A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of executive orders emanating from the White House were regarded as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the key driver, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five episodes that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is frozen, causing widespread distress, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, cautioning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
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 incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. 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 perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
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 widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, 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. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
