Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five instances that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is frozen, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference 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 participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population 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 renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
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 governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
