Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, aided by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five moments that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration reveals that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. 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 move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan 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 warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, 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 “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of 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 expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.