Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, aided by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five instances that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is halted, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, 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. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among rights advocates. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
