Five Defining Key Moments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of executive orders emanating from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the main instigator, complemented by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five episodes that affected the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, stating that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference 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 series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions 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 likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.