A Quintet of Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders coming out of the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five junctures that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
