Regressions in women’s rights are increasing around the world, alert associations in a report published Monday, which recommends bringing the subject to the forefront of the diplomatic scene.
Right to abortion revoked by the Supreme Court in the United States, ban on studying or holding certain jobs for women in Afghanistan or restrictions on access to contraception in Poland… Regressions in terms of rights women “are multiplying all over the world”, denounce in a report the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and the feminist association Equipop.
“No region is spared” by this phenomenon of backtracking which occurs when “very diverse groups come together against women’s rights”, comments Lucie Daniel, advocacy officer for Equipop, to AFP.
States located at the antipodes of the diplomatic chessboard, far-right political groups, fundamentalist religious movements: anti-rights movements “are often the fruit of heterogeneous alliances”, thus describes the report.
These “particularly well-organized” movements are “connected to each other” and “generously funded”, which allows them to prevent advances, maintain the status quo or cause setbacks in rights.
“The government must take the measure of these threats,” said Lucie Daniel, who wants to provoke “a political jump in France”.
“There was a bit of a breather after the last elections in the United States and Brazil”, which were not won by the conservative camps, “but the capacity for nuisance of anti-rights movements remains strong”, she warns.
France is one of ten countries to have declared its intention to implement a feminist foreign policy.
To do this, the report recommends “substantially” increasing financial support for feminist associations and making feminist struggles “a priority subject of diplomacy”.