Archives: Resources

This report chronicles the third day of the 2013 World Congress of Families in Sydney. It provides an outline of the day’s events, the issues that were brought up by speakers and panelists, and the issues that were avoided or left out by the program. It criticizes the event’s homophobia, anti-choice narratives, and parochial gender ideologies in the programs and concludes with an overall evaluation of the congress.

This General Comment at the 39th session of the Human Rights Committee in 1990 calls for all states to ensure their laws relating to family adhere to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and prohibit forced and underage marriages, permit divorce, ensure family planning practices are non-discriminatory, ensure the equality of responsibilities and rights between genders in families, and prevent gendered discrimination in families.

This recommendation by CEDAW reinforces the commitment to the erasure of harmful practices against women and children, highlighting that cultural and social ideologies and norms contribute towards gender roles and gendered ideas that harm children and women. It outlines critieria to determine what constitutes a harmful practice, identifies common harmful practices, and reminds states of their obligations to eliminate these practices and ensure a gender-equal future for their peoples.

The World Congress of Families is a US-based right-wing religious initiative that exports homophobia and sexism globally. This report by Catholics for Choice, serves as an introduction to the 2013 World Congress of Families, held in Sydney, Australia. Using the WCF website and press releases, this short report outlines expectations and prior events influencing the event, its speakers, and its goals.

Authors: Lucila Puyol and Paula Condrac, with Mirtha Manzur, Multisectoral Women’s Group of Santa Fe

This report discusses the case of Ana Maria Acevedo, who was denied life-saving cancer treatment by doctors who valued her pregnancy before her health. It examines religious fundamentalism in an Argentinian context, and the strategies employed by the Multisectoral Women’s Group of Santa Fe to bring the doctors involved to justice and to publicize women’s sexual and reproductive rights.

This official document reiterates the ESCAP members’ commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action and their concerns about gender in the region. It lists the steps they promise to take towards greater gender equality in the region as related to issues such as health, education, and economic policies.

Author: Cassandra Balchin

This AWID report studies and compiles an analysis of cross-regional fundamentalisms, and the assortment of strategies utilized by feminist activists in order to combat them. The report also identifies common challenges and useful tools and strategies to be employed in order to affect change and strengthen feminist efforts to lead the resistance against fundamentalisms and their gendered effects.

Author: Shadi Sadr

This report analyzes the strategies used by the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign, which works to end the violent practice which is closely linked to religious fundamentalism and control over women. It focuses on Iran and the use of stoning by the government as a form of religiously-affiliated punishment that seeks to control women’s actions and curtail their rights, and the actions taken by the Stop Stoning Campaign in this context.

This report discusses Catholics for Choice’s views on the events that took place on the second day of the 2013 World Congress of Families. It points out the use of homophobic discourses to present heterosexual family units as a solution to global socio-economic issues.

This report chronicles the events that took place on the first day of the 2013 World Congress of Families in Sydney, as analyzed by Catholics for Choice. It reports the presence of homophobic, sexist, and conservative speeches made by speakers at the event to push specific agendas surrounding families and family ideals.