We cannot promote family life by restricting women's rights

Shobha Shukla *

An anti-rights movement that is surreptitiously spreading its tentacles under the garb of 'protecting family values' is threatening gender equality, even as human rights activists call upon ending gender-based violence and protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights of all girls and women and other gender diverse communities.

One example of this is the regressive Geneva Consensus Declaration that was initiated in October 2020 by the Trump administration and adopted by 34 countries back then (the current number is 39) in a virtual online signing ceremony. Under the false pretext of 'promoting women’s health and strengthening the family,' the declaration seeks to undermine and restrict the rights of women, girls, and gender-diverse people to make decisions related to their sexual and reproductive health - particularly access to safe abortion care services.

The Geneva Consensus Declaration represents an effort of the global anti-rights movement to misrepresent internationally agreed commitments that protect sexual and reproductive health and rights. By distorting the countries' obligations to the health and well-being of women, the agreement tries to contravene international women’s rights standards on health.

Interestingly, this so-called ‘consensus’ has not arisen out of any negotiations or discussions at any United Nations forums. It is a document without legitimacy that does not reflect any global agreement and represents the views of its signatories only.

Not everything that is termed 'Geneva' advances human rights

"Not everything that is termed ‘Geneva’ advances human rights, and Geneva Consensus Declaration is one such example. It actually supports anti-rights movement in the garb of ‘protection of family values’ which a lot of us in Africa value so much. So, they have found perfect ways to advance their rhetoric under the pretext of protecting the family. Geneva Consensus Declaration does not recognise the international human right to safe abortion," says Stephanie Musho, a human rights lawyer from Kenya and Regional Coordinator, Catalysts Africa.

Another example is CitizenGO- a conservative and far-right anti-LGBTQI+ and anti-abortion advocacy group founded in Madrid, Spain in 2013 by the ultra-Catholic and far-right HazteOir organisation. It claims to 'promote life, family, and liberty' by working in a concerted campaign to undermine reproductive and LGBTQI+ rights around the world.

An investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism shows how the network mixed digital campaigns, political lobbying and protests on the ground to fight against reproductive and LGBTQI+ rights in Kenya and Ghana. It claimed victory when legislation to extend access to abortion in Kenya was blocked, and played a key role in pushing a bill in Ghana that would impose lengthy prison sentences for LGBTQI+ people.

Musho reaffirms this: "Kenyan President enacted a new policy in 2023 - the Family Promotion and Protection Policy that restricts the options available to women in abusive marriages because it stigmatises divorce. This new policy is advancing the anti-rights agenda and mainstreaming it in legal and policy frameworks. This so-called 'family' policy is deeply rooted in the global anti-rights anti-gender movement, which is spreading its tentacles across the African continent. They started with the anti-homophobic bills and laws that have been sweeping Africa in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Congo.

CitizenGO is paying unsuspecting and unemployed Kenyan youth to advance misinformation and disinformation on Twitter/X. It has also been part of the movement that has completely ruptured sexual and reproductive health and rights and protection of women and girls and sexual minorities. The anti-rights movements are well financed and well resourced, and they are advancing their detrimental positions against us feminists and the rights movement."

Benedicta Oyedayo Oyewole, Community Engagement and Partnership Lead, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Africa Region echoes similar sentiments: "In Africa we face an increase in anti-rights movements, as we can see the anti-homosexuality Act of Uganda that criminalises LGBTQI+ identities; or the rising homophobia in Ghana. Patriarchal politics and cultural forces are pushing back against the gains of feminist movements. This backlash has manifested in legislation that criminalises and underfunds gender equality programmes and excludes marginalised communities”.

Regressive Madrid Commitment

More recently, in the first week of December 2024, right-wing participants of the VI Transatlantic Summit organised by the Political Network for Values in the Spanish Senate launched an offensive against abortion, (despite the country’s left-wing government's criticism of Spain's right-wing "Partido Popular" for compromising the neutrality of the government's institution).

300 representatives of the far-right and right-wing camps from 45 countries (from Europe, the Americas, and Africa) signed the 'Madrid Commitment’ (whose 5 point agenda includes promotion of the regressive Geneva Consensus Declaration) in a so-called defense of 'freedom, family and the culture of life' - even as Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said that those attending were making "anti-scientific speeches to justify attacks on women's rights. We are not going backwards: free, safe and public abortion."

Anti-rights groups regard homosexuality, legal abortion, birth control, as threats to the divinely ordained ‘natural family.’ They promote conservative policy and patriarchal attitudes about sexuality, gender and health.

Debanjana Choudhuri, Executive Director, WGNRR (Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights) is rightly alarmed at how some governments are trying to underplay women’s rights, particularly sexual and reproductive health and rights.

"The rhetoric against sexual and reproductive health and rights is increasing. We are hearing harmful narratives around ‘family systems’ and ‘traditional values’ and pro-natal narratives are emerging which are extremely dangerous. Many countries in Asia are talking about their declining fertility rate and clamouring for women to bear 'more' children,” she said.

"There is a huge pressure to dilute the language around rights, equality and equity. Anti-rights movements are highly organised and extremely well resourced. Also, with the imminent changes in US administration we are anticipating backlashes. We anticipate that in the coming months there will be further cutdowns on advocacy programmes for sexual and reproductive health, safe abortion services, comprehensive abortion care, and this will impact girls and women. It will deprive them of their bodily autonomy and choice," added Choudhuri.

Gender equality for all is enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted unanimously at the UN General Assembly in 2015. But progress is at best sketchy, and in so many aspects regressive. Unless we dismantle patriarchy, ensure racial equity, ensure justice for all gender diverse people, ensure disability inclusion and justice, end ageism and ableism, we will not be able to end all forms of gender-based violence and deliver on gender equality.

And as Musho says, human rights are indivisible, and we cannot cherry-pick them. We have to collectively and collaboratively push back against the rhetorics that undermine equality and justice.

To advance human rights and gender equality, all women’s rights and feminist movements, people’s struggles against oppression and gender-based violence - all will have to come together to collectively and collaboratively push back against the rhetorics that undermine equality and justice.