Five Crucial Incidents in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations using the moment to forge international alliances with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
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 security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, warning that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
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 dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for 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 the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
