Five Defining Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of executive orders issued from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five junctures that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, warning that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows 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. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits 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 stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, 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 leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” 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 refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions 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 likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
