Five Critical Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of executive orders coming out of the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, aided by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, stating that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside 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 high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, 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. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
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 incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit 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 provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
