Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of White House mandates originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the key driver, supported by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. These include 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 foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five episodes that affected the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, cautioning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries 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 European depot. A major reproductive health federation 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 forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
