Five Critical Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the primary force, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We review five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding historic agreements 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 equality campaigners. In May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are participated in 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 global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
