Five Defining Pivotal Events in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, complemented by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five junctures that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing widespread distress, a senior US official reveals that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, stating that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
