Countering the Anti-Rights Movement Globally
For decades, an increasingly powerful and well-financed coalition of anti-rights actors has relentlessly challenged and sought to erode girls’ and women’s bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Between 2008 and 2017, total revenue for “anti-gender” groups based in the United States alone rose to $6.2 billion. At least $1 billion of this funding was subsequently channeled across the globe to support anti-gender movements. Their growing influence is visibly manifested in various regressive policies at the national level, including in the United States, El Salvador, Poland, and Uganda. They have also strategically infiltrated forums at the global level to manipulate and weaponize human rights language and suppress pro-SRHR voices within civil society.
At the global level, anti-rights organizations are using their access to the United Nations to advance resolutions on “protecting the family” that seek to undermine girls’ and women’s access to SRHR. They are also promoting a conservative and alternative interpretation of human rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to deny and rollback hard-won gains relating to SRHR, including access to safe abortion and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).
Global progress has stalled and is increasingly at risk of regression
Consequently, global progress on comprehensive SRHR is stagnating and is now under increasing threat of regression. Without determined action to counter the rising influence of these groups and their deceptive narratives, girls and women face a genuine risk that the human rights frameworks designed to protect them may be used against them to legitimize discrimination and further inequality.
Human rights are universal, indivisible, and inalienable. Women Deliver advocates for and seeks to advance the right to bodily autonomy and the full spectrum of SRHR for all, without discrimination, stigmatization, or barriers to access. We recognize that securing SRHR and bodily autonomy for all, and preventing the rollback of these rights in particular, hinges on the urgent need to counter the growing influence of anti-rights actors, including the disinformation and misinformation that they promote. Only by doing so can we create a network of advocates and partners who champions the rights of girls and women, securing a future where their bodily autonomy is respected and their rights are upheld.
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