A/HRC/56/51 proactively ensure substantive gender equality in all human rights, as recognized under international human rights law.6 10. Since its establishment in 2010, the Working Group has underlined that progress in advancing gender equality has not been linear and has noted both positive reforms and regressions.7 In 2018, on the basis of what it was able to observe and document during its first six years of work, the Working Group warned about the resurgence of a conservative and retrogressive narrative in international forums and at the national level, accompanied by attempts to reinstate policies or legislation that are harmful to women and girls, especially in the areas of family life and bodily autonomy.8 Six years later, it is with the greatest concern that the Working Group observes that the backlash against women’s and girls’ human rights is intensifying and has reached extreme proportions in certain countries.9 11. The Working Group defines gender backlash as denial of the recognition, enforcement and realization of women’s and girls’ rights or retrogression in that regard. It emphasizes that the gender backlash not only destabilizes and undermines the foundation of the human rights system by denying equal rights to half of the world’s population, but also makes impossible any prospect of just, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies. The need to reaffirm and recommit to the universality of women’s and girls’ rights, as well as the inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated nature of all human rights, is paramount and requires coherent, systematic, comprehensive and coordinated efforts by all. 2. Reversing rollbacks of human rights and reaffirming the universality thereof 12. Retrogressive movements are jeopardizing women’s and girls’ human rights, as well as the progress achieved in advancing gender equality in all regions of the world. Active resistance to gender equality has been identified as among the key factors explaining the slow progress and, in some cases, reversals of gains made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, with no indicator under Goal 5 on gender equality having reached the “target met or almost met” level globally.10 13. In their responses to the questionnaire circulated by the Working Group, States indicated that constitutional amendments, legislation and policies directed at eliminating discrimination against women and girls have continued to be adopted in a number of countries, including in areas such as sexual and reproductive health rights, prevention of gender-based violence, labour inclusion, economic empowerment, public and political participation and the valuation and redistribution of unpaid care and domestic work. The institutional framework to oversee the implementation of such measures has been strengthened in some countries. The Working Group notes that, in the past decade alone, more than 40 countries have amended and rewritten their constitutions to incorporate provisions advancing women’s and girls’ rights.11 14. However, also acknowledged in the responses were the growth of anti-rights movements, attacks on women’s and girls’ equal rights and the persistent challenge of 6 7 8 9 10 11 4 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 2 and 3; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, arts. 2 and 3; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, arts. 2–5; Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2; African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 18 (3); Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; American Convention on Human Rights, art. 1; Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women; Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights), art. 14; and Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. A/HRC/20/28, para. 12. See A/HRC/38/46. See, for example, A/HRC/53/21; and OHCHR, “Iran’s proposed hijab law could amount to ‘gender apartheid’: UN experts”, press release, 1 September 2023. UN-Women and Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: the gender snapshot 2023” (New York, 2023). See Claudia Flores, “The long road ahead: the first period of a gender-responsive Constitution in Zimbabwe”, in From Parchment to Practice: Implementing New Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq, eds. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020). GE.24-07559