Ready, set, pull back? European backsliding gender policies during ‘constructing dialogues’ with the CEDAW Committee

Description

Despite the significant developments in relation to gender equality and the protection of women from violence in the last 40 years, the backsliding of democracy and the erosion of gender equality policies in Europe seems to be an undeniable process. Ratified by 189 countries, including all European states, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has become one of the most relevant instruments to achieve gender equality. Moreover, the Committee monitoring the Convention has adopted several general recommendations addressing the multiple dimensions of gender-based violence. Among such recommendations, the Committee has called on European States to ratify the Council of Europe Convention. Many European states, however, have resisted to do so, many of them arguing that the Convention promotes ‘gender ideology’. Besides resistance to ratification, anti-gender campaigns appear to have taken hold of States, reinstating traditional family values. The monitoring process of the Committee, which brings States, activists, civil society and regional organizations in ‘a constructive dialogue’ to accelerate the compliance with the Convention, can provide an indication the extent to which European States and other stakeholders have embraced those tactics and discourses. This paper consists of a longitudinal systematic analysis of the state reports, civil society submissions and the CEDAW Committee’s concluding observations adopted during the monitoring process of European states during the last 10 years, exploring the tensions between the human rights commitments and anti-gender discourses raised by different actors. The aim of the analysis is two-fold. Firstly, to identify the notions and narratives used to resist gender-equality policies and the critiques toward gender-based violence frameworks, along with the main actors raising them. And secondly, to distinguish between European states where a gender-policy backlash is taking place, from those in which principles of gender equality, and the elimination of non-discrimination and violence have not yet sufficiently permeated laws and policies.

Period	8 Dec 2020
Event title	ECPR Virtual General Conference 2020
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	International