Beyond gender equality? Anti-gender campaigns and the erosion of human rights and democracy

Abstract

Although resistance to the incorporation of ‘gender’ in human rights law and policies is not new, since 2013 anti-gender campaigns have articulated as movements and increased their visibility. More recently, the transnational dimension of the anti-gender offensive has become visible as a challenge to human rights standards, including the anti-violence against women project, and a process of democratic erosion. In this column, I make a short overview of this social and political phenomenon and describe how these anti-gender campaigns have entered the human rights systems and their discourse has shifted from religious justifications towards legal ones. I conclude with general suggestions to strengthen the resilience of the human rights systems to these processes.