Five Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of White House mandates originating in the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, supported by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups 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 lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five moments that affected the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing widespread distress, a senior US official reveals that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering 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 optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation 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 prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, 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 anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
