Five Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives emanating from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, bolstered by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five episodes that affected the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, cautioning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. 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”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
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 was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
