Background
What are anti-gender campaigns?
It would be erroneous to understand the anti-gender movements around the world as simple pushback against gender mainstreaming, the right to abortion, LGBTQI* rights, or sexuality education, or even the culminated successes by human rights proponents to realise human rights for all. Instead, over the past decade, we see an increasingly transnational movement consisting of actors as diverse as the Catholic Church, governments, and right-wing think tanks shifting towards efforts to develop and produce alternative norms which are inimical to the concept of universal and indivisible human rights. Indeed, we argue that what we are witnessing is a highly organised (but not centralised), well-funded, transnational movement working to undermine women’s rights, LGBTQI* rights, and civil society.
These efforts are not about ‘gender’ as such, but it is about power and about maintaining or promoting social and political hierarchies in the face of their (perceived) decline. These efforts take place in the streets across the world, in local and national governments and at the international level. Human rights advocates and progressive governments, believing in the unstoppable and teleological progress of human rights, have spent too long not taking the threat seriously and not responding adequately. At CFFP, we are committed to understanding and tackling anti-gender campaigns. Find out more about what we’re doing below!
Key Activities
Understanding and Countering the Anti-Gender Movement
Since early 2020, CFFP began engaging with the question of the transnational anti-gender movement. Financially supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, CFFP conducted extensive desk research, interviews with activists and academics and two expert roundtables in order to develop a broad understanding on what we are dealing with and what we can do to counter the anti-gender campaings. In the context of the project, we also commissioned five case studies: on the United States, on the EU, on Brazil, on Mexico and on the MENA region. The study “Power over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-gender Movement” is the result of this work.
United for Our Rights
Across the world, there is an active civil society as well as progressive governments that campaign for the rights of women, those of the LGBTQI* community, against racism, as well as right-wing and nationalist populism. Unfortunately, these actors are far from being as well connected and funded as the anti-gender movements – across borders, across generations but also with regards to the quality of cooperation between governments, civil society, activists, and scientists. Moreover, there is not only the need to strengthen cooperation between those actors working explicitly to counter the anti-gender campaigns – (feminists and LGBTQI* actors, for instance), but it is of utmost importance to strengthen collaboration between them and those working to counter anti-racism and anti-democratic developments in Europe more broadly. Moreover, while the anti-gender campaign has been able to mobilise grassroots movements across the world and penetrate the public discourse, feminists and other women rights activists struggle to raise public awareness and mobilise support for their cause.
The CFFP project, “United for our Rights”, financially supported by the German Federal Foreign Office aims to fill this gap. The project aims at establishing an interdisciplinary and international hub which will act as a contact point for the various campaigns, research projects, and political initiatives that are working to counter the anti-gender campaigns in Europe and initiate concrete joint activities aimed at grounding the joint efforts to counter the anti-gender campaigns in the wider struggle against anti-democratic tendencies in Europe.
Resources
Briefing: Funding (in)equality? A comparative look at the funding landscape for pro-and anti-gender initiatives and campaigns in the European Union (EU)
Anti-gender campaigns and actors are much better funded than human rights and equality advocates. At the same time, key state services and civil society organisations are being actively defunded or structurally excluded from funding opportunities – EU funding, in particular, is practically inaccessible to grassroots feminist and LGBTQI* organising. In a global context of shrinking space for civil society, the result is an extremely uneven terrain for actors campaigning for and against the rights of politically marginalised populations. This briefing provides an overview of the funding landscapes for pro- and anti-gender organising and provides recommendations on how EU policymakers and other donors can better support human rights and intersectional equality activism and campaigning.
Dangerous Alliances Interview Series
Our new interview series aims to highlight the growing rise of right-wing populism and authoritarianism in different parts of the world, as well as the associated attack on feminism, civil liberties, and minorities. We will speak to feminist activists, policy experts, and scholars from different regions, ranging from Eastern Europe to Latin America, South East Asia and more. With the help of our interviewees’ experiences and knowledge, we try to better understand the connection between the rise of populist authoritarian leaders and anti-feminism globally - especially in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We also hope to showcase commonalities of this authoritarian pushback across contexts and to elevate local differences.
Abortion in Germany: What You Should Know
Access to safe, secure and legal abortions is a human right, as recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, as in many other countries around the world, this access is at least partly in Germany. Here, pregnant individuals are only able to access abortion under certain conditions and circumstances and availability remains a huge problem.
Moreover, doctors that provide abortions are prohibited from providing information on abortion by §219a (s. Legal Situation). Thus, feminist organisations have been working together to disseminate much needed medically accurate, neutral information and resources. While we do not focus on domestic policies at CFFP, we acknowledge our responsibility as a feminist organisation also based in Germany to contribute to the movement and to work to ensure that abortions are accessible for everyone. For this reason, we have compiled information on the legal situation of abortion in Germany, information on the different methods of abortion used in Germany, as well as additional resources.
Disrupted: The Sexual and Reproductive Health Issue
‘Disrupted’ is a journal that aims to reject and disrupt the ‘single-story’ of mainstream foreign policy through highlighting both experienced and emerging voices from across the globe. With a thematic focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice, this issue tackles themes from decriminalising abortion to menstrual equity and sustainability, to reproductive health conditions, to the Trump Administration’s global gag rule, and more.
Event Report: CFFP x 1014: New Approaches to Foreign Policy - Feminist Foreign Policy and Its Potential for Advancing Transatlantic Relations
Considering the on-going security crises, the global pushback against human rights, and the climate emergency, the transatlantic partnership is more crucial than ever. This event series aimed at increasing the dialogue between both sides of the Atlantic and fostering awareness about more sustainable approaches to foreign policy. It discussed transatlantic priorities in the fields of security, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and climate justice from a Feminist Foreign Policy perspective. Read our summary of the series here!
Power Over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement, Volume I
Actors working to restrict the rights of women and of LGBTQI* communities have been gaining ground globally - on the streets, in national parliaments, and in multilateral fora. In support of actors that are determined to protect and advance human rights for all, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, financially supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has produced the study “Power over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement”. The study analyses the transnational anti-gender campaigns and offers concrete policy recommendations for governments on how to counter them.
Power Over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement, Volume II Case Studies
Read our case studies in full here!
Power Over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement, Executive Summary
Don’t have the time to read the whole study? Get up to speed with our executive summary now!
Power Over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement, Key Takeaways
What’s the bottom line? Find out with our key takeaways!
Briefing: The International Consequences of the United States' Domestic Restrictions on Abortion Rights
From Alabama to Missouri to Ohio: In recent years, an increasing number of US states have passed bills which restrict and/or remove the right to legal and safe abortions. This seriously endangers not just those with uteruses who reside in the US, but puts the life of people across the globe at risk.
Events
Expert Roundtable Discussion: Understanding the Impact of anti-gender actors on multilateral structures in Europe
This invitation-only online expert roundtable discussed the impact of so-called anti-gender actors on multilateral fora: how they impact agenda-setting and negotiations, how issues of gender and LGBTQI* rights are instrumentalised, and what this means for the adoption and implementation of treaties, alliance-building, polarisation, and deadlock.
Online Conference: "The Transnational Anti-Gender Movement in the Wider Anti-Democratic Climate"
There is a lack of knowledge and awareness among policymakers and activists about what the anti-gender movement is, how it operates, the risks it poses and how to effectively develop strategies to counter it - in order to defend and advance human rights for all.
In December 2021, CFFP hosted an online conference to situate the anti-gender movement within the context of the wider anti-democratic climate. Watch the opening panel discussion with Dorothy Nalubega, Ariane Wolf, and Cianán Russell on our YouTube channel now.
Power Over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement
To mark the launch of our “Power over Rights: Understanding and countering the transnational anti-gender movement” study, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, the German Federal Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland hosted a Digital Launch Event. We presented the main findings of our study and discussed what the anti-gender movement is, conceptually, globally and in the specific contexts of Brazil and Hungary - and outline ways of how to counter this movement.
Rights, Responsibilities, and Revolutions - Understanding Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in a Transatlantic Context
In recent years attacks on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) - such as the Global Gag Rule and Poland’s abortion ban - have been growing on both sides of the Atlantic with the number of actors fighting to undo the international achievements for womens’ and sexual minority rights gaining further ground. Across the globe, states and NGOs are working to undermine the international women’s rights agenda: They lobby to alter the language in UN resolutions, advance alternative understanding of international treaties, delegitimise feminists and their work by advocating cultural realism and ‘traditional values’ and pull financial resources from education and health services that account for reproductive rights. How can existing national and international human rights legislation be protected? How can the strengthening of transatlantic relations and collaborations between Europe and the US support SRHR on both sides of the Atlantic? How can a Feminist Foreign Policy contribute to the protection and expansion of SRHR?
This event is part of our webinar series, “New Approaches to Foreign Policy - Feminist Foreign Policy and its Potential for Advancing Transatlantic Relations” hosted in collaboration with 1014.