The Human Rights Council (HRC) is the UN’s main 'political' human rights body. It's where countries discuss and negotiate human rights issues, challenge and hold each other accountable for violations. This year’s 58th HRC (HRC58) session took place from 24th February to 4th April in Geneva where it featured panels on HIV response, the right to work in the informal economy, the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as resolutions on human rights defenders, and economic, social and cultural rights.
On the first day of the session, the Council commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) at the High-Level Mainstreaming Panel. In New York, the 69th Commission on the Status of Women was in the process of adopting a political declaration to renew country commitments to the 1995 Beijing Declaration. Beijing signified a hopeful moment in time for feminists, but in the current world of multiple crises and a shifting global order, to what extent are these multilateral institutions able to respond? HRC58 took place against this backdrop in addition to the ongoing anti-gender mobilization and challenges faced by civil society and feminists due to funding cuts.
Anti-gender trends
During HRC58, the Christian far-right organisation, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and other anti-gender organizations delivered a statement on “Protecting Children from Gender Ideology” equating gender affirming care as a process where “vulnerable children are rushed onto an irreversible path of life long medicalization” and is “actively facilitated by educational institutions without parents’ consent.”
The ‘gender ideology’ seed planted by the Vatican in Beijing has now become a feature in human rights spaces. Feminists have been vocal in debunking these talking points that employ an almost formulaic recipe to manipulate the human rights framework and undermine progress made on bodily autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), while creating an alternate conservative framing of rights.
Several days before the ADF statement was issued, a statement was delivered by Vanuatu, representing a group of 70 states, reinforcing that the “family is the fundamental unit of society and the natural environment for a child’s well-being” and “parents…are positioned to determine what is best for their children’s needs.” The OHCHR and UN Special Procedures such as the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls have persistently reaffirmed that states have an obligation to prevent violence, abuse and exploitation in the family. So while comprehensive frameworks on gender equality through the BPfA and other human rights instruments are abundant, the backlash and weaponisation of human rights makes it challenging for feminists to advance rights within the system, and consequently demand for implementation and accountability.
Confronting the global economic structure
HRC58 surfaced a broader question on the ability of the Council to confront contemporary manifestations and intersections of patriarchy, nationalism, neoliberalism, and colonialism. A side event organised by the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) along with other partners, “Addressing Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity: An Intersectional and Systems-Based Approach” highlighted how Maternal Mortality and Morbidity (MMM) has either stagnated or worsened in most regions of the world between 2016 and 2020. The UN Technical Guidance came a long way in situating MMM within SRHR and a reproductive justice framework, and several Council resolutions on MMM have been adopted by the HRC. However, implementation remains an issue. Health systems globally remain drastically under-funded, understaffed, and overcrowded, with maternal health being a significant area of underinvestment within global health initiatives. Global South, racialised and impoverished women are disproportionately impacted.
Aside from the impact of the conservative backlash on SRHR, privatization of healthcare worldwide has exacerbated overall patterns of structural inequalities and increased out-of-pocket costs for reproductive and maternal health care, in particular. Structural adjustment programmes and austerity measures imposed by IFIs, has led to systemic defunding of public health services, while donor conditionalities have led to fragmentation within health systems, undermining efforts to build resilient, integrated health systems capable of addressing preventable maternal morbidity and mortality equitably. So while the human rights framework obliges states to allocate the maximum available resources to the realisation of economic and social rights, the unavailability of these resources are heavily dependent on international factors including capitalist and colonial dispossession and the inequitable global economic and financial order.
As pointed out by the SRI, human rights systems are often unable or unwilling to address the deleterious effects of unequal political and economic relations on the bulk of the population in the Global South and on marginalized peoples within the Global North. However, the adoption of the resolution on the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights at the HRC58 reflected an opportunity to do so. The resolution, adopted regularly since 2007, for the first time addresses inequitable global economic structure, on key issues such as international tax cooperation, debt, public services, and climate finance. If we want to see SRHR norms and standards in the human rights system implemented by states, our advocacy on gender and sexuality must be grounded in the material conditions of women and marginalized communities. For those of us working in this space, it also means actively challenging the dominant economic paradigm, and tackling macroeconomic architecture as a part of human rights.
Civil society access and participation at HRC58
The slew of cuts to aid for both governments and civil society in the past years have profoundly impacted the UN human rights system that has been buckling under liquidity and financial crises and its own budget cuts. HRC58 demonstrated once again how civil society is usually the first impacted by the liquidity crisis and its budget cuts.
Remote participation was halted this session, limiting dialogue with CSOs outside Geneva. With the option for civil society to hold a side event with hybrid modality, the United Nations Office in Geneva charged fees of at least USD 389 to use their facilities as well as requiring unprecedented fees for using interpretation booths for side events with language interpretation. Further, the liquidity crisis has led to cuts in Special Procedures’ activities and limited engagement opportunities for rights holders. As highlighted by the #EmptyChairs campaign in their statement to the Council, “States cannot continue defunding the Special Procedures system, which they have created, thereby preventing them from fulfilling their essential mandates. States must pay their dues in full and on time.”
The systematic pushing out of civil society can only exacerbate the dwindling trust of people in the human rights and multilateral systems. Beijing and the subsequent advances in human norms on gender and sexuality was only possible due to the work and mobilisation of feminist activists and advocates. Without the meaningful participation of civil society, multilateral institutions would no longer be able to serve their function.
Human rights in the time of ongoing genocide
The lack of implementation and accountability for multiple genocides has culminated in the major credibility crisis facing multilateral institutions we witness today. Despite the persistent calls from institutions such as the ICJ and UN Special Procedures’ to end the genocide and the international community’s complicity in it, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have only intensified, systematically targeting hospitals, medical personnel, and other humanitarian workers.
At the session, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, presented a report detailing Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023, which was welcomed by Palestinian civil society. In the same week, Israeli Ministers, supported by US President Trump, publicly reaffirmed their intent to forcibly and permanently remove Palestinians under the false pretense of “voluntary” relocation.
We know this flagrant disregard for international law and lack of accountability has only been possible with the unwavering support of powerful allies, and the global governance structure that caters to the political will and agenda of these allies in the Global North, as well as the political elite globally. Although the US announced a halt to their engagement with the HRC two months earlier, behind the scenes it heavily lobbied against a proposal by Pakistan on the creation of an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism on Israel's actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In the last week of the Council, Viktor Orban vowed that Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary would not result in an arrest, in accordance with the arrest warrant released by the ICC in November 2024. This was announced along with Hungary’s plan to withdraw from the Rome statute.
At this point in time, the full and long term implications of the global shift and crises faced by multilateralism is still hazy. Still, as feminists working in these spaces, we should not stick to ‘business as usual’ or avoid tackling these existential questions collectively. From the inequity of the political and economic global order to the neoliberal co-option of our rights, this political moment calls on us to challenge our narrow and siloed approach in addressing gender and sexuality, and resist the co-optation of our struggles for short and medium term gains.