Picture credit: Karin Hugsén , Act Church of Sweden

Over 25 diverse faith-based organisations attended Women Deliver 2023, which concluded yesterday in Rwanda. ACT Alliance co-convened a ‘meet and greet’ at the conference, for faith actors to connect, share, and strategize on our collective work for gender justice.   
Rising fundamentalisms, which are pushing back hard against women’s rights at every level and across the world, religion can often be perceived as only contributing to the problem of gender inequalities. Patriarchal gender norms continue to be packaged in the language of religion because it legitimises them, it makes them appear divinely ordained and unchangeable. Anti-rights actors are mobilising religious language to block or even reverse progress on gender equality.  

Nearly 84 per cent of the world’s population identifies with a religious group. Many faith-based organisations, who participated in Women Deliver, are advocating for the importance of engaging in faith-based partnerships to advance gender justice.   

A focus of the Women Deliver conference is advancing Sexual and reproductive health and rights, which will not be achieved simply by changing laws, reducing poverty, or improving education and health care services. While these are all essential steps, we also need to challenge and eliminate discriminatory social norms that constrain bodily autonomy, agency and rights. To this end, the ACT Gender Justice Programme is working closely with our members, national and regional forums and platforms to harness the value-based power of faith actors to advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.  

For example, the ACT Argentina Forum is confronting fundamentalist and hateful discourses which oppress, manipulate, and deny the fundamental freedoms of women and girls in all their diversity. The forum is developing and sharing liberating faith narratives and theological perspectives that encourage the rereading of sacred texts and cultural contexts. It is also creating safe spaces of trust, which are open, intimate and focused on active listening without judgement. Together, we are working to support and amplify those prophetic voices who are courageously calling for transformative action to achieve justice for all.  

In the report, ‘Looking Back to Look Forward: The Role of Religious Actors in Gender Equality since the Beijing Declaration’, which ACT Alliance co-published, we argue that understandings of the gender-religious nexus is critical for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5, and make the following recommendations:  

• Choosing partners who are leaders on gender issues in their contexts: International collaboration and partnerships are pivotal for achieving all SDGs, especially now as the world tries to recover from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving SDG 5 is deeply interconnected with achieving all SDGs. 

• Encourage religious literacy: Development agencies need to provide training throughout their organizational structures that convey a basic understanding of the ways in which religious discourses are context-specific, historically situated, internally diverse, continually reinforced and altered by both internal and external factors. 

• Conducting comprehensive gender analyses prior to projects and partnerships: A comprehensive, context-specific, and theory-based gender analysis can highlight the religion-gender intersection in each locality and facilitate the inclusion of religious actors. It can also uncover the patriarchal power dynamics behind religious arguments supporting gender inequality.  

Five Key Takeaways from ACT Alliance’s participation CPD56

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the ICPD Programme of Action, and while progress has been made, this remains too slow and uneven. ACT Alliance convened a global delegation of members to participate in the 56th UN Commission on Population and Development, with representation from Argentina, Ethiopia, Nepal, Kenya, South Africa, and Brazil. ACT members were also part  of the national government delegations of Sweden and Norway.

As we reflect on our participation, here are our 5 key takeaways:

1. Multi-stakeholder partnerships and feminist allies are critical to amplify a collective voice. To implement the ICPD Programme of Action, and advance SRHR, we must break silos and be catalytic collaborators, working across different sectors. For example, ACT Alliance has been participating in the broad civil society platform of  International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition and actively collaborating with secular feminist organisations, UN Agencies, and Member States, to create collective calls and collaborations for reproductive justice, and counter backlashes on human rights, including SRHR.
2. When governments talk about sex – they might really be talking about geopolitics. Many adolescents and young people, including the most marginalized young people, continue to face structural and societal gendered barriers in terms of accessing education, which was the focus of this year’s commission. The crux of the negotiations focused on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), which can support adolescents and young people’s decisions concerning their sexuality, health and well-being. Yet, the relationships between nation-states (the geopolitical context) were apparent, as Member States navigated an overtly politicised and polarised discussion on the right to education. 
3. Religion and human rights continue to be polarised in UN spaces. Whenever religion enters the public sphere or becomes powerful in politics, it tends to orbit around gender issues. Patriarchal gender norms, which block progress on advancing SRHR, are packaged in the language of religion because it legitimises them. You can read more on the nexus between religion, gender and development, in our co-published report, The Role of Religious Actors in Gender Equality since the Beijing Declaration (Khalaf-Elledge 2021: 44). However, this does not reflect the reality on the ground and ACT members and faith-partners engaged in ICPD show the importance of working with religious actors to advance SRHR.
4. Anti-rights actors are coordinated and have money. The 1994 UN Population and Development Conference in Cairo affirmed aspects of SRHR and a number of crucial aspects in regard to healthy, sustainable population and human lives around the world: “179 world leaders reached a consensus and adopted a programme of action, which enshrined individual reproductive rights as a basic human right.”. Yet, nearly 30 years later, strategic anti-rights alliances, which are often well-funded, are creating resistance to reproductive justice. In the case of the 56th CPD, the pushback on gender equality prevented an agreement by Member States from being reached.
5. ACT Alliance’s diversity is our strength, we have a powerful role as a rights and faith-based alliance, to reclaim religious narratives for gender justice.  

“Whatever our faith or cultural background, let us give every girl the protection, information and resources she needs to thrive.” – Dr. Kanem, Executive Director, UNFPA;

“It is important to adapt the language of SRHR to the local level, faith communities are the potential translators for what this means.” – Nirmala, World YWCA, Nepal;

“Promote new narratives, aligning with bodily autonomy, by creating narratives close to the ground. Norms and values are not static; they are open to interpretation and change.” – Paula, CDD Mexico;

“As communities of faith we cannot be silent when girls and women in all their diversities are being threatened and inequalities exacerbated.” – Zanele, ACT Ubumbano, South Africa.

Our delegates contributed to Side Events, bi-lateral meetings with member States, strategy sessions, and networking with civil society actors. As faith actors, who are rooted in communities, our members powerfully shared how methodologies and practices are advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, including in an oral statement. As part of our advocacy we co-hosted the Side Event, ‘Between Taboos and Freedom: Religion, Rights and Reproductive Justice’, which you can watch on UN WebTV here.

The 67th UN Commission on the Status of Women, focusing on gender equality, technology and innovation, has concluded. After over 85 hours of negotiations, member states reached the so-called Agreed Conclusions, and decided on new normative language on gender equality.  

The ACT Alliance Gender Justice Programme, our members, advocates and partners, joined forces, mobilised and coordinated to strategically advocate for gender justice and speak up for those voices who could not be represented in New York.  

The diversity of our delegation, the National Forums, the Regional Communities of Practices, and the global membership, provided us with a constellation of perspectives and lived contexts that enriched our collective calls for action.  

We made sure that our faith and rights-based voice and the experiences we have collected in decades of working in and with communities were brought to the discussion table. For these reasons, we co-hosted three Side Events with governments (Sweden, Mexico, Finland, Liberia, Denmark, and Chile) and UNFPA, two Parallel Events with faith-based actors, a Networking Event with feminist allies (including Fos Feminista, Equality Now), and a Strategy Workshop with 30 faith actors (including LWF, WCC).  

Throughout CSW67, we strategized with our members (both in-person and virtually), to analyse draft texts, deliver oral statements, advocate to country missions, participate in bi-lateral meetings and amplify our collective call for gender justice.    
Policy frameworks and UN agreements can feel far removed from our daily lives, but these platforms contribute to shaping our rights and realities. It is crucial that we actively participate and speak up.  During the discussions at CSW about who has been hurt online, the power that AI has on restricting rights or targeting women and girls in all their diversity, and the importance of access to technology to ensure participation, we are reminded that this year’s theme raises concerns that must be addressed urgently and cannot be side-lined.  

The results of the CSW negotiations are crucial to ensure that national and international advocacy efforts can continue and   push for transformative change at country and community levels, to address the root causes of gender inequalities.

The following are reflections on the importance of the Agreed Conclusions from our delegates: 

“To address the gender digital divide requires Member States to embark on national policy enactments, which mainstream gender and ethics, to counter the risks of having digital inequalities being the new frontier of gender inequality. As we look forward, the intentionality on inclusive language will ensure that digital innovations, including AI, are cognizant of the unique online safety and security needs of women and girls, and their participation in politics, economics and social life.”  

• Gladys Nairuba, DanChurchAid & ACT Africa Gender Community of Practice, Uganda  

“At CSW67, we heard how religion is being used as an argument against gender justice and reproductive health and rights. Some religious actors are claiming traditional values and are allowing themselves to be instrumentalised in a global push back against equality for women and girls in all their diversity. That’s why it’s critical for faith actors, who affirm human rights, to engage in UN processes. We welcome that the Agreed Conclusions, in the context of technology and innovation, recognise that faith-based organisations are critical stakeholders for gender equality. We must continue to mobilise our communities to reclaim religious narratives and counter backlashes on gender justice.” 

• Rev. Dr. Antje Jackelén, Archbishop Emerita, Church of Sweden 

“Women human rights defenders are frequently victims of digital violence in Latin America. Moving forward, we must continue to promote coordinated strategies with various actors to guarantee safe spaces. We will continue to denounce such violence, and work together to ensure women and girls receive necessary support online.”  

• Laura Chacón González, LWF & ACT LAC Gender Community of Practice, Colombia  

The Agreed Conclusions provide a vision and new policy framework when it comes to gendered technology and innovation. For instance, we are particularly encouraged by the inclusion of references to adolescent girls, women’s and girls’ right to privacy and the need to protect personal information as well as the strong emphasis on policy actions for the elimination and prevention of gender-based violence that occurs through or is amplified by the use of technologies. The reference to freedom of opinion and expression is another important element.  

However, the push back on rights is something we need to carefully monitor and fight against. We lament the erasure of text that references ‘gender-transformative action/innovation’, ‘women and girls in all their diversity’, ‘intersectional lens’, and ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights’, including ‘comprehensive sexuality education’. References to ‘Multiple and Intersecting Forms of Discrimination’ were also minimised in the Agreed Conclusions, and there was some resistance to recognising girls as rightsholders. This means that young people who are on the frontlines of the digital revolution, and those on the margins of our societies, are further neglected. 

Policy frameworks must address the lived realities of women and girls in all their diversity. The change we seek must be transformative and intersectional and we, faith actors must play a vital role in building gender-just societies and provide a fearless voice that calls for transformative courage.

We continue, together,  on the road to equality.  

A blog by Palwashay Arbab, Community World Service Asia

Technology is a double-edged sword. This is especially true if we look at gender equality for which, technology is promoted as an enabler. But as much as technology bridges the digital divide, increases access to communication and makes the world a global village, it also contributes to creating gaps and inequalities. As it amplifies the voices of some, it limits the participation of others. As much as it brings people together, it also drives them further apart. As much it gives liberty and freedom, it also creates loneliness and isolation.

Is it the new bitter-sweet symphony, I ask myself? Maybe.

As leading advocates of digital equality, I wonder if the organisers of the UN CSW67 considered the use of technology to ensure the effective inclusion and participation of delegates who face access constraints?  It is safe to assume that some of the key players in the fight for gender justice and closer to those suffering from abuse and lack of human rights cannot participate in the commission in New York.  

But what is it proposed to ensure that their voices are heard in this pivotal platform where important decisions about them, their life, their rights and their future are made?

Undoubtedly there are various virtual spaces and side events that those interested can participate in. These are great learning spaces. But there needs to be a plan for ensuring the equal access as virtual delegates for those communities that would otherwise go unheard. Yes, most governments are there to represent their people and their issues, but one cannot deny the difference in perspectives that a government representative and a civil society activist or a community member has and like to echo at an important platform like this one.

The digital divide can be conquered and ensuring access and meaningful participation is a way to dominate it. We have a tremendous opportunity to ensure equal and full participation for everyone, in every corner of the world with the use of technology.

Many potential delegates like myself who require a visa to just reach New York, were denied access only because we could not reach the country physically. However, we could participate and contribute if given the chance to participate virtually – as equally as those present at the headquarters. I can still participate in the conversation by writing this blog post.

But then I wonder – what about countries like Afghanistan? My women colleagues have been barred from working. They still do, from home, trying their best to complete all the tasks hidden from view.

Their roles and responsibilities have been changed to ensure working from home is possible and project activities continue. But some things can only be done by women. For instance, only a woman communicator could get a story from an Afghan woman or girl. Only she could ask them about their needs or if the support is meeting their requirement?

Who is to fill that gap?

These are the challenges we need to overcome. And it is their voices we need to hear the most if we truly want to achieve gender justice. It is their story that needs to be told, and they need to be able to tell it.

We cannot let technology and the digital divide leave them behind.  We must do more, and we must do better. We must allow it to be an enabler and we must create resources and opportunities for those voices that risk to be otherwise silenced. 

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance General Secretary  

I am writing this blog from Zanzibar, where I am gathering with fellow High-Level Commission members to launch our new report. The report published today charts some of the gains and gaps in the progress of the 12 Global Commitments contained in the Nairobi Statement on ICPD25. 

Central to the report is a call for sexual and reproductive justice, which emphasise the importance of locating women’s reproductive choices within a broader analysis of the racial, economic, cultural, and structural constraints on women’s agency and power. 

In 1994, the year that saw the adoption of the historic ICPD Programme of Action, a collective of 12 Black feminists coined the term “reproductive justice”, transforming the narrow “pro-life versus pro-choice” debate dominating reproductive, economic and social rights discourse in the United States of America.   

While ‘reproductive justice’ is not founded by religious traditions, the concept of justice is intrinsically part of our faith tradition, which also includes dignity, ethics, self-determination, liberation, and autonomy. Justice is embedded in sacred texts and enables people of faith to better understand the interconnected injustices that undermine human rights and dignity.   

I believe we are called not to work only for individual rights, ‘my body, my choice’, but for sexual and reproductive justice, which emphasises the communitarian. This is especially important in many of the southern contexts, including my own in Brazil, which has still many community-oriented spaces, often communitarian organised life, in groups, and associations.  

One of the key recommendations of the report launched today calls for a broader engagement with faith-based leaders and organisations. We know that eighty-four per cent of the world’s population identify as members of a faith group, and that faith principles and religious and traditional leaders shape social norms and values, while also influencing government policies and practices. 

A narrow version of religion, in particular Christianity, is often mobilised and instrumentalized in global policy arenas, which has blocked progress on achieving universal and inter-dependent human rights: “Whenever religion enters the public sphere and becomes powerful in politics, it tends to orbit around gender issues. Patriarchal gender norms are packaged in the language of religion because it legitimises them. It makes them appear divinely ordained and unchangeable.” (Khalaf-Elledge 2021).  

The role of traditional and religious leaders and faith-based organisations is key in ensuring the rights and needs of people in communities are upheld and met. Our ACT Alliance Gender Programme is working closely with our members and national and regional forums, to harness the value-based power of faith actors. For example, investing in new faith narratives/theologies for reproductive justice, confronting rising fundamentalisms, and advocating for and contributing to the implementation of Comprehensive Sexual Education. 

We hope that the report launched today illuminates a path forward to achieve the ICPD25 commitments through a sexual and reproductive justice framework. The road to sexual and reproductive justice is long and the stakes are high. There are no quick fixes. Yet, it is critical that we continue to move forward, and not give ground to those who want to push women’s rights back.  

Since 1991, from 25th November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) until 10th December (Human Rights Day), communities around the world have mobilised for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The dates are significant, naming the violence against women as a violation of human rights. 

In Latin America, where a woman is murdered by a man every hour, ACT members are determined to be agents of change and resistance. During 16 days of activism, members in the region mobilised people to come together, to reflect and share wisdom on what is needed for a life free of violence. Following these deep reflections and conversations, people were invited to paint a bench, a chair or object in a public space, red. The red bench / el banco rojo is emblematic of a place occupied by women and girls, who experience sexual and gender-based violence. Calling people to be aware, reflect and act. 

In Uganda, where 56% of women are abused by sexual partners, ACT members are mobilising religious leaders and faith communities to speak out, report abuse to the authorities and work to transform social norms. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda, Rt. Rev. Samuel Steven Kazimba Mugalu used mainstream media channels to affirm the Church’s commitment to ending Gender-Based Violence: “Until violence against women is finally eradicated, the Christian vision of justice can never be realised’. The Church of Uganda Gender and Social Justice Officer, Irene Anena, participated in several national talk shows focusing on patriarchy, transformative masculinities and action. 

A focus in our communications this year was on the different forms of Gender-Based Violence. ACT members and forums contributed to an Illustrated Guide to Gender-Based Violence, (also in Spanish here) which has been shared across social media. Definitions produced by our members were accompanied by strong calls for action. 

ACT Alliance also co-convened a Conversatorio focusing on Black, Decolonising and Feminist Theologies for Gender Justice. Speakers included Rev. Dr. Jeannette Ada Maina, Rev. Dr Elvira Moisés da Silva Cazombo, Dr. Mary ‘Joy’ Philip, and Dr. Nontando Hadebe. A focus for the discussion was how an intersectional perspective implies hearing voices that speak different languages and accents, that communicate in different ways and structures, producing diverse knowledge(s).

Unequal systems

Gender differences and inequalities are breeding discrimination, exclusion, and violence, especially for women, but also for men who are not fitting in the hegemonic models of masculinities. For many, this is a daily fight for survival in diverse contexts, including our faith spaces. 

Colonialism and patriarchy are systems constructed with an understanding of power that cannot deal with diversity. There is an intrinsic power controlling knowledges and bodies. It expropriates the collective production of knowledges and wisdoms. Colonisation is also a system that erases the diversity of religious and faith experiences. It has a pretension to homogenise the divine experience with God.

An intersectional perspective implies hearing voices that speak different languages and accents, that communicate in different ways and mindsets, structures, producing diverse knowledge. This approach also infers in an inter-religious dialogue and interfaith practice and coexistence. Respect and dialogue are binding relations, in harmonic and peaceful collaborations. “Grace and faithfulness come together, justice and peace kiss each other.” (Ps 85:11).

In the past year, we held many thought-provoking conversations within the Gender Programme on several topics:  transformative masculinities, economic justice, family law, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights among others. 

We convened these shared spaces in collaboration with members, partners and ecumenical sister agencies. We believe these are important conversations to have, but it is also important to walk together in action. To make sure that our theologies, practises and programmes, contribute to deconstructing oppressive structures, and imagine a world of justice. 

As the year comes to a close, we would like to thank all the members and partners who walked together on the road to equality. 

Last week marked the end of the 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence and your contribution to this campaign was incredible. We raised our collective voice to call for an end of all forms of GBV and demand greater action and accountability to prevent violence against women and girls in all their diversities.

In this blessed period of advent I invite all of us to reflect on the biblical text: conversations between Mary and Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth’s words and actions invite us to reflect on our own openness to the ways that God chooses to act in our world. What is God doing through unexpected people in our society today? Where is God at work through people whom our neighbours and fellow church members often exclude or treat as shameful? Will we listen to the Spirit’s prompting when the bearers of God’s new reality show up on our doorstep?

In solidarity,

The Gender Justice team

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary, ACT Alliance

Following the Nairobi Summit in 2019, which aimed to accelerate progress for sexual and reproductive health and rights, I have served on the High-Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 Follow-up. Our task as an independent advisory body is to track steps forward, and sadly also pushbacks, on promises made at the landmark 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. We have now published our first report: ‘No Exceptions, No Exclusions: Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice for All’ (download in English and French).

One of the recommendations included in the new report is to ‘inspire broad support and action’. As the report acknowledges, this includes faith-based leaders and organisations, who are often granted unique and trusted relationships within communities. As eighty-four per cent of the world’s population self-identify as members of a faith group, faith principles and faith leaders’ teachings shape social norms and values, as well as influence government policies and practices. 

Sexual and reproductive justice will not be achieved simply by changing laws, reducing poverty, or improving education and health care services. While these are all essential  steps, we also need to challenge and eliminate discriminatory social norms that constrain bodily autonomy, agency and rights.  To this end, the ACT Gender Justice Programme, is working closely with our members, national and regional forums and platforms to harness the value-based power of faith actors to advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. 

A good example of this model is the work of the ACT Argentina Forum, which is confronting fundamentalist and hateful discourses which oppress, manipulate, and deny the fundamental freedoms of women and girls in all their diversity.The forum is developing and sharing liberating faith narratives and theological perspectives that encourage the rereading of sacred texts and cultural contexts. It is also creating safe spaces of trust, which are open,  intimate and focused on active listening without judgement.  Together, we are working to support and amplify those prophetic voices who are courageously calling for transformative action to achieve justice for all. 

In Argentina, as in many countries where our members work, the struggle for justice is also part of the challenge in achieving Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Patriarchal systems and structures, limited resources, and discriminatory social norms, govern and limit  the decisions and agency of women and girls. In Argentina, faith-based organisations are now demanding financial resources to ensure comprehensive health services for women and girls and  social protection that puts  the rights of women and girls at the centre. This includes advocating for and contributing to the implementation of Comprehensive Sexual Education, which has been mandatory across the curriculum in Argentina since 2006, but continues to face resistance. 

As the High-Level Commission Report argues, adolescents and youth are paying a heavy price for the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence shows that during the pandemic girls are at a higher risk of missing out on school, alongside an intensifying resistance to comprehensive sexuality education in many countries: ‘Due to the pandemic, 2020 saw the largest surge in girls becoming brides in 25 years, and additional 10 million girls are likely to enter into child marriage by 2030’ (2021: 28). As people of faith, we are called upon to serve the most vulnerable within our communities, and to work for justice.  

The report concludes with the Commission’s call for action by all relevant partners, including governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, the United Nations and other international bodies to join forces. We are calling for ambitious action to end shortfalls in sexual and reproductive health and rights that cost lives, destroy health and slow development around the world. No Exceptions. No Exclusions. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria is the General Secretary of the ACT Alliance, a coalition of churches and faith based organisations engaged in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in the world, consisting of 137 members working together in over 120 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people, regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality in keeping with the highest international codes and standards. Rudelmar is the co-chair and member of the United Nations Multi-Faith Advisory Council, member of the UN Steering Committee for the Implementation of the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence, Commissioner of the UN High-Level Commission of the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 Follow-up and member of the COVAX Facility AMC Engagement Group.