Five Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, aided by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration confirms that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, stating that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. 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 cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. 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 local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, 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 ban was reimposed 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 expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
