Five Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of presidential directives issued from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five moments that affected the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing widespread distress, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. 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 millions more to come. 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 a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
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 July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
