Five Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of executive orders coming out of the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, bolstered by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping 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 access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They achieve this through influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five moments that affected the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing widespread distress, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that mortality will increase. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations 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 a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent 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 dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
