Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies
The United States was designated a backsliding democracy in late 2021, when it appeared on a prominent European think tank’s annual global ranking. Today, half of the world’s democratic governments are on the decline according to a 2022 report, The Global State of Democracy.
Around the same time the U.S. made its debut on the list—still six months before the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, but with Texas S.B.8 already in effect, rendering abortion care all but inaccessible in the nation’s second most populous state—advocates raised real-time questions about the correlation between regression on abortion rights and degraded democracies. A New York Times article asserted that such a descent is precisely when “curbs on women’s rights tend to accelerate.”
We think that’s a proposition worth flipping on its head. Are democracies that have abysmal records on gender equity destined to falter? According to the United Nations, the trajectory of “de-democratization” is rarely analyzed initially through the distinct lens of gender equity and there are insufficient efforts to systematically examine the current implications. Our symposium will engage this critical conversation.
This event is free and open to the public but advanced registration is required.
Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, BWLN Executive Director, NYU Law
Morning Panel – Global
Alejandra Cardenas – Senior Director of Legal Strategies, Innovation, and Research, Center for Reproductive Rights
Negina Khalili – Visiting Professor, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law; former Chief Prosecutor of Elimination of Violence and Harassment Against Women, Attorney General's Office, Republic of Afghanistan; former Professor of Law, Rana University, Kabul, Afghanistan
Christine Ryan – Legal Director, Global Justice Center)
Yifat Susskind - Executive Director, MADRE
Moderator: Meg Satterthwaite ‘99 – Professor of Clinical Law; Faculty Director, Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights, NYU Law; UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
Lunchtime – “Fireside Chat”
Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law; Faculty, Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network, NYU Law, in conversation with Jessica Valenti, Writer and Creator, Abortion, Every Day.
Afternoon Panel – United States
Chisun Lee – Director, Elections and Government Program, Brennan Center for Justice
Ria Tabacco Mar ’08 – Director, Women’s Rights Project, ACLU
Victoria Nourse – Ralph V. Whitworth Professor in Law; Director, Center on Congressional Studies, Georgetown Law
Dr. Jamila Perritt – President and CEO, Physicians for Reproductive Health
Moderator: Irin Carmon – Senior Correspondent, The Cut, New York Magazine
This event has been approved for 3 New York State CLE credits in the category of Areas of Professional Practice. The credit is both transitional and non-transitional; it is appropriate for both experienced and newly admitted attorneys.
Additional details are available on the symposium website.