Five Crucial Incidents in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates emanating from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the central catalyst, supported by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers 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 promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We review five moments that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is halted, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration announces that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, predicting that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization 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 March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from access to birth control, 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, 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 January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
