Five Defining Significant Developments in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the main instigator, aided by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five instances that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, warning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates 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. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with 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 buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. 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 ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed 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 expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
