Countering Backlash: Reclaiming Gender Justice in Uganda

There is increasing evidence globally that the optimism for gender equality progress during the mid-1990s and mid-2010s now faces critical reversals from both subtle and overt forms of. Far from experiencing steady progress and accelerating promises of 'leaving no one behind', the gender equality struggle is faced with transnationally coordinated backlash against gender and sexual rights. In Uganda, backlash against gender equity policy reforms seems to be growing steadily from the very subtle and hidden to direct attacks on feminist activists and their alliances. This report engages with the following questions that have been explored over a period of four years: What is backlash? What is the origin, nature and motive of gender backlash? What drives gender backlash? Do all efforts to achieve women’s rights, equality and justice experience backlash in similar ways? Does backlash differ for different categories of policy reforms? How do gender equity policy reform activists and policy makers use their voice to counter backlash against gender equality?

The report draws on three Ugandan policy cases – the affirmative action policy regarding women’s political participation, as entailed in the 1995 constitution; the Domestic Violence Act, 2010 (DVA); and the Sexual Offences Bill, 2019 (SOB) – to analyse the manifestation of gender backlash and the strategic efforts used by feminist activists and their alliances to counter this backlash.