Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that I invite you all to meet in Göteborg Sweden for the celebration of the 19^th WAS World Congress for Sexual Health. The experience, wisdom and long-established leadership of Swedish sexology will guide our meeting and its timely theme, “Sexual Health & Rights: A Global Challenge.”

Sexual health is a prerequisite for wellness and the fulfillment of human potential. Human development cannot be achieved without sexual health: this is true for the individual, as it is for the couple, the community and for societies everywhere. Today, sexual health and the attainment of sexual rights for all need the urgent attention of the world’s professionals and policymakers, as well as that of society at large. Actions to increase the respect and promotion of sexual rights and to improve sexual health are global priorities.

The Göteborg meeting will offer a unique opportunity to share, contrast and validate the experiences that bring our world closer to Sexual Health, with the environment provided by a nation that set the pace for effective preventive actions in sexuality education and the promotion of human rights. I invite you to submit presentations and to attend what promises to be a very memorable and significant event.

Dearest Colleagues and Friends,

It is truly a privilege and a pleasure to invite you to the lively city of Göteborg for the 19^th WAS World Congress for Sexual Health.

The WAS, in partnership with the Swedish Association for Sexology (SFS), supported by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) and the national sexology associations of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland and Norway, welcomes you to share a unique experience of teaching and learning, exchanging sexual health concerns and defining strategies and actions.

The Göteborg Congress theme - Sexual Health and Rights: A Global Challenge - offers an extraordinary opportunity to keep abreast on current theories on sexual health and effective models on how to promote sexual health and rights in various global settings.

The challenges of the WAS "Sexual Health in the New Millennium" Declaration are central to the Congress program. Your contribution will ensure a meeting of the highest scientific interest, where critical issues are approached from a global, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary perspective.

Göteborg will facilitate encounters on important and controversial issues, so that a broad spectrum of viewpoints are debated and divergent voices are heard. In this way, we strive to stimulate the integration of new knowledge and thinking into existing systems of norms, beliefs and values as expressed by individuals, groups, populations and societies, and to foster a greater understanding, acceptance and appreciation of the cultural, religious and social diversities which regulate the various expressions of human sexuality.

It is more than ever necessary to pool international resources to fight fear, prejudice, ignorance and violence, and to meet the challenge of safeguarding the core values of human sexuality, as we respect life itself, love, intimacy, pleasure and self-acknowledgement.

Please submit your best paper and ideas. We look forward to welcoming you to Göteborg in 2009!

Warmest best wishes