Five Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with political allies.
The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five instances that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, stating 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. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.