Challenges in the fulfillment of SDG 5 for today's Argentina
(...) And those who wear male shadow inherited power, comfortable empire, command our sisterly servitude while they seriously set about to manufacture the slashes of war, the stubborn bread of suffering.
“Domestic Ode”, María Elena Walsh from the book Hecho a mano, 1965.
The already well-known United Nations 2030 agenda with its seventeen sustainable development goals and targets (SDGs), is encountering some impediments in its fulfillment for various countries, whether they are the so-called Global North or Global Majority countries, although, for the latter the difficulty is more evident only five years away from the year 2030. Argentina is no exception.
The worldwide advance of the right and extreme right, especially after the COVID 19 pandemic, has led to the emergence (or re-emergence) of conservative and/or ultra conservative groups that seemed to have little impact, at least in the public eye. In short, the preventive and compulsory isolation promoted by most countries to prevent the spread of the disease was frowned upon by several social sectors who saw in this measure a “deprivation” of their liberties. In Argentina, to this fact was added a stagnation in the economy that, added to the historical political-partisan disputes between Peronism and anti-Peronism, allowed the advance and presidential victory of the ultra-right led by Javier Milei with the proposal of a clearly anti-feminist government; this situation suggests a difficult current scenario for Argentina towards the fulfillment of SDG 5 of the United Nations 2030 agenda aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls in the world.
Since its inception, the government of Javier Milei has decided to reduce State expenditures, to such an extent that it does not matter whether the cuts apply to basic human rights, essential public works, resources for environmental catastrophes, etc. Thus, the dismantling of a large part of the feminist policies that had been promoted and created by previous popular governments for years, were dismantled by closing the Ministry of Women, the Secretariat against Gender Violence and defunding support programs for women and diversities, something seen in a worrying way by feminist groups in Argentina and even abroad. However, it is also important to emphasize that, although most of the countries that adopt a Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP), such as Canada, Spain, France or Sweden, tend to represent, within their own countries, a greater focus on gender issues, women's rights and sexual minorities, as well as environmental issues, they also incur in contradictory practices or policies, without going any further, in terms of foreign policy. For example, as Inés Arco Escriche (2023) points out, countries such as Spain, Sweden and France have exported arms “used in the conflict in Yemen, where there is a high prevalence of gender-based violence and more than 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance and aid” (p. 5). That said, we know that, in principle, there will be no panacea in adopting a FFP and we understand that these contradictions should only be exceptions to the rule but, in any case, FFPs are and must be taken into account as an essential beacon for progress towards a fairer and more united world.
The adherence of States to the principles of the 2030 Agenda implies agreeing on objectives linked to the standards of democracy, human rights and equality at the global level. Failure to do so, or to strive for a notion of “sovereignty” with respect to the rest of the States, may undermine historical agreements on Human Rights. In this regard, Kavita Krishman mentions in her article entitled “Multipolarity, that mantra of authoritarianism” (2022), that, precisely, countries such as Russia or China consider themselves “sovereign” and define the notions of democracy or “good governance” under their own standards, which allows them to justify, for example, human rights violations, something extremely dangerous. Thus, an isolation of Argentina from consensual international norms could also be dangerous.
Having said all the above, and returning to the focus of this essay, Argentina's non-adherence to the 2030 Agenda and, therefore, the path towards non-compliance with SDG 5, demonstrates, without going any further, a contradiction with the principle of freedom proclaimed by Milei's government, given that said agenda aims, precisely and among many other issues, to create and/or strengthen the freedoms and rights of men, women, boys, girls and minorities based on a fairer and more sustainable world; but we know that women and minorities are not a target audience for such a government. To add even more contradictions, the 2030 agenda promoted by the United Nations has been adhered to by the main world powers to which Milei constantly subordinates himself and pretends to resemble. It seems that the freedom which the current Argentine government aims to achieve is nothing more than freedom as a privilege granted to minorities in order to have more power and thus build a society of privileges (sic Professor María Cristina Perceval). All this should resonate in the Argentine society as a halt to rethink where we are building our path of feminist policies, or, in other words, why we are allowing the advance of such cruel policies that destroy the construction of achievements and rights that took years and even decades to build on gender issues. We understand that it is no coincidence that feminism is under attack not only in Argentina, but also in the world due to the sustained advance of the right wing and, therefore, we must educate society on the scope of feminism (1), which not only advocates for the rights of women and sexual minorities, but also to raise awareness to change social relations, eliminate any kind of violence against human beings and support environmental causes that directly and indirectly impact women and societies that suffer from causes of this nature. In other words, feminism allows the rights of an entire society to be addressed.
In a world increasingly complex and marked by conflict, we believe that the practice of a FFP promoted by the States allows and will allow, precisely, to adopt a more pacifist and egalitarian stance towards women, minorities and the most vulnerable sectors in Argentina and the world.
For all these reasons, the future will be feminist or it will not be.
(1) Although there are currently several feminist currents, we can say that they all coincide with the aforementioned principles.
References:
Escriche, Inés Arco (2022). Las políticas exteriores feministas: más allá del discurso. CIDOB notes internacionals. (269), 1-7.
Krishnan, Kavita (2023). <Multipolaridad>, ese mantra del autoritarismo. El cuaderno digital de cultura. 1-8. https://elcuadernodigital.com/2023/02/15/multipolaridad-ese-mantra-del autoritarismo/
About the author:
Luciana Trost holds a Bachelor's degree in Arts from the University of Buenos Aires and a postgraduate certificate in International Relations and Feminisms from FLACSO. She is passionate about human rights issues and has dedicated recent years to studying the development of feminisms and their impact across various sectors of society worldwide.
