A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the central catalyst, complemented by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with political allies.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five moments that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official reveals that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that people will die as a result. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm 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 proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another regional summit 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 push back against “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny countless females from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
