Five Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled 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 primary force, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five moments that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, a month and a half following a key American development organization is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official announces that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, 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 millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
