Humanists International tells the UN that anti-rights funding is driving a backlash on reproductive rights

In a statement to the general debate at the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, marking International Safe Abortion Day, Humanists International has warned that money from conservative organizations in the United States and Europe is fueling an anti-rights movement across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and has called on all States to guarantee safe access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The statement was delivered by Veronica Reyes from Humanistas Guatemala under item 8 of the Council’s agenda, which covers follow-up to and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. As the week of International Safe Abortion Day was marked, Humanists International told the Council, the gap between the commitments made in the Vienna Declaration and the lived realities of people seeking to exercise their reproductive rights is stark.

The direction of travel over recent decades has been toward liberalization. More than 60 countries and territories have loosened their abortion laws over that period. Against that, Humanists International pointed to a significant backlash and an emerging anti-rights movement, which it said had already led four countries to backslide on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The statement located part of the cause outside the countries concerned. Funding is increasingly flowing from the United States and Europe into Africa, Asia, and Latin America from conservative anti-rights organizations that oppose abortion, comprehensive sexuality education, and the rights of LGBTI+ people. Civil society in Africa, the statement noted, has described this as neocolonialism. The same groups have been involved in drafting an African charter on family, sovereignty, and values, which asserts that African values and culture are under attack from “foreign ideologies” and urges States to withdraw from any agreement that promotes gender equality or protects the reproductive and health rights of women and girls.

Humanists International called on all States to act on their obligations under international human rights law, to guarantee safe access to sexual and reproductive health and rights around the world, and to recognize that sexual and reproductive health is indivisible from other human rights.

The intervention was the third time Humanists International raised abortion at this session of the Council. Earlier in the session, at the adoption of Belgium’s Universal Periodic Review , deMens.nu set out how Belgium’s twelve-week limit and mandatory six-day waiting period push people across the border to the Netherlands for care. Subsequently, the organization raised the funding of anti-rights actors and cooperation with the United Nations. The organization also endorsed a broader statement to make International Safe Abortion Day led by the Sexual Rights Initiative.

Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash