Five Major Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the primary force, supported by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We analyze five instances that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, six weeks after a key American development organization is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration announces that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, predicting that mortality will increase. 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. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference 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 high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under 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 the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. 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 arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
