Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of executive orders originating in the White House were regarded as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, aided by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives 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 achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five instances that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration announces that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women 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 early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny countless females from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. 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 “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
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 widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
