Purpose and context
Across regions, gender equality and women’s rights are facing renewed and increasingly coordinated pushback. Political movements across the ideological spectrum, authoritarian governance models, and narratives presented as moral or cultural increasingly frame gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy as sites of political contestation. These dynamics are shaping laws, policies and institutions, and everyday lives, with profound consequences for women, gender-diverse persons, and broader social cohesion.
This open dialogue brings together legal, feminist, and political economy perspectives from the Global South to explore how gender justice is challenged, defended, and re-imagined in contexts of shrinking civic space and rising authoritarianism. The discussion will examine how backlash operates not only through visible acts of repression, but also through legislative reforms, judicial interpretation, administrative practices, and social norms that legitimize exclusion and silence and constrain critical expressions.
Grounded in Global South experiences, the conversation will reflect on both constraints and possibilities: where progress has stalled or reversed, and where creative strategies like legal, institutional, and community-based action have sustained or advanced women’s rights and gender equality despite difficult political environments.
Why this dialogue matters now
As multilateral spaces grapple with democratic backsliding and contested human rights norms, there is a growing need to centre Global South feminist perspectives that connect gender justice with political economy, governance, and health. Gendered repression affects access to healthcare, bodily autonomy, social protection, and participation in public life, making it a critical determinant of population wellbeing.
Legal and policy frameworks play a central role in shaping these outcomes. Changes in constitutional and statutory law, judicial decisions, and regulations can either expand or restrict gender equality, with lasting effects on healthcare access, social protection, and human rights. Understanding how legal change interacts with political realities is essential to sustaining gender justice gains.
This dialogue aligns with UNU-IIGH’s commitment to gender equality, intersectionality, rights-based approaches, and attention to the political determinants of health. It aims to create space for reflection beyond technical solutions, recognising that gender justice is political, widely discussed, and closely linked to broader struggles over power and accountability.
