Five Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We review five junctures that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing widespread distress, a senior US official confirms that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, warning that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, 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 millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel 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 changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals 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 push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization 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 politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, 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. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
