Five Pivotal Events in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the key driver, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five junctures that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, warning that mortality will increase. Activists say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with 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 changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive 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 forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
