Five Crucial Incidents in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by relentless activism by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five junctures that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration confirms that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, stating that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group 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 the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. 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 rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
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 came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
