Around the world, extremist individuals, groups and governments are on the rise, emboldened by right-wing electoral victories. Not only are sexual and reproductive health and rights under threat, so are liberal democracies and the civil liberties and human rights of all.
For more than a decade, Ipas has been working to understand, mitigate and share information about the multiple ways anti-rights actors are undermining gender justice, LGBTIQ rights and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including abortion. These actors are diverse and well-connected, and work across religious denominations, political affiliations, and geographies.
By tracking broad trends in anti-rights movements and strategically sharing information with partners, media, researchers, and allies, we are working to counter anti-rights and anti-gender efforts and support the international human rights of all. Our goal is to transform monitoring into action.
Newest publications:
Slide to Christian Nationalism: CPAC’s Global Expansion into Mexico
In November 2022, the U.S.-based Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held its first forum in Mexico. The event was hosted by ultra-conservative Catholic activist Eduardo Verástegui through his organization Movimiento Viva México (Long Live Mexico Movement), establishing a CPAC beachhead in Mexico that expands the transnational right-wing movement. A new Ipas report provides an overview of CPAC’s background and international expansion, with a focus on how CPAC is collaborating with far-right actors in Mexico to advance its Christian nationalist agenda.
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The Other Americans: CPAC Comes to Latin America – in The Progressive
US Christian Right Spend $75 Million Globally on Anti-Abortion and Anti-LGBTIQ Activism Since 2015 – in ByLine Times
US Christian Right Groups Spent $20 Million in Africa Since 2015 – in ByLine Times
Where Democracy Falters, So Do Reproductive Rights
Undermining reproductive rights in one country, especially one as influential as the United States, often has ripple effects. U.S. administrations have for decades swung back and forth on funding family planning around the world, depending on their party line, while American anti-abortion groups look to wield influence far and wide. “Anti-rights organizations are global institutions,” says Dr. Anu Kumar, Ipas’s President and CEO in Foreign Policy.
How a Spanish right-wing group incited a moral storm in Kenya
Dr Angela Akol, the director of the Ipas Africa Alliance—which aims to end preventable deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortions—said the Mozilla Foundation’s report “demonstrates how quickly misinformation on important public health issues spreads and confirms that the anti-abortion movement in Kenya is fueled by overseas organizations. These are dangerous tactics and only serve to harm women.
‘Traditional Values’ Unite Both Sides in a New Ideological Cold War
There is much debate about a new “cold war” between Russia and the U.S., but one tactic illiberal politicians on both sides of the Atlantic agree on is embracing “traditional values” to cover up their own failings. Far-right demagogues from Moscow to Texas increasingly incite moral panic to stir up tensions and deflect from domestic troubles, writes Gillian Kane, senor policy advisor for Ipas.
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Who are right-wing forces that attacked Georgia’s LGBTIQ+ ? in EU Obserer
The Mission Field Hospital in Political Research Associates
Attacks on women’s ministries are a threat to democracy in Open Democracy
