Five Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the primary force, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity 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 gains in a variety of areas. This covers access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five instances that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, 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. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.