Global progress on gender rights slowed to nearly a halt in 2023 due to a severe backlash against decades of steady gains for feminist and LGBTQI+ movements, the global civil society alliance CIVICUS announced in a new report Thursday.
The 13th annual State of Civil Society Report finds that 2023 saw backsliding on gender rights all over the map, from Russia’s crackdown on LGBTQI+ activism, to a harsh new anti-gay law in Uganda, to anti-trans hysteria in the US, to the Taliban’s imposition of gender apartheid against women, to record levels of femicide in Latin America.
The overall lack of movement toward gender equality in 2023 contrasts previous years, when activists scored more victories in struggles for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights. Emblematic of this shift was the Caribbean, where several states decriminalised same-sex relations in 2022, but saw little to no progress in 2023 as governments pushed back on recent gains.
“There’s no way to avoid it: 2023 was not a good year for gender rights struggles,” said report co-author Ines Pousadela, who led CIVICUS research on gender rights. “The backlash in 2023 is especially alarming because any delay in the march toward gender equality puts women and LGBTQI+ people at further risk of violence and human rights violations.”
The State of Civil Society Report assesses activism around the world in 2023 and analyses the year’s events from a civil society perspective. The report is based on over 250 interviews and articles published by CIVICUS covering over 100 countries and territories.
Besides its findings on gender rights, the report details civil society’s role in responding to conflict, reforming the global governance system, addressing climate change and protecting democracy.
“Throughout 2023, civil society offered workable, people-centered solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” said Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Chief Officer of Evidence and Engagement. “But time and again, global institutions and leaders preferred to sideline activists rather than work with them to achieve positive change. If humanity is to overcome today’s multiple overlapping crises, civil society must have a seat at the table.”
For gender rights, the global slowdown on progress is largely the result of advances by a well-funded and connected conservative movement targeting women’s rights and LGBTQI+ people, the report says.
But gender activists across the world still found new ways to resist oppression. In Afghanistan and Iran, women activists circumvented restrictions by holding clandestine demonstrations and building international solidarity. Amid rising femicides, feminists from Italy to Kenya to Bulgaria led major protests demanding policy action to end violence against women.
“The backsliding on gender rights does not mean gender activists are on the backfoot,” said Pousadela. “On the contrary, they are redoubling their efforts to not only protect their rights, but to continue expanding them.”
Indeed, the report shows that civil society still scored numerous victories for gender rights in 2023. Thanks to dedicated and sustained civil society activism, Mexico legalised abortion, Mauritius defied the anti-LGBTQI+ trend in Africa by decriminalising same-sex relations and Estonia became the first ex-Soviet nation to legalise gay marriage.
Further, while abortion rights in the USA are at their worst in 50 years following the 2022 overturning of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade, in 2023 the pro-choice movement regrouped. They assisted women lacking access to reproductive health services, increased legal protections and erected barriers against further loss of rights. Poland, which banned abortion in 2021, elected a new government which promised to restore women’s right to choose.
“These victories show that the fight is on for gender rights,” said Pousadela. “Even if there are short-term setbacks, sustained activism can make progress toward rights unstoppable in the long run. Civil society will keep struggling until there’s freedom and equality for all.”
