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reproductive rights

November 7, 2024

Italy’s cross-border crackdown on surrogacy, and the rising tide of transnational repression

Janina Heaphy Italy’s new cross-border surrogacy ban is typical of the way democratic nations are adopting authoritarian measures to target citizens who travel abroad to circumvent restrictions at home. The new law targets LGBTQ+ families in particular. Janina Heaphy argues that Italy's actions reflect a global trend of transnational restrictions on personal freedoms and human rights. Read more

March 5, 2024

🌈 Women’s roles in anti-authoritarian resistance

Saskia Brechenmacher Saskia Brechenmacher, Erin Jones, and Özge Zihnioğlu write that gender is critical to understanding popular resistance against democratic erosion and autocratic hardening around the world Read more

April 18, 2023

🌈 Genderwashing or genderbashing? Reconciling the different faces of modern autocrats

Elin Bjarnegård Gender and authoritarianism are interconnected – but in different and unexpected ways. Elin Bjarnegård and Pär Zetterberg think the relationship between them deserves more attention in political science. Here, they expose the relationship in terms of two autocrat strategies: genderwashing and genderbashing Read more

March 8, 2023

🌈 Democratic resilience and gender equality

Cristina Chiva Reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly under attack across the world. So far, we have a good grasp of the causes and consequences of the backlash against gender equality. What we need to do now, argues Cristina Chiva, is to conceptualise and document democratic resilience against these trends Read more

March 7, 2022

Adolescent girls face severe threats in crisis and conflict – and we must listen to them

Katrina Lee-Koo Despite the prevalence of security threats facing adolescent girls in conflict and crisis contexts, write Katrina Lee-Koo and Eleanor Gordon, they are rarely engaged in efforts to identify or address these threats. This enables the continuation of high levels of violence against them and compromises peace-building efforts Read more

November 23, 2020

Polish citizens protest against the new abortion law – while civil society itself becomes ever more divided

Akudo McGee Enraged by Poland’s new abortion law, thousands of protestors filled the streets in late October. Many protests were organised by liberal civil society organisations, yet, argues Akudo McGee, it is precisely through civil society that the government has been able to exert its anti-liberal agenda Read more

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