Five Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of White House mandates originating in the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations using the moment to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We review five episodes that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, warning that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in war zones. 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 millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, 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 ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. 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 governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
