The first Regional Institute on Sexuality, Society, and Culture was held in New Delhi, India from September 15-22, 2004. The Institute hosted 19 participants from nine countries in South and Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, and The Philippines. 

Participants

Hathairat Suda
PATH
Thailand

Imtiazul Islam
CARE Bangladesh
Bangladesh

Jie Wang
Institute for Research on Sexuality and Gender
Renmin University of China
China

Mahendra Kumar Chalise
Helpless Rehabilitation Society (HRS)
Nepal

Muhammad Hanif
AIDS Prevention Association of Pakistan (APAP)
Pakistan

Peng Tao
Research and Education Center in Sex
Harbin Medical University
China

Ranjita Biswas
Trans World Feature Service
India

Rodelyn Melad Marte
Network of Asia Pacific Youth (NAPY)
Philippines

Satish Kumar Singh
Sahayog Society
India

Sereyvath Chhoem
CARE International
Cambodia

Shirajul Islam
Peoples Development Community (PDC)
Bangladesh

Sinta Ratna Dewi
Pikul
Indonesia

Sophea Khun
CARE International
Cambodia

Tanya Huq Shahriar
Marie Stopes Clinic
Bangladesh

Win Maung
World Vision Foundation of Thailand
Thailand, PO-10110

Yamini Mishra
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law, and Development (APWLD)
Thailand

Yingying Huang
Institute for Research on Sexuality and Gender
Renmin University of China
China

Faculty

Radhika Chandiramani founded TARSHI. A clinical psychologist, she works and writes on issues of sexuality, focusing on young people, sexuality education, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

Joy Liddicoat has worked for sixteen years as a lawyer across the public, private and community sectors. Specialising in human rights law, with particular emphasis on violence against women and children, she is also an expert in constitutional and public law. Community participation includes working with community law centres, women’s organisations (including the National Council of Women, YWCA and women’s refuges), and lesbian and gay organisations. 

Nivedita Menon, Ph.D., teaches Political Science at Delhi University. She works on issues relating to gender and politics and has published extensively. She is also active in citizen’s initiatives in Delhi around issues of democratic rights, peace and secularism.

Pramada Menon is Director Programs, CREA. She works as trainer, implementer and administrator and her work over the years has focused on issues related to livelihoods, gender and development, violence against women, sexuality and reproductive health. She also was Executive Director of Dastkar, an organization working to ensure sustainable livelihoods for traditional craftspeople in India.

Geetanjali Misra is Executive Director, CREA, New Delhi. She has worked intensively at the activist, grant making and policy levels in the fields of sexuality, reproductive health and violence against women. She is also the co-founder of SAKHI for South Asian women in New York.

Vahida Nainar is Chair for the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and has advocated extensively for women’s rights in India. She founded and directed the Women’s Research and Action Group in Bombay where she coordinated a nation-wide research project on how social norms and legal rules affect women. Ms. Nainar also worked as the Indian liaison for the International Solidarity Network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws where, among other activities, she campaigned internationally for support and solidarity in cases of individual women.

Dede Oetomo is a founding member and a senior expert in the Research and Education Division of GAYa Nusantara Foundation, Surabaya, Indonesia. GAYa Nusantara is a community-based organization working on issues of diversity in sex, gender, and sexuality. 

Douglas Sanders, Professor Douglas Sanders - Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia; LL.M. Professor, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Professor Sanders has taught international human rights law, has been commissioned to prepare expert background papers for UN human rights seminars, and written extensively on human rights issues relating to indigenous peoples and sexual and gender minorities. He can be contacted at sanders_gwb@yahoo.ca. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Meena Seshu is one of India's most compelling and creative human rights and AIDS activists. She is the general secretary of SANGRAM, an organization that works to build the capacity of sex workers; negotiate condom use with their clients, and creates spaces within which these groups can assert and defend their rights. She also works tirelessly with people living with HIV-AIDS. In 2002, Meena was awarded the Human Rights Defender Award from Human Rights Watch in recognition of her outstanding work.

Special Lecture by:

Shohini Ghosh is Reader at the Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and is a documentary filmmaker who co-founded Mediastorm Collective, India's first all women documentary production collective.