Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives issued from the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the central catalyst, aided by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five episodes that affected the security, respect, and well-being of females globally.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing widespread distress, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, warning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, 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 waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
