Chasing gender equality norms: the robustness of sexual and reproductive health and rights
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00471178221136994 |
| Author | Esther Barbé,Diego Badell |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178221136994
International Relations
2023, Vol. 37(2) 274 –297
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00471178221136994
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Chasing gender equality norms:
the robustness of sexual and
reproductive health and rights
Esther Barbé
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internationals (IBEI)
Diego Badell
Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internationals (IBEI)
Abstract
This article studies Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) at the United Nations
(UN). SRHR, a gender equality norm that applies human rights to sexuality and reproduction,
have traditionally been supported by a network of actors led by the United States (US) and the
European Union. Nevertheless, a rival network has contested SRHR since their conception in the
early 1990s. We study the robustness of SRHR in five UN fora between 2009 and 2020, focusing
on actor constellations, productive power and norm concordance. Between 2009 and 2016,
the normative status quo was maintained, except in the Human Rights Council and the Security
Council. In 2017, the US joined the network of rivals and accelerated the norm’s weakening in
the Security Council and the Commission on Population and Development. However, to weaken
or strengthen the norm further, both networks see a need to address SRHR outside the UN.
Keywords
gender equality, norm robustness, normative contestation, Sexual and Reproductive Health and
Rights, UN
Introduction
In January 2020, Donald J. Trump became the first sitting American president to attend
the March for Life rally, an annual gathering of anti-abortion activists in the United
States (US). At the rally, he declared, ‘Unborn children have never had a stronger
Corresponding author:
Diego Badell, Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internationals (IBEI), Carrer de Ramon Trias Fargas 25, Barcelona
08005, Spain.
Email: dbadell@ibei.org
1136994IRE0010.1177/00471178221136994International RelationsBarbé and Badell
research-article2022
Article
Barbé and Badell 275
defender in the White House’.1 In November 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Court
enforced a near-total abortion ban.2 Both events suggest rising tension around the pro-
gress made on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in the 1990s.
Recognising this tension during the High-Level Meeting to Celebrate the 25th
Anniversary of the Beijing Women’s Conference, France’s president Emmanuel Macron
stated, ‘In 2020, the Beijing Declaration would have no chance of being adopted. [. . .]
Everywhere, women’s rights are under attack. [. . .] Progress achieved by great efforts is
being undermined even in our democracies, starting with the freedom for women to con-
trol their own body, and in particular the right to abortion’.3
SRHR along with women’s full economic and social equality in society and the
distinction between biological sex and socially constructed gender roles are the fun-
damental norms of gender equality.4 And since 2009, these norms have been openly
contested at the United Nations (UN) by a network comprised of states like the Holy
See, Russia and China, as well as civil society organisations (CSOs) such as the World
Congress of Families (WCF). Advocating traditional values, the network aims to
remove women’s rights from the public policy agenda on the basis of respect for reli-
gious values and morality.
More to the point, the article centres on the norm of SRHR, which refers to the appli-
cation of human rights to bodily autonomy and control over reproduction and sexuality.
Accepted during the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in
Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing,5 SRHR is a norm
with two tails addressing sexual and reproductive health norms on the one hand, and
sexual and reproductive rights norms on the other. The norm is promoted by a network
of liberal actors that includes the European Union (EU), the US, the Nordics6 and CSOs
such as the Women’s Major Group and the International Women’s Health Coalition.
The article studies the robustness of the SRHR norm by tracing whether or not norm
contestation has resulted in norm change, and whether change strengthens or weakens a
norm. It is also contemplated the possibility that the norm remains unaltered. It studies
SRHR contestation at the UN, the central venue for debating and constructing norms.7
For this purpose, the analysis that follows studies norm concordance, which relates to the
degree to which the norm is reproduced in official discourse and documents. To that end,
it builds an analytical framework around actor constellations, which highlights the exist-
ence both of a network of actors advancing the norm and of a network seeking the alter-
native outcome. On top of that, to have directionality and intentionality the network must
count among its ranks an actor with discursive and material power. As the article focuses
on the institutional arena, we consider the exercise of power in its productive form,
where power serves to reshape the meaning of the norm.8
Norm change is traced in five UN fora: the third committee of the General Assembly
(UNGA),9 the Human Rights Council (HRC), the Security Council (UNSC),10 the
Commission on Population and Development (CPD)11 and the Commission on the Status
of Women (CSW).12 We employ document analysis based on the compilation of 74 reso-
lutions from 2009 to 2020. And we draw background information from 11 semi-struc-
tured interviews with representatives of UN member states and civil society organisations
as well as using secondary sources reporting on negotiation processes (e.g. Passblue,
Security Council Report).
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