The Advocates for Human Rights releases its latest report, Strategies of Civil Society to Counter the Far-right Backlash against Human Rights. Based on firsthand information from human rights defenders, The Advocates has documented the promising and innovative tactics that civil society is undertaking to push back against the anti-gender movement and continue protecting women’s human rights.
In recent years, human rights defenders have begun facing increasing challenges to human rights. These challenges include: growing laws and practices designed to suppress civil society; rollbacks to progress made on women's human rights; attacks and threats by private actors against human rights defenders; and growing public misunderstanding of their work and human rights overall. This backlash, carried out by actors referred to as anti-gender movement or far right, is networked, well-resourced, and globally networked. Yet in the face of such attacks, civil society has proven resilient, creative, and resourceful in its strategies to counter the anti-gender movement and continue safeguarding women's human rights. The Advocates for Human Rights undertook human rights fact-finding to document the promising practices used by civil society in the face of these challenges. Our 2023 reportdescribes the innovative strategies undertaken by civil society in response to anti-gender activity.