Five Critical Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of presidential directives issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by relentless activism by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve 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 foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five junctures that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat confirms that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US 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 resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, 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 resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
