Archives: Resources

In January 2025, the sudden and unprecedented USAID Stop Work Order sent shockwaves through the development, humanitarian, and human rights ecosystems.

Even before these developments, feminist movements and rights defenders were already contending with a changing resourcing ecosystem influenced by the global shift rightwards: the redistribution of resources from civil society to government, significant reductions in foreign aid, and even closure of private foundations who held up much of the support for our shared work. Before 2025, we were already concerned that there was no clear funding stream or institution who could “fill the gap” for our vital work.

While new attention to the the anti-rights threat from funders has made significant contributions to expanding the base of informed advocates who are better able to anticipate risks and prepare to
respond, much more needs to be done to bring this work to scale and create a sustainable movement that can resist for the long term.

This brief provides recommendation from the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) to funders, outlining the ways they can make a difference by supporting the resistance to fascisms, fundamentalisms, authoritarianism, and anti-rights threats.

Protego is a project of the Institute of Women’s Health, which is led by former Trump administration official Valerie Huber.

This brief from Ipas details the Protego project. Protego is designed to operationalize the non-binding, anti-abortion Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), which was created in 2020 by Huber under the Trump administration. Protego aims to supplant science-based, rights-respecting education, health, and foreign policy. Piloted in Guatemala in 2023 and formally launched in Uganda in February 2024, Protego is a threat to existing international human rights frameworks.

“Gender ideology” narratives are increasingly present in public discourse and policy-making spaces,
posing a significant threat to human rights.

The malleable concept of “gender ideology” casts
advocates of gender and social justice as illegitimate proponents of a nefarious agenda.
For decades, feminist scholars and advocates have articulated important concepts related to gender
to understand and challenge oppression and discrimination. Those concepts have now become
the target of anti-rights actors who claim that oppressive patriarchal gender roles are “common
sense”, strategically painting all other ideas, cultural norms, and forms of social life as a dangerous,
conspirative ideology.

Anti-rights actors’ infiltration of the UN – Spot key groups and debunk their narratives

In human rights systems, anti-rights actors are now operating with increased frequency, coordination, resources, and impact. These actors are chipping away at the very content and structure of our human rights concepts, institutions, and protections – with disastrous consequences for human rights and gender justice. Anti-rights actors form a complex web across national and international spaces.  They are often able to sustain their work through large budgets, in many cases from obscure sources.

Anti-rights actors are moving away from using explicitly regressive language, and co-opt human rights language and social justice issues to gain legitimacy. This primer is designed to help you spot some of the key anti-rights groups active in international spaces, and recognize and debunk some of their common discourses.  The primer is derived from the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) Trends Reports, Rights at Risk and Rights at Risk: Time for Action.

Freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is a universal human right guaranteed by Article 18 of the UN International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

In 2013, the European Union adopted the EU Guidelines on Freedom of Religion or Belief for which Human Rights Without Frontiers International was pleased to be involved in the drafting process along with religious communities and other civil society organisations. The Guidelines are an important reference tool for EU institutions in third countries for identifying FoRB violations and assisting citizens who have been discriminated against on the basis of their religion or beliefs. The Guidelines also set out the actions and measures that the EU can take at multilateral-fora, regional and bi-lateral levels with regard to countries which fail to respect FoRB.

The purpose of this report ‘In Prison for their Religion or Beliefs’is to highlight those states which imprison people for practices that are protected by Article 18 of the ICCPR and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The report also makes policy recommendations to the EU and other international institutions which are in a position to put pressure on the relevant countries to better respect and uphold FoRB.

Resolution adopted on June 26th, 2014

Recognizing that the preparations for and observance of the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family provide a useful opportunity to draw further attention to the objectives of the International Year for increasing cooperation at all levels on family issues and for undertaking concerted actions to strengthen family-centred policies and programmes as part of an integrated, comprehensive approach to human rights and development,

Reaffirming that States have the primary responsibility to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all human beings, including women, children and older persons,

Recognizing that the family has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children and that children, for the full and harmonious development of their personality, should grow up in a family environment and in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,

Convinced that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community, Reaffirming that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State,

1. Decides to convene, at its twenty-seventh session, a panel discussion on the protection of the family and its members to address the implementation of States’ obligations under relevant provisions of international human rights law and to discuss challenges and best practices in this regard;

2. Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to liaise with States and all stakeholders, including the relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, and programmes, the treaty bodies, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, national human rights institutions and civil society, with a view to ensuring their participation in the panel discussion;

3. Also requests the High Commissioner to prepare a report on the panel discussion in the form of a summary, and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-eighth session;

4. Decides to remain seized of the matter.