The global "Stop the Pushback" campaign warns of rollbacks on women's rights in multilateral spaces
Two weeks ahead of International Working Women's Day, women's rights are facing a long list of threats. From the Trump administration's appointment of anti-science health officials and rollback on reproductive healthcare funding, to the ongoing dangers of Israeli attacks in Palestine, Lebanon, and other parts of West Asia, the challenges seem endless. Yet more insidious rollbacks are creeping into the multilateral system, warn the initiators of the global campaign Stop the Pushback on Women's Rights.
Masked as minor wording changes in policy documents, these efforts are eroding hard-won rights across United Nations agencies. "The most important developments are the ones that happen 'silently,' under the radar," Bettina Borisch of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) told People's Health Dispatch. "The multilateral system moves backward, and their documentation is changed in terms of words 'only.' But we know that words create worlds and determine reality."
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This trend is not new. For years, women's presence in global health policy has been largely confined to reproductive health, and even within that framework, crucial rights--such as access to abortion care--have been steadily attacked in World Health Organization (WHO) spaces. Over and over again, a number of member states have claimed that sexual and reproductive health is too political and falls outside WHO's technical mandate. Yet, Stop the Pushback counters this presumption, pointing out that health itself is political. "Health is inherently political--a reality the WHO Constitution explicitly acknowledges when it affirms that structural political factors, such as unequal development and discrimination, are impediments to achieving the right to health," the campaign stated. It argues that multilateral organizations must finally stand up to attacks on women's rights inside their fora, including by addressing the pervasive logic of budget cuts that affect services women rely upon or work in.
The campaign also insists on the importance of addressing the position of women in settings of war, as multilateral organizations must stride towards peace. From Afghanistan to Sudan to Palestine, armed conflicts disproportionately affect women, making their bodies battlegrounds for structural oppression. "War is the quintessence of the patriarchal system," the campaign warned. "Aggression justifies oppression, and abuse becomes the tool of preference for 'solving' conflict." Despite these devastating effects, feminist movements worldwide continue to lead efforts for peace and justice--efforts that, campaign activists insist, must be recognized and supported rather than ignored.
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Following the campaign's launch, Sudanese pediatrician Sara Ibrahim Abdelgalil emphasized the crucial role women played in the 2018-2019 revolution, showing that their contributions are able to provide a glimpse into alternative societies. "Women were there in every corner looking after civilians as doctors, teachers, nurses, cooks, and tea vendors," she told People's Health Dispatch. "This multicolored mosaic space was a balanced society without pushing women away." Similarly, Ashka Naik from Corporate Accountability stressed that multilateral organizations and movements should not seek to "prescribe power" for women but rather uphold the initiatives they demonstrate. "Women, even in the most remote areas of the world, know what power means in their own lives," Naik stated. "This power must be centered to create a world deeply rooted in solidarity, compassion, and love."
Going forward, Stop the Pushback calls for worldwide action to resist attempts to roll back women's rights and to elevate the movements that are already driving change. The fight for gender justice in all spaces, the campaign shows, is inseparable from the broader fight for peace and human dignity.
People's Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People's Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People's Health Dispatch, click here.
