A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
In the previous year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The American government has been the key driver, complemented by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations using the moment to forge international alliances with political allies.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of females globally.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, warning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, 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 an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. 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 sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy 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.
