Five Major Significant Developments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the key driver, supported by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five instances that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat reveals that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities 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 vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the expansion of the rule 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 discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
