Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives originating in the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, complemented by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We examine five junctures that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration announces that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, cautioning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate 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 somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny 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 “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
