Five Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of White House mandates coming out of the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five episodes that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration announces that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that mortality will increase. Activists say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference 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 attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “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 an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, 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 “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
