The International Anti-Gender Movement - Understanding the Rise of Anti-Gender Discourses

In order to look at these issues in greater depth, three dimensions of pro-family discourse on gender and development are discussed: the co-optation of “UN language” and associated high-level tools, including political organization, to engage with human rights and sustainable development; the articulation of the notion of the “natural family”; and the concept of “demographic winter”. [...] Notably, the name of the GCD echoes the much earlier Geneva Declaration (1924), which was the first declaration on the rights of the child and affirmed for the first time the existence of rights specific to children and the responsibility of adults towards children. [...] The GCD cites several UN conventions and declarations, including the UDHR (1948), the Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1955), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). [...] Drawing on existing UN conventions that are cited throughout the text, the signatories of the document state that they “reaffirm … the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State”; that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance,” that “women play a critical role in the family” and women’s “contributi. [...] The report covers are peppered with the logos of partners and funders; in the case of the DIFI report, two of the co-authors are from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and ESCWA’s support for the report itself is separately acknowledged, with the inclusion of its logo on the cover.