GUARDA: Global Autocratization Processes and Gender Rights: Indicators, Impacts, and Governance Monitoring

GUARDA - Global Autocratization Processes and Gender Rights: Indicators, Impacts, and Governance Monitoring

Across the world, processes of autocratization and democratic backsliding are unfolding alongside growing attacks on women's and LGBT rights. Yet the relationship between these processes remains insufficiently understood, particularly from a global and comparative perspective.

GUARDA is a four-year research project based at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) that investigates the relationship between autocratization processes and the erosion of gender+ rights worldwide. It examines how democratic backsliding and the concentration of power in authoritarian regimes are associated with institutional restrictions on sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality, and LGBT rights.

Bringing together feminist theory, gender studies, and comparative politics, GUARDA aims to develop a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding how changes in political regimes relate to the erosion of rights. The project combines existing international datasets with original data collection to systematically examine legislative changes, policy decisions, and institutional measures across countries and over time, from 1991 onwards.

A central contribution of GUARDA will be the development of new indicators to measure state-led erosion of gender+ rights, alongside a global dataset and an open-access interactive visualization platform. These tools will enable researchers, policymakers, international organizations, and civil society to identify, compare, and monitor patterns of rights erosion across different political contexts.

By integrating gender+ rights into the study of autocratization, GUARDA seeks to advance our understanding of the relationship between political power, democracy, and equality, while providing new tools for monitoring threats to fundamental rights.

• Principal Investigators: Maria Rodó-Zárate and Abel Escribà-Folch
• Institution: Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona
• Duration: 2026–2030
• Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2025. REF: PID2025-172837OB-I00