Author Description

Religious organisations are a relatively small minority of NGOs at the United Nations (UN). Still, they are able to make themselves clearly heard and seen. This study focuses on religiously motivated lobbying groups fighting against sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) policies at the UN. While health policy is usually framed as a part of the secular political domain, it touches upon combustible religious values and engages powerful alliances across religious divides. Catholics and Mormons; Christians and Muslims; Russian Orthodox and American fundamentalists find common ground on traditional values and against SRHR issues at the UN. The conservative religious lobbies comprise constellations of different organizations with various religious affiliations. However, conservative Christian actors constitute a particularly influential bloc wedded to a distinctly conservative social agenda and motivated by pre-modern ideas about gender issues, family politics and women's health. They represent a key factor in the resistance to SRHR, and work ceaselessly to contest, obstruct and delay the development of relevant UN agendas. Their influence does not reflect their number but is largely due to an ability to build alliances across religious boundaries as well as elicit the support of religious communities around the world.