Five Major Pivotal Events in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed 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 key driver, aided by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This covers access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We analyze five junctures that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, predicting that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. 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 depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. 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 politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
