Human Rights

Ethiopia has the world’s attention. The United Nations Security Council finally found its voice to call for improved humanitarian access and express concern over reports of sexual violence in Tigray.

This post was coauthored by Melanne Verveer, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and former U.S. ambassador for global women’s issues, and Lucina Di Meco, cofounder of #ShePersisted Global Initiative. Addressing the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris remarked that “the status of women is the status of democracy” and provided a strong message to the international community about America’s renewed commitment to gender equality and human rights. Twenty-five years after Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s historic “women’s rights are human rights” speech in Beijing, important progress has been made in terms of women’s representation in decision-making, but new challenges to women’s rights and democracy have risen and remain largely unaddressed. Technological innovations, initially celebrated for their democratizing potential, have come under increasing scrutiny for their harmful effects on democracy, social cohesion, and women’s rights. While being part of a global online community has helped female activists rally against repressive governments, raise awareness on injustices, and call out sexual abuse through global movements like #MeToo, #NiUnaMenos and the Women’s March, women’s rights activists and some of Silicon Valley’s most astute critics are increasingly calling out social media platforms for enabling sexism, misinformation, and violence to thrive, concealed by premises of freedom of speech and inclusivity. Although online harassment against women manifests across the globe, it is particularly pernicious in the Global South. According to a recent analysis from the Economist Intelligence Unit, over 90 percent of the women interviewed in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East experienced online attacks—with misinformation and defamation as the most common tactics. Women in politics and journalists, particularly women of color, have experienced relentless, overwhelming volumes of online abuse, threats, and vicious gendered disinformation campaigns, framing them as untrustworthy, unintelligent, too emotional, or sexual. In the United States, a coordinated campaign of disinformation and harassment was at work against then-Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris throughout the 2020 election cycle, disseminating lies about her record as a prosecutor and claiming she used sex to gain power—per the oldest, tritest tune in the misogyny playbook. What happened to Harris is not an exception—it is the norm, as large social media companies often do not grant public figures with the same (already very small) level of protection from abuse granted to other citizens. Loopholes in platform guidelines have allowed some authoritarian world leaders to use social media to “deceive the public or harass opponents despite being alerted to evidence of the wrongdoing." While most women restrict their online activity as a result of social media’s toxicity, silence does not grant protection, as First Lady of Namibia Monica Geingos stated in a powerful video released on International Women’s Day: “When there was a clear social media campaign of anonymous WhatsApp messages specifically targeting me in the most disgusting ways, and I was told not to respond but to ignore and I did. But it was a mistake, your silence will not protect you; the insults just got worse and the lies became a lot.” The consequences are far-reaching. The disproportionate and often strategic targeting of women politicians and activists discourages women from running for office, pushes them out of politics, or leads them to self-censor and disengage from the political discourse in ways that harm their effectiveness. The psychological toll on them and their families is incommensurable. While sexist attitudes are integral to understanding violent extremism and political violence, they are just a part of the story. Research has shown that women’s political leadership often represents a challenge to entrenched illiberal and autocratic political elites, disrupting what are often male-dominated political networks that allow corruption and abuse of power to flourish. As women have been among the most outspoken critics of populist authoritarian political leaders in many countries, state-led gendered disinformation campaigns have been used to silence and deter them, stifling their calls for better governance. Vladimir Putin in Russia, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Narendra Modi in India, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey are just some of many leaders who have used gendered disinformation campaigns to attack political opponents and erode liberal values and democratic principles all together. Building on sexist narratives and characterized by malign intent and coordination, gendered disinformation has also been employed by Russia to exercise influence and undermine foreign elections. The targeting of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, and, more recently, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Belarus and Svitlana Zalishchuk in Ukraine are prominent examples. These types of attacks do not only represent a threat to the women they target. Weaponized by malign foreign and domestic actors, these attacks threaten democratic institutions and have important ramifications for global peace and security and the broader human rights system. Yet while authoritarian leaders have heavily invested in troll factories that cynically take advantage of a technology that is particularly good at spreading misogyny and lies, female politicians and activists have largely been left to fend for themselves in an online world that is increasingly toxic and violent. America has a crucial role to play in promoting a new digital social contract that upholds  democratic values and promotes women’s rights, through a three-pronged strategy. First, we need better standards for digital platforms that take into account the real-life harms and abuses that women face and to proactively address them from a product design and risk assessment perspective—as opposed to content moderation only. Convening the National Task Force on Online Harassment and Abuse, proposed by President Joe Biden on the campaign trail, will be an important milestone in that direction. Second, we must make sure that women leaders and activists are deeply involved in the conversations on establishing new internet and social media standards and regulations, and that their unique perspectives are reflected in key fora like the Summit for Democracy. Similar to how women’s participation in peace negotiations is essential for successful outcomes, women’s leadership in designing a new digital social contract between tech companies, governments, and citizens will be key in building an online world that works for everyone. Third, we must buttress women in politics and journalism, particularly those who are working in fragile democracies and often become targets of vicious state-sponsored disinformation and hate campaigns as a result of their engagement, such as Maria Ressa in the Philippines. Women working in politics and journalism must be provided with the tools, information, and the support network they need to respond to gendered disinformation campaigns. In many fragile democracies, women are the beacons of liberal values. Ensuring that the internet is not used as a tool to defame, silence, threaten and de-platform them must be a priority for anyone who seeks to advance democracy, peace, and security.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers April 17 to April 30.

The ripple effects emanating from the death of Chadian President Idriss Déby on April 20 are only beginning to be apparent. Most immediately, the future of Chad has been thrown into question. Déby reportedly died while on the frontlines fighting rebel forces, just days after cementing his continued grip on power through a staged election devoid of both integrity and suspense. On the one hand, dissolving the parliament and installing a military officer from Déby’s family at the head of a Transitional Military Council is not much of a departure from the way Chad has been governed for decades—it simply sheds the institutional and electoral window dressing that has adorned the military dictatorship. But on the other hand, there was a clear constitutional prescription for how the country was to be governed in the event of the president’s death, and it has been completely disregarded. There may be a great deal of continuity in Chad’s immediate governing arrangements, but it is difficult to argue with the Chadian opposition leaders who have called the developments “an institutional coup d’état.” The repercussions may be felt far beyond Chad’s borders. Should Chad become significantly less stable, it will mean that one of the region’s most competent militaries will have less attention to devote to efforts to combat transnational terrorist threats. Equally, the casting aside of the constitution in Chad could be bad news for Sudan’s fragile transition, in which would-be democrats must find themselves feeling increasingly lonely as many bordering states move in decidedly authoritarian directions. Chad has historically played a complicated role in Darfur, where resurgent violence has tested the Sudanese state’s ability to deliver security for all of its citizens. Instability and the potential for explosive power struggles in Chad complicate the picture and add to the list of pretexts military and militia actors may use to insist that they remain the dominant actors in Sudan’s government. This week’s events in Chad also serve as a reminder that no leader is a permanent fixture on the world stage. It is easy for policymakers in Paris or Washington to forget that the bargains they strike in the name of ensuring stability—or regional influence—can have shorter shelf lives than anticipated when they depend on one strongman’s ability to keep all opposing forces in check. All of the costs, in terms of undermining governance and human rights norms that Chad’s external partners purport to champion, remain to be paid. But the international security gains may prove far more ephemeral.

Restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have increased threats to press freedom in the region, raising questions over how to respond.   

Nigerian public opinion is intensely homophobic. In 2014, the Nigerian National Assembly passed—and then President Goodluck Jonathan signed—a law against homosexual activity as draconian as that of Uganda, which is better known. In a time of intense polarization along religious and ethnic lines in Nigeria, the legislation had near universal support. In Europe and North America, homosexual activity has long been decriminalized and same-sex marriage is legal in most places. Born in 1963 into a Yoruba family, T.B. Joshua is a Pentecostal preacher with a huge following. He is pastor of the megachurch Synagogue Church of All Nations, with tens of thousands attending his weekly services in Lagos. He and his church are well-known for their extensive philanthropies; his personal net worth is estimated to be $10 million. His church is fiercely homophobic. He regularly performs "exorcisms" to rid persons of evil spirits and demons that were the cause of their homosexuality. Some of these exorcisms appeared to be violent. The United Kingdom-based website openDemocracy complained about the homophobic content on the pastor's YouTube channel. YouTube has now shut down the channel, which claimed over 1.8 million subscribers and 600 million viewers. YouTube says that it "prohibits content which alleges that someone is mentally ill, diseased, or inferior because of their membership in a protected group including sexual orientation." Joshua is appealing the decision and has called on his flock—which is found across Africa and Latin America, but includes congregations in the United States and elsewhere—to "pray for YouTube." T.B. Joshua's hostility to homosexuality is a reflection of a deep-seated consensus in Nigeria, at least for the time being. (Homophobic attitudes in Nigeria have been decreasing but are still widely held.) The Obama administration made LGBTQ+ issues an important part of its human rights agenda in international affairs. The Biden administration could do the same. If it does, the administration is unlikely to have much success in Nigeria or in a number of other African countries where same-sex relations remain outlawed.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers April 10 to April 16.

New data from CFR’s Women’s Power Index shows that in countries such as the United States, Belgium, and Lithuania, more women are in power than ever before.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers April 3 to April 9.

On April 5, gunmen attacked a prison in Owerri, Nigeria, freeing 1,844 inmates. (Owerri, the capital of Imo State, is a major trading center with more than one million residents.) On April 6, “bandits” stormed a police station in Ehime Mbano, also in Imo State, freeing detainees. No group has claimed responsibility, but police say the likely perpetrators are the Eastern Security Network, the armed wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). President Buhari, in London for medical reasons, characterized the perpetrators as “terrorists”; the army pledged to “flush out the miscreants” from the region. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo arrived in Imo State yesterday to assess the damage in Owerri. Imo is mostly Igbo and Christian in population. It was the heartland of support for an independent Biafra during the 1967-70 civil war. Since then, successive federal governments have taken a hard line on separatism. Since 2015, when Buhari, a northern Muslim, was elected president, separatist sentiment has been growing. The movement of Muslim, ethnically Fulani herdsmen into the region looking for pasture has exacerbated the situation, as has the influx of mostly Muslim internally displaced persons fleeing Boko Haram in the North East. Some advocates for renewed Biafran separatism claim an Islamic plot, abetted by the Buhari government, to place all of Nigeria under the crescent. The jailbreaks will likely increase violence and insecurity in Imo State. It should be noted, however, that pro-Biafra sentiment is not widespread in the adjacent oil patch in the Niger Delta, specifically Bayelsa and Rivers States. The low-level insurrection in the Niger Delta has different drivers.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers March 27 to April 2.