Five Critical Key Moments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates originating in the White House were regarded as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We review five instances that affected the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, predicting that people will die as a result. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows 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 cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa 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 hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
