The month of September meant hundreds of heads of state, prime and foreign ministers landed in New York for the annual UN General Assembly. This year the Assembly marked the 1st anniversary of the SDGs, adopted at the UNGA last year, and also drew special attention to the refugee crisis, with a special high-level summit on addressing large movements of refugees and migrants. For our newsletter we had a look at the most important insights from this years’ global forum.

September is always a special month at the United Nations. Hundreds of heads of state, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and dignitaries land in New York for the annual UN General Assembly. The UN General Assembly is the main global forum for discussing international political cooperation, peace and economic development, and a wide range of social, humanitarian and cultural issues. Although the Assembly continues its work throughout the year through its six committees, the fall meeting is always a high-profile get-together when Heads of State or government speak at the opening of the new session of the General Assembly during the ‘General Debate’.

When this newsletter is circulated, preparations for ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference – the largest gathering of LGBTI activists in Europe - will be in the hectic final days. One of the themes that will be discussed a lot is the LGBTI movement’s responses to the shrinking space for civil society. Our movement is worried about the many attempts by governments to encroach on civil society organising; these attempts push human rights back in time.

As we speak, EuroNGOs is getting ready for our annual conference!

This year, under the title ‘SRHR in the 2030 Agenda – A Strong Start’, participants will look back and reflect on the first year of the SDGs, and based on initial lessons ensure that the SRHR community is ready to effectively engage in the implementation, follow-up and review of the SDGs in the future.

The Margaret Pyke Trust, with the Population & Sustainability Network has become one of Family Planning 2020’s (FP2020) commitment makers by pledging to reach over 9.5 million women and girls through improved access to sexual and reproductive health services and information and improved quality of care.

RHM is looking for a Managing Editor/Advocacy Officer to assist the Director/Editor with editorial assessment and editing of submissions to the RHM journal and help develop advocacy activities linked to RHM’s publications.

The Communications Officer will be responsible for implementing the EHC’s general communications and media plan, and for providing communications around all EHC events and activities.