News
The anti-gender movement in Europe
Right-wing populist and anti-feminist movements mobilising against gender equality as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have gained strength across Europe in recent years. This strengthening also brings to light an increasingly transnationally organised and financed independent anti-gender movement that attacks the rights of women and LGBTIQ* persons as well as civil society. This is evident not only at the national (and local) but also at the European level, where alliances are organising transnationally in attempting to undermine the foundations of the European Union and to reverse already existing consensus on European level.
The latest issue of the newsletter of the Observatory provides an introduction to the emergence, main lines of argumentation, and actors of the transnational anti-gender movement in Europe. To do so, the newsletter takes a look at the specific case of the Istanbul Convention. Furthermore, the newsletter provides insights into three focal topics: transnational financing structures of the anti-gender movement, increasing anti-trans attacks and corresponding counterstrategies, as well as gender-based cyber violence.
Children’s rights in the digital space
Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, society has changed in many ways. Digitalisation creates the need to extend the protection of children and their rights to the digital space. This goal has been increasingly pursued in recent years at the international, European and national level. In March 2021 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published a general comment on children’s rights in the digital environment. The comment is intended to demonstrate the relevance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the digital space as well as to support states in protecting and fulfilling children’s rights in the digital environment. The comment was preceded by a two-year consultation in which more than 700 children participated.
Europe-wide Child Guarantee to Combat Child Poverty
Child poverty is widespread in Europe, even in economically strong countries. Almost 22.5 percent of children in the European Union are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic child poverty in Europe can be expected to increase.The child guarantee was requested by the European Parliament in 2015. It aims to combat child poverty and social exclusion in Europe by ensuring access to affordable, inclusive, and high-quality services, especially for children who are affected by poverty and socially disadvantaged. Since 2018, within the framework of a broad preparatory action at the EU level, possibilities for design and implementation have been discussed. In June 2021, the EU member states adopted a Council recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee.
