A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees issued from the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the key driver, bolstered by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This covers access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We examine five junctures that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration reveals that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, cautioning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders 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. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
