A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, supported by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five moments that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is suspended, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. 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 proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from access to birth control, 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 calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, 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 policy was restored in January. 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
