Advocacy & Lobbying
Gender has become one of the defining political battlegrounds of our time.
Across continents, debates about gender identity, bodily autonomy, sexuality, healthcare, family structures, education, sports, and public participation have moved from the margins of political discourse to its very center. Yet rather than expanding rights and protections, many governments, institutions, and powerful actors are increasingly using gender as a tool for political polarization, stigma, control, and criminalization.
Today, gender-diverse people, women, LGBTQ+ communities, and other sexually marginalized groups find themselves confronting growing efforts to criminalize, censor, or restrict fundamental aspects of their lives. Access to gender-affirming healthcare is under attack globally. Gender-based violence continues at alarming rates. LGBTQ+ communities face renewed discrimination and harassment. Hard-won rights that once appeared secure are being challenged, rolled back, or reframed as threats to society itself.
The consequences are visible in nearly every space we inhabit.
Ziyu, born in 2002, still remembers the first time her mother asked whether she wanted a younger sibling.
It was sometime in middle school, shortly after China loosened its birth restrictions. “I was already buried under academic pressure, emotionally dependent on my mother in the way many anxious only children are. My mother brought it up casually, half-joking: “What if we had another baby?”
She answered with shocking seriousness. “You can only choose one,” she told her. “Either them or me.”
Ziyu does not think she literally meant that she would rather die than accept a sibling. What stayed with her was the fear behind it. At that age, her mother’s attention felt inseparable from survival. The idea of sharing it felt catastrophic.
When China ended the One-Child Policy in 2015, the shift was often described in demographic terms: declining birth rates, an aging population, and a policy adjustment to encourage more births. For women born under the policy, its impact was far more intimate. It shaped how families distributed love and resources, and how young women came to understand their place within the family.
There are phrases born from the deepest pain that end up changing history. In 1995, Mexican poet Susana Chávez Castillo wrote “Not One Woman Less, Not One More Death” as she walked the streets of Ciudad Juárez denouncing the systematic murder of women, which the state preferred to call “unfortunate incidents.” In 2011, she herself was murdered — raped and mutilated like so many of the women she had defended.
Chávez Castillo did not live to see how her words would have a lasting impact on the world. Four years after her femicide, her slogan crossed the continent.
On May 10, 2015, in Santa Fe, Argentina, Chiara Páez — 14 years old and two months pregnant — was beaten to death by her boyfriend and buried in the backyard of his family home. The entire town had been searching for her. Her father said something that no public policy should ever forget: “Chiara was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The violence did not begin that day. It has been going on for many years.”
A month after the crime, 300,000 people filled the Plaza of the Two Congresses in Buenos Aires and gathered in 80 other Argentine cities for a massive demonstration against gender-based violence, under a single slogan. Within weeks, Ni Una Menos (Not One Woman Less) was being heard in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay.
Latin America recognized in that slogan something it already knew but which no one had named so clearly: that women are killed for being women, and that it has a name — femicide.
The webinar was organized by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) under the Women and Youth Democratic Engagement (WYDE) Women’s Leadership Initiative, funded by the European Union and implemented in partnership with UN Women, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), with overall coordination led by UN Women.
Held on 22 April 2026, the webinar brought together stakeholders and practitioners to review and validate a series of thematic fact sheets developed through the WYDE Women’s Leadership Initiative.
Opening remarks were delivered by Rumbidzai Kandawasvika-Nhundu, Theme Lead for Gender Equality, Empowerment and Inclusion at International IDEA, who emphasized the collaborative nature of the initiative and encouraged participants to share feedback and regional perspectives during the validation process.
PRESENTERS/SPEAKERS
-
Salman Asif is a specialist in gender equality, political participation, and prevention of gender-based violence, with more than 15 years of international experience. He presented the fact sheet on male engagement in advancing women’s political participation and representation.
-
Mariatu Elba is a human rights, gender equality, and governance expert with over 15 years of experience, particularly in Southern Africa. She presented the fact sheet on violence against women in politics.
-
Caroline Hubbard is a gender equality and inclusive governance specialist with more than 20 years of experience. She presented the fact sheet on the global context and status of young women’s political participation and representation.
Introduction
Targeted online violence against women in public life is increasingly technologically sophisticated and damaging, triggering alarming rates of mental health diagnosis, heightened self-censorship, and more frequent escalation to law enforcement. For women human rights defenders and activists, journalists and media workers, and writers and other public communicators, online violence is often deliberate and coordinated, aiming to silence them while undermining their professional credibility and personal reputations. It also serves to fuel the reversal of hard-won rights in a climate of rising authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and networked misogyny. Gender rights rollback is both enabled and exacerbated by technologies which — by design — amplify misogynistic hate speech for profit.
Generative AI apps are the latest manifestation of this form of subjugation. They do not just ‘nudify’ women and girls instantaneously without their consent, they simulate them being sexually assaulted. AI-assisted ‘virtual rape’ is now at the fingertips of perpetrators. This phenomenon deepens and accelerates the harm inflicted on women in public life who are increasingly targeted in online violence campaigns with an escalation in associated offline attacks, abuse and harassment, as our previous research has shown. In this publication — the second installment in the Tipping Point series that examines how online violence is constraining women’s participation in public life in the AI Age — we focus primarily on manifestations of image-based abuse and what happens after exposure to such online violence. How are survivors affected personally and professionally? What coping mechanisms do they deploy? And how do they seek legal redress? Our data is derived from a UN-Women commissioned global survey which was distributed in late 2025 in five languages, in partnership with UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists.
Thirty (30) prospective female candidates are set to benefit from targeted training and mentorship under a new initiative aimed at increasing women’s participation and representation in Ghana’s local governance system ahead of the 2027 District Level Elections.
The project, titled “Strengthening Women’s Capacities for Effective Participation and Representation in Ghana’s Local Governance System,” was launched by ABANTU for Development in partnership with Plan International Ghana and with support from the Government of Canada.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr. Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, described the initiative as a timely investment in women’s leadership and political participation.
Introduction
Targeted online violence against women in public life is increasingly technologically sophisticated and damaging, triggering alarming rates of mental health diagnosis, heightened self-censorship, and more frequent escalation to law enforcement. For women human rights defenders and activists, journalists and media workers, and writers and other public communicators, online violence is often deliberate and coordinated, aiming to silence them while undermining their professional credibility and personal reputations. It also serves to fuel the reversal of hard-won rights in a climate of rising authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and networked misogyny. Gender rights rollback is both enabled and exacerbated by technologies which — by design — amplify misogynistic hate speech for profit.
Generative AI apps are the latest manifestation of this form of subjugation. They do not just ‘nudify’ women and girls instantaneously without their consent, they simulate them being sexually assaulted. AI-assisted ‘virtual rape’ is now at the fingertips of perpetrators. This phenomenon deepens and accelerates the harm inflicted on women in public life who are increasingly targeted in online violence campaigns with an escalation in associated offline attacks, abuse and harassment, as our previous research has shown. In this publication — the second installment in the Tipping Point series that examines how online violence is constraining women’s participation in public life in the AI Age — we focus primarily on manifestations of image-based abuse and what happens after exposure to such online violence. How are survivors affected personally and professionally? What coping mechanisms do they deploy? And how do they seek legal redress? Our data is derived from a UN-Women commissioned global survey which was distributed in late 2025 in five languages, in partnership with UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists.
Across the globe, deliberate illiberal strategies that exploit entrenched gender inequality are increasingly being used to weaken democratic institutions from within. The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was not simply a byproduct of chaos at the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. Rather, it followed a well-documented authoritarian strategy in which attacks on gender equality are used to consolidate power, narrow civic space, and make democratic governance harder to defend. While the process of dismantling the agency that administered U.S. government foreign assistance has been well documented, significant gaps remain between what insiders witnessed and what the broader public understands. This gap in understanding is not benign. When the public perceives these events as isolated policy shifts rather than coordinated institutional erosion, it diffuses accountability, obscures the impact, reduces resistance, and allows similar tactics to be redeployed without scrutiny.
The administration’s early actions targeting gender equality, women’s empowerment, LGBTQI+ initiatives, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility functions operated not as peripheral policy disputes but as frontline tactics that weakened foreign assistance infrastructure, government institutions, and democratic norms. Trump has used this approach since at least 2016. It was mapped out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Drawing on firsthand experience and technical analysis, this report situates these actions within an effective authoritarian pattern of leveraging patriarchal norms and cross-ideological gender bias to justify institutional retrenchment, create administrative compliance, and accelerate structural dismantling. Ultimately, the strategic sidelining of gender equality functions increased institutional vulnerability. Although the Trump administration’s targeting of those functions did not create the vulnerability, it recognized, exposed, and exploited it as part of a wider effort to erode democratic norms. Rebuilding democratic systems and foreign assistance architecture, therefore, will require treating gender equality as a core resilience safeguard rather than a peripheral policy concern. Its strategic targeting is central to the broader authoritarian assault on democracy. Democracy stakeholders must name that pattern, examine the decisions that enabled it, and learn from what unfolded.
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, digital platforms have become central to political participation in the country, enabling female politicians, elections candidates, activists and public figures to mobilise communities and shape public debate.However, this visibility has drastically exposed women in politics to various forms of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) : Online harassment, sexualised abuse, defamation, threats and coordinated smear campaigns are routinely used to undermine women’s credibility, silence their voices and deter their participation in political life. Beyond the severe harm inflicted on individual women in politics, TFGBV constitutes a structural threat to all women’s political rights, democratic pluralism and freedom of expression. By reinforcing misogynistic norms and normalising sexist intimidation, it erodes hard-won gains of women’s political participation in Tunisia.
What is at stake extends beyond Tunisia. The 2011 Revolution of Dignity which ended the Ben Ali dictatorship marked a historic turning point, igniting the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and positioned Tunisia as a symbol of democratic possibility in the region and on the African continent. Earlier milestones, from the Personal Status Code of 1956 to progressive reforms including Organic Law No. 58-2017 on the elimination of violence against women and girls (Law 58), have long cast Tunisia as a reference point for women’s rights and legal reform. Tunisia’s trajectory sends signals across Africa and the Middle East about what becomes possible when women’s rights are defended and what collapses when they are politically sacrificed.
This webinar focused on barriers, challenges and strategies pertaining to the issue of gender parity for women in politics. Our guest speaker for the discussion was Dr. Mona Lena Krook.
Applying an intersectional lens the webinar discussion drew on research from Dr. Mona Lena Krook’s book, Elect Women for a Change: The Path to Gender Parity in Politics, Dr. Krook presented a core thesis: the global political community must move beyond aspirational "critical mass" targets (typically 30%) toward a non-negotiable 50/50 parity framework. This shift represents a transition from viewing women’s participation as an elective "add-on" to recognizing it as a fundamental requirement for democratic legitimacy.
Over the past decade Somaliland has seen a worrying convergence of political exclusion for women and active pushback against progressive sexual-offences laws and gender-equity measures. The result is not only weaker legal protection for survivors, but social environments that enable sexual violence and silence victims. This article examines recent examples and reports, connects them to the rollback of protections and low female political representation, and outlines the human-rights and social costs for Somaliland’s women and girls.
This article is released by the Women’s Human Rights, Education & Environment Association (WHEEA), with KOMBOA through the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network. It aims to expose the growing impact of backlash against the women’s rights movement in Somaliland, particularly following the rejection of progressive sexual-offences legislation. By documenting recent cases of sexual violence, political exclusion, and institutional failures, the article highlights how resistance to women’s rights has deepened impunity and vulnerability for women and girls. In addition to analysis, the article provides concrete policy recommendations for lawmakers, religious leaders, civil society, and international partners to strengthen protection, accountability, and women’s political participation in Somaliland.
This brief provides an overview of how the UN system has advanced global efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the past five years. Drawing from the contributions of 36 UN entities and mechanisms for the Inventory of United Nations activities to end violence against women and girls, the brief highlights collective progress achieved through coordinated action, joint programming and partnerships with governments, civil society and women’s rights organizations. The brief documents the UN system’s role in advancing global norms and standards, with notable developments in violence in the work environment, technology-facilitated violence, conflict-related sexual violence and harmful practices. It showcases how coordination mechanisms and flagship joint initiatives—such as the spotlight initiative, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and other inter-agency programmes—have mobilized resources, strengthened laws and policies, expanded access to survivor-centered services, scaled up prevention efforts and improved data and evidence. At the same time, the brief underscores persistent gaps, including uneven implementation of laws, limited financing, fragmented prevention efforts, data challenges and growing backlash against gender equality. It emphasizes the central role of women’s rights organizations and feminist movements in driving sustainable change. Looking ahead to 2030, the brief calls for the UN system to deepen coordination, strengthen accountability, invest in evidence-based interventions at scale and reinforce locally led, whole-of-society approaches to end VAWG.