Five Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of presidential directives coming out of the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the main instigator, complemented by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with political allies.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We review five episodes that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that fatalities will ensue. 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 family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues 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 equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed 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 broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. 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”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
