A Renewed Call

For Feminist Resistance to Population Control

When population is cast as the problem, restrictions like fertility control, heightened borders, dispossession, detention and imprisonment are posed as the solutions

When population is cast as the problem, restrictions like fertility control, heightened borders, dispossession, detention and imprisonment are posed as the solutions


Climate & Capitalism is proud to be among the individuals and organizations from 26 countries that have endorsed this important statement, initiated by our friends at PopDev.


INTRODUCTION
(DifferenTakes 94, Fall 2019)

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. ICPD is recognized by many as catalyzing a shift toward sexual and reproductive health and rights and women’s empowerment and away from population control in family planning.

However, as the DifferenTakes series has chronicled, many government policies, donor funding strategies, environmental group campaigns, and international family planning approaches have continued to rely on population control tactics in the years since ICPD. These include the use of incentives, coercion and targets as well as an overreliance on long-acting reversible contraception and sterilization. In some countries, people living with HIV, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, as well as transgender and intersex people, continue to be forcibly and coercively sterilized.

In recognition of these harmful continuances, PopDev is pleased to publish this statement, which was collaboratively written in the spirit of feminist challenges to population control around the 1994 ICPD. At the time of this publication, over 250 individuals and organizations from 26 countries have endorsed it.

The statement recognizes and challenges population control in the time of climate change and promotes a social justice approach to addressing environmental racism, nationalism and hate, and to promoting reproductive health.


A RENEWED CALL FOR FEMINIST RESISTANCE TO POPULATION CONTROL

We are feminist advocates for reproductive, environmental and climate justice who are deeply concerned about rising sea levels and rising inequalities.

We are troubled that population numbers, composition and movements are often seen as causing or worsening climate change, environmental degradation, poverty, war and conflict. For instance, the United Nation’s 2019 World Population Prospects says that rapid population growth will stand in the way of accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, equality and hunger.

Today’s population politics echo past predictions about the dangers of “overpopulation.” However, the focus is not solely on global numbers, as in the era of the “population bomb,” but on the supposed too many young people, mainly in parts of Africa and South Asia. In international security analyses, young men are often characterized as part of a dangerous “youth bulge.” Economic analyses position young women as lucrative capital who can help nations reap demographic dividends with their perceived labor. Reproductive choices are thought to determine global futures and curbing young women’s fertility is a priority for many policy-makers and organizations. At the same time, as the world adjusts to the trend of “aging” national populations and lower fertility rates, policies that promote child-bearing and pressures to “perfect” children are on the rise. In this context, selective reproductive practices and technologies contribute to damaging valuations of who should exist.

Donor-driven development, as well as strands of environmental activism, have ushered in urgent calls for population reduction to lessen the future impacts of climate change. This occurs in the name of empowering women, uplifting the poor, and protecting the environment. In many cases, the language of social justice or human rights is used to obscure the narrow focus on population reduction. These calls may counter Far Right populisms that deny climate change, but they continue to stigmatize the poor while states retract from the provision of public services, and can also buttress right-wing xenophobia.

When population is cast as the problem, restrictions like fertility control, heightened borders, dispossession, detention and imprisonment are posed as the solutions. Many right-wing advocates decry population pressures as the reason for cross-border migration and call for racist anti-immigration policies. These policies target marginalized groups such as immigrants, refugees and racial, ethnic or religious minorities through mass deportation, detention, incarceration or fertility control.

We are concerned that the current population establishment, which includes international organizations, donor governments, philanthrocapitalists such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and large pharmaceutical corporations, is over-reliant on long-acting reversible contraception (LARC). Today’s LARC methods include Jadelle (Norplant II), Nexplanon (Implanon) and the Sayana Press (Depo-Provera), which have significant adverse effects and high rates of discontinuation. The policies which promote them often emphasize fertility control over other sexual and reproductive health considerations, like HIV transmission, acquisition, and treatment. These programs reintroduce targets like FP2020’s ‘120 by 20’ and volume guarantees on contraceptive sales. In some cases punitive measures or conditional access to welfare provision violate rights and bodily integrity. Further, in the wake of ethical breaches in the ECHO trial, a human clinical trial to determine if Depo-Provera increases HIV transmission, we are concerned with unanswered questions and further, that the priorities of contraceptive testing and dissemination are set by Big Pharma and philanthrocapitalists who rely on the exploitation of black and brown people whose bodies are considered “testable.”

We take seriously the devastating and uneven impacts of climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the ongoing drive for economic growth, expanded profits, extractivism and privatization of land, forests and water, at the expense of the environment and health. However, we challenge climate change platforms that cast it as a population or international security problem. Military build-up and increased border security create environmental hazards—the US military is one of the greatest carbon emitters. The use of military tactics in environmental conservation can lead to unacceptable violence in controlling and patrolling land, and to sterilization abuses. In a similar vein, the initiatives currently in the name of “Climate-Smart Agriculture” can intensify environmental problems, spread toxins, and promote exclusive land use.

Time for a New Approach

This year marks the 25th  anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. At that conference feminist advocacy led to the foregrounding of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) over population control. ICPD25 will be held November 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya to “urgently finish the unfinished business of the landmark ICPD Programme of Action and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.” “Harnessing the demographic dividend” is one of the conference goals, which entails population reduction to ensure a working age population with fewer dependent children as a strategy to promote economic prosperity.

We challenge this formula for health and wealth, even though we too support sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice, including safe and accessible abortion. These fundamental health services should promote bodily autonomy rather than serving economic or environmental agendas. The idea that population reduction is the first-step to progress is a flawed assumption that can dangerously narrow SRHR, particularly when promoted as an “urgent” priority.

We call for a social justice approach to supporting people and the planet and write in the spirit of previous feminist resistance that called for a new approach to women, population and the environment. We build from the foundational work of the Black scholars and activists who created the concept of reproductive justice to highlight the racial, economic and social inequalities in reproductive politics and to promote bodily autonomy, the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to parent children in healthy environments. We stand with the People’s Health Movement and their advocacy for health and social justice.

We call for integrated responses to climate change, environmental racism and toxicity that promote health, including sexual and reproductive health, through social, reproductive and climate justice frameworks. As part of this web of actions, we demand that governments, international agencies and other social institutions:

  1. Hold those most responsible for climate change accountable and systematically address environmental racism as temperatures and waters rise.
  2. Question the expansive and highly unequal growth logic of capitalist relations of production and consumption.
  3. Avoid or reject “solutions” to climate change that are based on individual, consumer decision-making, such as “eating green” (rather than on green production and distribution) or not having babies. These solutions can be superficial, let the biggest polluters off the hook, and further exacerbate inequalities. As do “solutions” stemming from privatization of land and water which deepen inequalities by benefiting corporations instead of small-scale farmers.
  4. Reject policies that rely on fertility control and engineering population size to serve development agendas or to counter climate change.
  5. Fight nationalism, racism and the heightening of borders. Recognize the right of peoples to move freely and safely.
  6. Reject militarized conservationism, the incorporation of family planning into conservation initiatives and other such policies which seek to shift responsibility for loss of biodiversity and destruction of wildlife from global corporate actors to local communities.
  7. Protect the full informed consent and rights of trial participants and reject exploitation in scientific experimentation.
  8. Promote reproductive justice and a comprehensive vision for sexual and reproductive health within a framework of universal access to holistic health care services that includes a robust conversation about conceptive and contraceptive methods, access and safety; parental, child and elder health care; education on sexuality, gender and healthy relationships; abortion services; HIV testing, prevention and treatment; and actively uproots racist, ableist and anti-LGBTQI biases in healthcare.

This statement was produced by Anne Hendrixson of PopDev, the Population & Development Program at Hampshire College, in collaboration with Ellen E. Foley, Rajani Bhatia, Daniel Bendix, Susanne Schultz, Kalpana Wilson, and Wangui Kimari. We thank Sarojini Nadimpally, Betsy Hartmann, Marlene Fried, Christa Wichterich and Daniela Gottschlich for their comments. We invite you to add your name, affiliation, and location by email: popdev@hampshire.edu.  Comments are also welcome. Affiliations for individuals are recorded for identification only.


INITIAL ENDORSERS

Individuals

  • Anne Hendrixson, Population & Development Program, Hampshire College, United States
  • Ellen E. Foley, International Development, Community, and Environment, Clark University, United States
  • Rajani Bhatia, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, SUNY at Albany, United States
  • Daniel Bendix, International Social Sciences, Friedensau Adventist University, Germany
  • Kalpana Wilson, Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
  • Susanne Schultz, Institute for Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt/M, Germany
  • Wangui Kimari, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
  • Diana Ojeda, Instituto Pensar, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia
  • Olaf Berg, Leibniz-Center for Contemporary History Potsdam, Germany
  • Betsy Hartmann, Professor Emerita of Development Studies, Hampshire College, United States
  • Professor Reinhart Kössler, Berlin, Germany
  • Jade S. Sasser, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Riverside, United States
  • Mohan Rao, former professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, currently independent researcher in Bangalore
  • Michael Korbmacher, Member of the editorial staff of PERIPHERIE, Germany
  • Jasmine Gideon, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
  • Dr. Aram Ziai, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
  • Dr. Helene Decke-Cornill, Universität Hamburg, Fakultät für Erziehungswissenschaft, Germany
  • Marion Stevens, Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition, South Africa
  • Carrie Wendel-Hummell, Center for Research on Aging and Disability Options, University of Kansas, U.S.
  • Mike Laufenberg, Institute of Sociology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
  • Theresa Morris, Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Texas A&M University
  • Elizabeth Wirtz, Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, U.S.
  • Sharon Yam, Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, University of Kentucky, United States
  • JoAnna Woolridge Wall, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Oklahoma
  • Siri Suh, Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, United States
  • Camisha Russell, Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon, United States
  • Patrick R. Grzanka, Psychology and Women, Gender, & Sexuality Interdisciplinary Program, The University of Tennessee, United States
  • Alison Gemmill, Assistant Professor, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States
  • Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Professor, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University.
  • Purvaja S Kavattur, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States
  • Dr. Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Chair General Sociology, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany
  • Frank Holmquist, Professor of Politics Emeritus, Hampshire College, United States
  • Sarah Cowan, Assistant Professor, Sociology, New York University, United States
  • Dr. Ingrid Lohmann, Universität Hamburg, Germany
  • Brenna McCaffrey, Department of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, United States
  • Ian Angus, Editor, Climate & Capitalism
  • Yuki Davis, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States
  • Loretta J. Ross, Visiting Associate Professor, Smith College, United States
  • Anna Carella, Co-Executive Director, Healthy and Free Tennessee, United States
  • Monica J. Casper, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Public Health, University of Arizona
  • Savina Balasubramanian, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Loyola University Chicago
  • Louise Antony, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts
  • Carrie N. Baker, Professor and Chair, Program for the Study of Women and Gender, Smith College
  • Melina Taylor, Research Associate, American Board of Family Medicine, United States
  • Nivedita Saksena, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States
  • Lynda Pickbourn, Assistant Professor of Economics, Hampshire College
  • Diana Marre, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, Autonomous University of Barcelona
  • Gwendolyn Albert, independent human rights activist, Czech Republic
  • Amrita Pande, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • Daniela Gottschlich, Institute for Diversity, Nature, Gender and Sustainability, Lüneburg, Germany
  • Tanweer Ali, Lecturer, Empire State College, SUNY, United States
  • Mounia El Kotni, Cultural Anthropologist, EHESS Paris, France
  • Nanna Heidenreich, Media & Cultural Studies Scholar, Prof. for Digital Narratives, ifs internationale filmschule köln, Germany
  • Laura Sochas, Doctoral researcher in demography, London School of Economics, UK
  • Kate Law, Nottingham Research Fellow, University of Nottingham, UK
  • Cordelia Freeman, Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham, UK
  • Manisha Gupte, PhD. Co-Convenor, Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM), Pune, India
  • Matt Huber, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Syracuse University, United States
  • Sabine Könninger, Political Scientist, Berlin, Germany
  • Carolyn McLeod, Department of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, Canada
  • Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Assistant Professor, Food Studies, Syracuse University, United States
  • Christa Wichterich, scholar activist, Germany
  • Susanne Lettow, Margherita-von-Brentano Centre for Gender Studies, Free University Berlin, Germany
  • Paige Patchin, research development, University of Nottingham
  • Patricia Hynes, Montague Ma, United States
  • Susan Pashkoff, Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, London, UK
  • Christy Tidwell, Associate Professor of English & Humanities, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
  • Jallicia Jolly, Doctoral Fellow, American Studies & Black Studies, Amherst College
  • Anthea Kyere, feminist activist and student of Social Sciences and Socio-cultural Studies, Berlin, Germany
  • Jill Williams, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
  • Cara Page, Changing Frequencies, Brooklyn, NY US
  • Lucia Guerra-Reyes, Indiana University, IN, USA
  • Roger D. Harris, Task Force on the Americas, Corte Madera, CA, USA
  • Brian Hennigan, PhD Candidate, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY USA
  • Cora Fernandez Anderson, Assistant Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College
  • Ana De Luca, Red Género Sociedad y Medio Ambiente, México
  • Arnisson Andre Ortega, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Syracuse University, USA
  • Jeffrey Edmeades, Demografix Consulting
  • Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA)
  • John Steppling, Inderøy Norway
  • Larry Lohmann, The Corner House, UK
  • Nick Hildyard, The Corner House, UK
  • Sarah Sexton, The Corner House, UK
  • Claudia Chaufan, MD, PhD, School of Health Policy and Management, York University Toronto, Canada
  • Jamie C. Gagliano, MA Student, Syracuse University Department of Geography, New York, USA
  • Sarojini N, Public Health Researcher, People’s Health Movement, India
  • Marlene Gerber Fried, Professor and Faculty Director, Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program (CLPP) at Hampshire College
  • Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, JD, co-directors of Popular Resistance, United States
  • Joni Seager, Professor, Bentley University, USA
  • Dominic Wilkins, PhD Student, Syracuse University
  • Kristin Sziarto, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
  • Jennifer A. Hamilton, Visiting Professor of Sexuality, Women’s & Gender Studies, Amherst College; Director, Five College Women’s Studies Research Center
  • April Hovav, Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute for Practical Ethics, University of California, San Diego
  • Lebogang Ramafoko , CEO Soul City Institute
  • Wale Adeleye ED Balanced Stewardship Development Association(BALSDA)
  • Nicole Bourbonnais, Assistant Professor of International History, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, postdoctoral researcher, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Netherlands
  • Marion Werner, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, USA
  • Karyn Pomerantz, org blog co-editor
  • Professor Cathi Albertyn, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Josephine Mugishagwe, The Family Planning Association of Tanzania (UMATI), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  • Maya Manzi, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSAL), Brazil
  • Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, National Coordinator, WomanHealth Philippines, Philippines
  • Manuela Ruiz-Reyes, PhD Candidate, Syracuse University, Syracuse-USA
  • Joseph Senyo Kwashie -Executive Director, Community and Family Aid Foundation-Ghana
  • Roberta Hawkins, Associate Professor, University of Guelph, Canada
  • Michele LeRoux, Postdoctoral associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Elisabeth Armstrong, Smith College, United States
  • Ephraim Chimwaza, Executive Director, Centre for Social Concern and Development, Malawi
  • Shailja Patel, Research Associate, Five Colleges Women’s Studies Research Center, Mt Holyoke College, USA
  • Sybil Nmezi, Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network (GIWYN), Lagos, Nigeria
  • Deepa V, Health activist, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, India
  • Carrie Shelver, interim manager of the Sexual Rights Initiative (Geneva) and member of Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition and One in Nine Campaign (South Africa)
  • Dr. Ingrid Schneider, Hamburg Center for Bio-Governance, Universität Hamburg, Germany
  • Marisa Pizii, Deputy Director of Programs, Civil Liberties and Public Policy, Amherst, MA
  • Susan Raffo, Minneapolis, MN, USA. writer
  • Lisa Ikemoto, Professor, University of California, Davis School of Law
  • Shahina Parvin, Ph.D. Student, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
  • Tiziana Leone, Associate Professor Health and International Development LSE UK
  • Parvathy Binoy, Florida State University, Department of Geography, Tallahasse, Florida, USA
  • Laura Rodriguez Castro, PhD, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
  • Muhammad Aslam Panhwar, Peace Foundation Pakistan
  • Bharat Agarwal, Activist , Rajasthan, India
  • Asha Nadkarni, Associate Professor of English, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Georgia Paula Martins Faust, Feminist activist and Researcher, Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Brazil
  • Reed Kurtz, PhD. Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History and Political Science, Otterbein University (Westerville, OH USA)
  • Sulakshana Nandi, Public Health Researcher, Chhattisgarh, India
  • Carissa Brands, Task Force on the Americas, San Rafael, California, USA
  • Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, SRHR expert, Nalane for Reproductive Justice, South Africa
  • Joséphine Malimukono, League for Congolese Solidarity LSC, DR Congo
  • Susanne Heim, Free University Berlin, Department of Political Science, Germany
  • Dumiso Gatsha, Success Capital Organisation, Botswana
  • Mei-ling Wiedmeyer, MC, CCFP, Clinician Scientist, Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity, University of British Columbia, Canada
  • Raphael Godlove Ahenu, Ghana
  • Cory Morningstar, Wrong Kind of Green, Canada
  • Kiran Asher, Ph.D Professor, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts, US
  • Nanna Rask, Ph.D. Candidate, Environmental Social Sciences, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Laura Mamo, Professor, San Francisco State University, USA
  • Shaun Sellers, McGill University, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Canada
  • Casey Blake, What Now Counsellling, South Africa
  • Dr Catriona A Towriss, Senior Lecturer in Population Studies, University of Cape Town
  • Dr Indira Govender, Public health medicine specialist, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
  • Chibueze Ezebuiro, Project Officer, Centre for Rights Advancement and Sustainable Development (CREST), Nigeria
  • Juana Camacho, ICANH, Bogotá, Colombia
  • Karen Thurston, 2+ Abortions Worldwide, United States
  • Rishita Nandagiri, LSE Fellow in Health and International Development; London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Marina Morrow, PhD, Chair, School of Health Policy & Management, Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Jessica Rucell, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • Charlotte Landeryou, student activist/peer-counselor, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst, MA
  • Mel Bleil Gallo, feminist activist, journalist and researcher at Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Brazil
  • Madelynn Paige Bovasso, American University, United States
  • Kerry Rowley, Santa Cruz, California
  • Róisín Davis, Haymarket Books, NY, USA
  • Christian Noah-Wadada Center-Tanzania
  • Ornael Mikhael Djembo, Association Congolaise pour les Droits et la Santé, Republic of Congo
  • Claudia Malacrida, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
  • Jessica Rucell, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • April Merleaux, Northampton, MA, United States
  • Michael Gasser, Science for the People, Santa Cruz, California, USA
  • Ted Duffy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Foxboro MA, United States
  • Radhika Menon, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
  • Yifat Susskind, Executive Director, MADRE, New York, US
  • Omar Dahi, Hampshire College, United States
  • Luiza Prado de Oliveira Martins, artist, Germany
  • Laurel Smith-Doerr, Research Associate, Five College Women’s Research Center; Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
  • Svati Shah, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US
  • Alejandro Camargo, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia
  • Oriana López Uribe, CDMX, México
  • Cynthia Ryan, Trustee, The Schooner Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Susanne M. Klausen, Professor, Department of History, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • James K Boyce, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US
  • Dr MWABI White, Struggle for health improvement, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Sabah Mofidi, Research Fellow, NIAS Amsterdam
  • Lucía Berro Pizzarossa, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Global Health Law Groningen Research, The Netherlands
  • Vineet Thakur, Leiden University, The Netherlands
  • Lamia Karim, University of Oregon-Eugene, USA
  • Stacey Vanderhurst, University of Kansas, United States
  • Mary Beth Mills, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Colby College, Maine, USA
  • Dr Lynette Dumble, Medical Scientist, Melbourne, Australia
  • Laura Meek, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Humanities and Medicine, University of Hong Kong
  • Morganne Blais-McPherson, PhD Student, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, USA
  • Benjamin Bean, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, USA
  • Dharashree Das, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • Mauricio Najarro, PhD, PhD Student, Joint UC Berkeley-UCSF Medical Anthropology Program, USA
  • Omer Aijazi, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Jan Brunson, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai‘i
  • Julieta Chaparro, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Lucía Stavig, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, UNC at Chapel Hill
  • Indulata Prasad, Women and Gender Studies, School of Social Transformation, Tempe, Arizona
  • Katie Klein, MA Student & Teaching Assistant, Women’s & Gender Studies, University of Milwaukee, WI
  • Vijay Rukmini Rao, feminist activist, Executive Director, Gramya Resource Centre for Women, India
  • Aaron Vansintjan, PhD Candidate, University of Birkbeck, Editor, Uneven Earth
  • Cynthia Enloe, Clark University, United States
  • Elizabeth Gilarowski, writer and researcher, Toronto, Canada
  • Logina Mostafa, Masters Candidate, NYU College of Global Public Health
  • Heidi J. Nast, Professor of International Studies, DePaul University, Chicago, USA
  • Ann Russo, Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies, DePaul University, Chicago USA
  • Patti Duncan, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University, USA
  • Winifred Curran, Professor of Geography, DePaul University, Chicago, USA
  • Dr Claire Lagier, Independent researcher, Editor at Uneven Earth
  • Laila Farah, Associate Professor, Depaul University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Kathie Sarachild, Redstockings
  • Adsa Fatima, Sama Resource Group for Women and Health
  • Claudio Schuftan, PHM, Ho Chi Minh City
  • Miliann Kang, Associate Professor, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
  • Rohit Shah ,Doctoral Candidate, IITB-Monash Research Academy, India
  • Ravi M. Ram, Health Researcher and Evaluator, People’s Health Movement, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Sara Lafuente-Funes, Institut für Soziologie, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Carmen Romero-Bachiller, Department of Sociology: Methodology and Theory, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
  • Thomas Schwarz, Executive Secretary, Medicus Mundi International Network, Basel, Switzerland
  • Laura Perler, Sozial- und Kulturgeographie Bern, Universität Bern
  • Katharine Dow, Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge
  • Dr Mira Shiva (Public Health Physician), Initiative for Health & Equity in Society, Diverse Women for Diversity, India
  • Carole McCann, Chair, Gender, Women’s, & Sexuality Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Farida Akhter, Executive Director, UBINIG (Policy Research for Development Alternative), Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Umme Maria, Assistant Professor, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India
  • David Salkoff, PhD. Democratic Socialists of America, Davis, California
  • Kim Windvogel, Co-director of Femmeprojects
  • Faith Kasina, Kayole Community Justice Center

Organizations

  • Espacialidades Feministas, Bogota, Colombia
  • Judy Norsigian, Co-Founder and Board Chair, signing for Our Bodies, Ourselves, United States
  • National Women’s Health Network, United States
  • Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights, Philippines
  • PROMSEX, Centro de Promoción y Defensa por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos, Peru
  • Peace Foundation, Pakistan
  • East Africa Climate Change Network-Kenya
  • Instituto Feminista Nísia Floresta, Brazil
  • Emma Campbell. Co Chair, Alliance for Choice Northern Ireland
  • Femmes Rurales Amies de la Paix et du Développement, DR Congo
  • Global Media Foundation, Ghana
  • Centre for Rights Advancement and Sustainable Development (CREST), Nigeria
  • Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Canada
  • Community Active in Development Association (CADA) – United Republic of Tanzania
  • Masakhe Community Development Programme, from Nyanga East Cape Town South Africa
  • Mujer y Salud en Uruguay – MYSU, Uruguay
  • WACENA-Uganda
  • PERIPHERIE, Germany
  • MADRE, United States
  • glokal e.V., Germany
  • Gen-ethisches Netzwerk, Germany
  • Balance Promocion para el Desarrollo y Juventud AC, México
  • Grassroots Global Justice, United States
  • Centro and Research Group AFIN, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
  • Global Sisterhood Network
  • respect Berlin. Initiative for the rights of undocumented migrant domestic workers
  • Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) Program
  • Young Democratic Socialists of America, National Coordinating Committee, United States
  • Netzwerk Reproduktive Gerechtigkeit, Germany
  • Uneven Earth, Online political ecology and environmental justice magazine
  • Sexual Rights Initiative, Global/Switzerland
  • People’s Health Movement West & Central Africa
  • POPDEV Bénin
  • Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada / Coalition pour le droit à l’avortement au Canada
  • Climate & Capitalism

 

2 Comments

  • I support the above declaration BUT …. its tenor makes it difficult to raise the issue of over population without appearing to be racist.The current population, let alone the projected approx 1.5 billion increase, is not sustainable within capitalism. First because of the high and rising consumption in the west – especially the US and second because of the rising consumption in India and China that is geared to replicating the excessive consumption in the west. The impossibility of this situation is ably demonstrated by Berners- Lee and Clark in their book ‘The burning question’ 2013.

    • … to which the response seems fairly obvious. Capitalism, high energy use and the fetishisation of consumption are the culprits, not poor people having too many black babies. The solutions include socialism, a gradual but drastic reduction in energy use by wealthy societies – not by the poor – and a turn to quality-of-life measurements of economies.