Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, supported by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five instances that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration reveals that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, predicting that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group 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 Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud shifts in US 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 venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. 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 cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
