While the criminal justice system is an essential pillar in ensuring human rights for young people, especially their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), laws and regulations are often overused or misused regarding rights related to gender and sexuality. Sometimes this is explicit, but other times it works in less overt ways to undermine young people's rights. Therefore, in 2019, CREA joined with seven partners in South Asia to launch a campaign focusing on the impact of criminalisation of young people's sexuality - rethink young people's freedoms, reimagine their rights, and help them to realise their futures. Legal and policy advocacy has often promoted reform in a way that empowers the state to legislate on aspects of sexuality, including sexual identity, conduct, expression and reproduction - sometimes expanding rights protections, but sometimes putting rights at risk. Through the campaign, the partners sought to highlight the disconnected law and policy structures about young people and their sexuality (including criminalisation, lack of comprehensive sexuality education and lacune in SRHR services), envisioning arights-affirming environment for young people and the communities that support them. We contestedthe tendency to advocate for rights' recognition through distinct, issue-based initiatives rather than a holistic, intersectional approach.
Keywords: Criminalisation; law; rights; sexuality; social justice; young people.