Promoting dignity and justice for all menstruators: MenEngage Alliance at the 7th Dignified Menstruation Conference

Representing MenEngage Alliance at the 7^th International Dignified Menstruation Day Learning Conference, Nyasha Sithole delivered the following speech on the importance of engaging men and boys to advance dignity for all menstruators.

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As a global social change network committed to transforming patriarchal masculinities towards gender justice, we affirm that menstrual discrimination is a violation of human rights and a form of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). 

The Dignified Menstruation framework is essential because it moves the narrative beyond hygiene and products. It address the deep-seated stigma, power, and structural inequalities that menstruators face in all their diversity. 

These inequalities deny them the right to live free of violence, discrimination, and abuse, restricting their ability to participate fully in public life with dignity and rights. Our commitment to gender equality and justice means actively challenging every form of control over people’s bodies, sexuality, and reproduction.

Dignified menstruation is an indivisible part of that struggle and an agenda that inherently brings together the various issues that menstruators face, ranging from discrimination and violence to bodily autonomy, economic rights, and human rights. This compels us to adopt holistic and systemic approaches to human rights.

Transforming Masculinities: From Silence to Solidarity

This learning symposium highlighted the critical links between menstrual dignity and patriarchal masculinities. Researchers from around the world shared compelling evidence during the sessions. They highlighted that stigma and shame directed at menstruators are reinforced by stereotypical gender norms, which grant perceived purity, privilege, and superiority to non-menstruators (men and boys).

This is why MenEngage Alliance champions Gender Transformative Approaches when working with men and boys. These approaches aim to address the root causes, social norms, stigma, discrimination, power inequalities, and attitudes that undermine the fundamental human rights of menstruators. Every person should be able to live free from discrimination and violence and enjoy full dignity. To achieve that, we must:

• Dismantle the notion that menstruation is solely a ​“women’s issue.”
• Challenge and change the social norms and patriarchal systems that create and sustain menstrual taboos.
• Promote manhood rooted in care, respect, and shared responsibility for the rights and dignity of menstruators and all people.

Addressing and transforming masculinities is an essential, though often underappreciated, strategy to eliminate gender-based discrimination.

Our Mandate: Accountability and Systemic Action

MenEngage Alliance will continue advancing the feminist agenda using the Dignified Menstruation approach by mobilizing men and boys, including adolescents and young men, as vocal and accountable allies. Together, they serve as agents of change, actively rejecting and dismantling patriarchal inequalities. 

Our efforts focus on mobilizing men and boys, including those in positions of influence, as proactive allies and agents of change who leverage their power and privilege to advance the  Dignified Menstruation approach.

At MenEngage Alliance, accountability is a core principle guiding our mobilization, advocacy, and resource efforts. Our commitment remains to collaborate with and be held accountable by feminist, women’s rights, youth-led, and menstruator-led organizations for our contributions to the Dignified Menstruation agenda and efforts to challenge menstrual stigma. Alliance approaches to engaging men and masculinities are informed by their expertise to ensure a transformative impact. 

The denial of dignity to any menstruator is a threat to justice for all.

Let us commit to making Dignified Menstruation the universal standard ensuring all menstruators in their diversities, can live free from discrimination and with full bodily autonomy.

MenEngage Alliance expresses our gratitude to the secretariat team at Global South Coalition for Dignified Menstruation and Radha Paudel for their courage, leadership, and unwavering commitment to this issue. 

The work you have championed here recognizing Dignified Menstruation as a fundamental human right and an intersecting issue of social, economic, and health justice resonates at the very core of MenEngage Alliance’s mission and we feel proud to be in this journey with you and be supporters of all the work you do.

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Nyasha Sithole, Program Officer at MenEngage Alliance, was speaking at the 7^th International Dignified Menstruation Day Learning Conference, held from 8 – 10 December 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The conference was organized by the Global South Coalition for Dignified Menstruation (GSCDM) in partnership with the Radha Paudel Foundation, the National Youth Council of Nepal, and MenEngage Alliance (Global). It brought together over 140 participants from 21 countries and highlighted this year’s theme: ​“Dignified Menstruation: Reclaim Inherent Dignity, Equity and Inalienable Rights.”