Our mission has become increasingly vital
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John,
In a world where close to 40% of anti-rights governments are dismantling equal rights for women and girls, Equality Now’s mission to advance legal equality has become increasingly vital.
Our efforts to ensure governments uphold international law, alongside our work with women-led movements across the globe to galvanize solidarity and collective action to withstand these risks are critical.
Discriminatory laws continue to function as invisible barriers, holding women back from reaching their full potential and achieving true independence. Our mission is clear: to dismantle these barriers through upholding the rule of law, legal reform and enabling access to justice. Not only are equality, safety, privacy and freedom fundamental human rights for women and girls, they are also the foundation of a more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future – for everyone.
The path to equality is neither straight nor easy. When the sands shift, we must adapt to be able to move forward. Following the results of the US election last week, our expert human rights legal team has analyzed how the result, and wider global shift to conservatism, could impact women and girls. I wanted to share the partial summary with you.
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** Impact on International Human Rights Mechanisms
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It is likely that we will witness a negative impact on international human rights mechanisms, with the potential of the US significantly reducing UN funding and withdrawing from the Human Rights Council. We anticipate a pushback on sexual and reproductive health and rights in global forums, and a cooling of legal equality initiatives worldwide. This shift could embolden authoritarian regimes to ignore or opt out of critical international human rights mechanisms.
Our established networks across 160 countries afford the opportunity for us to maintain crucial advocacy channels and strengthen alternative pathways for advancing women’s rights.
** US Policy
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The domestic policy landscape presents complex challenges for legal equality. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) ([link removed]) may well be delayed again while reproductive rights will be subject to a patchwork of state-level legislation that leaves millions of women unprotected. The pushback on women’s rights and bodily autonomy could extend to issues like female genital mutilation and child marriage, where state-level variations and anti-immigration sentiment could impede nationwide progress and a key pillar of our work. With our partners we will be navigating the changing landscape to advance legal frameworks that protect women’s fundamental rights at both state and federal levels.
** The Strategic Importance of Sustainable Funding
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Recent trends indicate a correlation between rising social tensions and a decline in philanthropic support for women and girls. Organizations dedicated to these causes, historically underfunded, could now face a more precarious financial situation. Key philanthropic entities have been withdrawing or reducing their support for women’s rights initiatives and reallocating funds towards broader societal issues, often neglecting gender-specific approaches. Now we are preparing for the possible dismantling of previously committed funding by the new US government. Insufficient funding of this sector, currently at less than 2% of all philanthropy, seriously hampers women’s movements worldwide, which we know to be one the best methods of progressing our shared goals for democracy.
Read the full summary to learn how the global shift to conservatism may also impact civil society and government accountability as well as digital rights and technology.
READ THE FULL SUMMARY ([link removed])
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