A Quintet of Crucial Incidents in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of executive orders emanating from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the central catalyst, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition 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 encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We analyze five junctures that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. 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.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
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 standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
