Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of administrative decrees originating in the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include 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 advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We examine five episodes 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 prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat states that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, predicting that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group 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. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent 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 imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
