground the impact of climate change on SRHR, particularly for young people in the Global South, are a priority for YCSRR. We are currently working on expanding our advocacy around this topic!
More information
Bodily autonomy
In our advocacy approach, bodily autonomy of young people, particularly those marginalized by different systems of oppression. This is prioritized as central to strategic SRHR policy initiatives, including the SRHR aspect of the HIV response, the defense of LGBTQIA+ rights and gender affirming healthcare, and our advocacy to stop harmful practices.
More informationMeaningful youth engagement
One of our advocacy priorities is to strengthen youth-led, youth-driven advocacy. This needs to be recognized and integrated within global, regional, and national decision-making spaces. Youth are the experts in our own realities, and need to be meaningfully engaged for truly transformative SRHR programs and policies!
