
Anti-Rights Groups Take Aim at Transnational Trade Agreement
Anti-rights groups and movements are expanding their work into new and seemingly unlikely spaces to impose regressive, fundamentalist Christian views on human rights, family, gender, and sexuality. This briefing paper outlines the activities of three anti-rights groups based in the Global North leading a transnational attack on an economic agreement between the European Union (EU) and its country partners in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) – known as the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement (the Agreement). Christian Council International, Family Watch International, and the Political Network for Values are taking issue with EU efforts to include protective language on human rights, and specifically sexual and reproductive health and rights within the Agreement. While it is unlikely that they will succeed in altogether derailing the Agreement renewal process, the investment of attention, time, and money warrants closer inspection by human rights activists and the media, as well as EU and ACP negotiators, parliamentarians, and other stakeholders.